Circle Time
Support for Early Childhood Businesses and Parents
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Save the Date: Free Virtual Trainings for Child Care Providers
The Division of Early Care and Education is sponsoring free virtual trainings through Children’s Trust of SC for child care providers. SCDSS Child Care training credit hours will be provided through SC Endeavors. Please remember to ensure you receive DSS credit for your attendance at these events by following the Best Practices for Attending Training Virtually guidelines.
Upcoming Trainings:
- Protective Factors (3 hrs training credit):
- Pee Dee – Dec. 12, 2022, 6:00pm-9:00pm
- Midlands – Jan. 21, 2013, 9:00am-12:00pm
- Lowcountry – Feb. 6, 2023, 6:00pm -9:00pm
- Middle Childhood Development (5 hrs training credit): Oct. 17-18, 2022, 6:00pm-8:30pm
- Responding to Abuse and Neglect (5 hrs training credit): Nov. 14-15, 2022, 6:00pm-8:30pm
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Congratulations to All Career Ladder Level Recipients!
SC Endeavors has worked on processing career ladder levels for all ABC Quality child care programs for the past year. The pilot program ended on September 16th. Congratulations to the 937 early childhood professionals who have received a career ladder level! In October, SC Endeavors will be announcing a way for ALL ECE professionals who work in regulated programs to obtain a career ladder level and a $150 bonus. We will be sending out more communication in the next few weeks. Congratulations again on all who participated in the ABC Quality pilot and achieving your career ladder level!
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Register for SC-CCR&R's Director's Forum!
Director’s Forum: Pathways to Quality
October 11, 2022
12:30pm-2:00pm
Join this forum to learn about Pathways to Quality with ABC Quality and SC Endeavors. This session will show you as the director how to apply and upload documents for “Pathways to Quality”.
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Division Health Tip
CACFP Highlights National Food Safety Month
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CACFP: September is National Food Safety Education Month
Anyone can get food poisoning, but some groups of people are more likely to get sick and have a more serious illness. These groups include:
- Children younger than age 5
- Adults aged 65 and older
- Pregnant women
- People who have an immune system weakened by health conditions or medicine, including people with diabetes, liver or kidney disease, HIV/AIDS, or cancer
In the month of September CACFP provided tools to help prevent food borne illness
1. Say No to Raw Dough
- Don’t taste or eat raw (unbaked) dough or batter.
- Don’t let children handle or play with raw dough, including play clay and dough for crafts with raw flour.
- Uncooked flour and raw eggs can contain germs that can make you sick if you taste raw dough.
- Wash your hands, bowls, utensils, and countertops after handling raw flour, eggs, or dough.
- Use this infographic in your newsletters to parents and centers.
2. Don’t Wash Chicken
- Washing chicken under running water spreads bacteria across kitchen surfaces.
- Wiping poultry down with a damp paper towel does not spread bacteria and is much safer.
- Use the 1-minute video and other information in the link to educate staff and share with parents on Facebook, websites, and newsletters. Link to Don’t Wash Chicken
3. Cook with Kids – Food Safe Recipes for This Fall
Have fun, share the messages and be Food Safe! For more information on food safety go to FightBac.org.
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Division Spotlight
Remember When: ABC Quality 30th Anniversary Celebration Continues
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Remembering When: ABC Quality Reflections in the Past 30 Years
As ABC Quality continues to celebrate 30 years of providing quality child care services throughout 2022 in the state, current and former ABC Quality staff members reflect on their experiences working in the program.
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ABC Quality would like to celebrate and honor former child care specialist Saundra Kay Veach Ground for her dedication and many contributions to the development of the ABC Quality program.
Her career spanned over 41 years, all in the service and education of young children and early childhood professionals, mostly working at the South Carolina Department of Social
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Services. During this time, she was an innovative and fierce advocate of high standards in the care and education of young children. Focused on the development of a rating and improvement system, she supported early childhood educators in the task to increase the quality of learning experiences for children in all child care settings (e.g. home-based, center-based, faith-based and/or school-based) throughout South Carolina.
She was a member of the South Carolina Association for the Education of Young Children, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and the South Carolina Early Childhood Association which created an annual award in her honor named the Saundra Ground Educator’s Award. This award is given annually to an outstanding early childhood educator who works with children in South Carolina. To nominate an early childhood educator for the Saundra Ground Educator’s Award, click here.
In this 1998 Advocate Better Care (now ABC Quality) video, Saundra talks about quality early childhood experiences that are relevant today.
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Questions?
We have trained professionals who can help answer questions you have related to safe child care and the pandemic. We're in this together.
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