Family Child Care Business Toolkit

Table of Contents

Early Childhood Career Development

Paths Into the Early Care and Education Profession

This section outlines some of the many paths people take into the early care and education profession. According to current New York state child care licensing regulations, in order to work in a licensed child care program, you must be 18 years old and have a  minimum of either two (2) years of experience caring for children under six years of age, or one (1) year of experience caring for children under six years of age plus six hours of training or education in early childhood development. Paid and unpaid experience caring for children is acceptable, as is experience caring for your own children.

Career Development

CUNY Early Childhood Development Career Development Centers provides free, comprehensive career development services to all current and aspiring early childhood professionals in New York. They work in partnership with Child Care Resource and Referral agencies like ours and New York Works for Children is an organization that offers many services to early childhood educators including the

• Aspire Registry
  An online system that helps early childhood professionals find certified training and offers a place to maintain personal online professional development portfolios
• Core Body of Knowledge
  New York State’s Core Competencies for Early Childhood Educators
• New York Early Childhood Career Ladder
  This career ladder is for early childhood educators who work directly with children informally and in licensed programs. It starts with less than a high school diploma, adding experience and education to reach the highest rung

Career & Tech for High School Students

Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga BOCES offers a 2-year early childhood career training program to high school students. The program is run in collaboration with the Ithaca Community Child Care Center, whose classrooms are used for observation. As students gain teaching skills, they are able to implement a variety of learning activities in IC3 classrooms. High school students are always supervised by their NYS certified classroom teacher. Learn more on the TST BOCES Career & Tech Preschool page.

ECE Assistant Registered Apprenticeship

Promising a permanent position once completed, NYS Early Childhood Assistant apprenticeships promise a future in early care and education and help professionals early in their career to earn while they learn. NYS Childcare Assistant Registered Apprenticeships are an ideal way to support entry-level early care and education professionals gain education and experience prior to committing to a permanent position.

Child care sites register to become Sponsors and provide a mentor for each Apprentice, providing the context for the applied learning element of apprenticeship. The educational component can be completed in a number of ways. Each Sponsor commits to a specific educational mode when contracting with the Department of Labor (DOL).

Locally, TC3 BIZ offers an Early Childhood Assistant MicroCredential that includes 12 units of study (9 ECE units) and was certified as the educational component for Apprentices at their own early childhood site in the Summer of 2020.

The coursework established for the Childcare Assistant at Tompkins-Cortland Community College is noted in the Microcredential section below.

General information about Registered Apprenticeships in NYS and a description of competencies approved by NYS for Childcare Assistant Apprenticeship can be found on the Department of Labor’s Apprenticeship page. Representatives from the NYS Department of Labor state that the time-based apprenticeship is easiest to track and there’s no testing required (in comparison with hybrid and competency-based options).

Current Early Childhood Assistant Apprentice Sponsors  in Tompkins and Cortland County:
1) TC3 Child Care Center: contact Casey Goodwin to learn about opportunities
2) There are three more sites in process, contact our Child Care Planner/Developer for more information

Early Childhood Assistant Micro-credential with Tompkins Cortland Community College BIZ

TC3 BIZ supports child care assistant apprenticeships by providing the educational component required by NYS. While the the microcredential can be done independently from an apprenticeship, in order to access tuition funding, the student must be enrolled as an apprentice at a sponsoring site. By earning a Microcredential, the student earns college units that can be applied towards future academic pursuits.

The coursework established for the childcare assistant at Tompkins-Cortland Community College Early Childhood Assistant Microcredential is as follows:

• Echd 125 Intro to Echd
• ECHD 110 Children and the Arts
• Echd 206 Infants and toddlers
• Echd 225 Curriculum
  (Prerequisites of English 100 and 101 required, will be additional if needed)

Child Development Associate Credential (CDA)

Another way to gain initial training in early childhood education is to take a series of courses to earn a Child Development Associate Credential (CDA). This credential is offered by agencies and individuals for a fee. It is age-specific and carries no units. It must be renewed to remain current. More information is available from the Council for Professional Recognition.

AA/AAS Degree in Early Childhood Education

Tompkins-Cortland Community College offers a 61-credit AAS degree in Early Childhood Education that provides coursework and field experience for the aspiring professional. Learn more about their program on the TC3 Early Childhood program page. Broome Community College also offers an AAS in Early Childhood Education.

BA/BS in Early Childhood Education

SUNY Cortland offers a 126-unit B.S. teacher preparation program in Inclusive Early Childhood Education for Birth to Grade 2 and a 124-unit B.S. teacher preparation program for Early Childhood and Childhood Education for Birth to Grade 6.

MSEd in Early Childhood Education

SUNY Binghamton offers a two-year, year-round program that includes a minimum 54-units of coursework and fieldwork. There are three pathways for earning the MSEd with SUNY Binghamton, allowing students to work with children birth to age 6 in a number of roles.