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£arly=Leamin Gpaliti4norindian l ver> Mp t n & Okeechobee bunties ' tnE • Inclusion Service- An Inclusion Specialist works with child care providers to develop the skills, confidence, and abilities to care for children with special needs in developmentally appropriate ways. Activities include training and technical assistance on preparing the environment, adapting the curriculum, and working with parents and staff. Free access to a "warm line " is open and available to parents for questions or needed assistance. The Inclusion Specialist works along with the CCR&R service to provide a choice of programs for parents that will appropriately accommodate their child' s needs and abilities. 3. Briefly describe how your program addresses the stated need/problem. Describe how your program follows a recognized "best practice" (see definition on page 12 of the Instructions) and provide evidence that indicates proposed strategies are effective with target population. The Early Learning Coalition increases child care capacities for underserved populations, particularly the infant and toddler population, improves the quality of child care programs, and increases accessibility for children from families of lower income. This is accomplished through a planned program of outreach, training, technical assistance, and supports that have been identified and defined in research. The "Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study," in particular, set a clear path for the nation in improving outcomes for young children. It concluded that the quality of classroom practices was related to children' s cognitive development while the pre-school teacher-child relationship influenced children' s social development through the early years. Accordingly, the School Readiness Program employs strategies consistent with these findings that most critically affect language ability, pre-academic skills of math and reading readiness, attitude, self-esteem and perceptions of competence, relationship with teachers, and social skills. Teachers are trained to address the "whole child" by assessing and planning for all domains of child development. Work with providers is focused on the quality indicators of curriculum, adult/child ratio, professional development, environment, and meaningful parent involvement in the child' s education. Parents are included as partners in their child' s learning process. The Coalition determines its effectiveness by child performance on statewide performance tests initially administered in Kindergarten. Outcomes on the DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Learning Skills) test compared over the most recent two-year period show that letter- naming scores improved by 6% and initial sounds recognition improved by 4% for Indian River children of high risk. To address capacity and outreach issues, best practice dictates that the Coalition build upon existing services and work cooperatively with programs to identify and recruit children, to open additional slots especially for the infant and toddler population which was cited as an area of critical need in Indian River' s Community Assessment, and to reach families of low income. Collaborations exist or are being developed to provide mobile services for easier access by those in need and to offer family supports. 6