Iowa State University Extension

Problem:
Many child care administrators experience multiple challenges in providing a comprehensive orientation to all new child care staff within the first few months of employment. Center Directors have many demands on their time, few resources to devote to developing a high-quality staff orientation, and often feel they are overloading new staff with too much information at once. In addition, they are concerned with the consistency of training provided. Yet Center Directors are aware that the quality of staff orientation affects the quality of child care provided as well as staff retention.

Response:
ISU Extension adapted an existing resource, the Penn State Better Kid Care New Staff Orientation program, for Iowa . ISU Extension specialists created a 6-hour training program for Center Directors and obtained funding to offer the training and program materials free to child care centers statewide. The initial plan of delivering one training in Waterloo quickly expanded to three to meet the demand. During February and March of 2007, four trainings were held, three in Waterloo one in Mason City .

Impact:
Seventy-one child care center directors, assistant directors, and other administrative staff from centers in 25 different communities plus 5 child care professionals working in partnership with child care centers (Child Care Resource and Referral staff, Quality Rating System Specialist, Empowerment Coordinator) participated in one of the training sessions.

91% of the participants indicated this program increased their ability to implement an in-depth, comprehensive new staff orientation, specific to their program policies and practices. 80% reported an increase in their ability to make the most effective use of their time to adequately train staff. 93% felt they improved their ability to organize their orientation training so that they could provide consistent content for each new staff member. 90% felt they improved their ability to schedule regular communication with staff about learning new skills and knowledge. 88% improved their ability to effectively identify a staff member's lack of understanding about a practice or procedure. 75% improved their ability to respond to staff in a positive, supportive manner about their developing skills. 87% improved their ability to provide staff with guidance in developing a professional development plan.

Participant comments included:

• “Great workshop – will help me a lot!! Really learned a lot and will use. Great for all staff, including myself.”
• “This is an awesome opportunity and training. I am very excited to have and use it. Very good use of $!”
•   “I am excited about this program. It will be a great learning tool for all.”
•   “The videos are excellent. They address just about every issue that staff deal with, need to know about in the early childhood profession. This program I feel will be great for staff.”
• “It is an extremely valuable resource! Gets us all on the right track for quality childcare. Thanks!”
• “I am excited to implement this type of program.”
• “I think this is great information for center staff. This video series is going to be very useful and can be used in a variety of ways to meet the professional development needs of the center.”
• “Wonderful training! I think this is important to continue. This is something that centers have needed for a long time.”
• “I am looking forward to implementing the NSO. Time to properly orient staff has been an issue and this should be a great tool.”
• “I am really excited about implementing this program with my staff. I really think this will help them take a professional approach to their position and help to create a safe and fun environment for our kids.”

 

Contact:
Donna Andrusyk
Family Life Field Specialist
720 7th Ave. SW
Tripoli , IA 50676
(319) 882-4275
andrusyk@iastate.edu