Newsletter May 5, 2023: Standing Up for What is Right

Letter from the Interim Executive Director

Dear colleagues,

Last week, VTAEYC+NAEYC members received a letter from NAEYC informing us Alabama’s governor forced NAEYC Governing Board member Dr. Barbara Cooper from her position as head of the state’s Department of ECE for using NAEYC’s Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) book. NAEYC is responding by asking ECEs and allies nationwide to sign a public statement in support of DAP.

VTAEYC’s leadership has signed on, and we ask you to sign as well. We stand behind Dr. Cooper and we stand behind the expertise of early childhood educators working for decades in partnership with families and in the best interests of our young children.

Here in Vermont, S.56 – the historic 2023 Child Care Bill – is nearing a vote in the full House. This bill represents major and much-needed relief to our workforce crisis. S.56 provides unprecedented

investment in ECE compensation, in grants for recruitment and retention, and in expanding tuition assistance to families.

We need S.56 to pass to transform our ECE system today, and we also need to make sure this bill is a firm foundation for our future ECE profession. That means protecting language in the bill that explicitly supports our current mixed-delivery system, which is itself a developmentally appropriate practice.

So today I ask you to take two advocacy actions: First, to stand up in support of the principles of DAP.

And second, to put those principles into action here at home. Contact your legislators with a two part message: Please pass S.56 this session! And: Please ensure that S.56 preserves Vermont’s current best practice mixed-delivery pre-K system.

My best,

Sharron Harrington,

Interim Executive Director

Other Topics Included in this E-News

•  Seeking Annual Conference Workshop Proposals
• At National Conferences, Workforce Development Team Presents On Building Vermont’s ECE Pathways
• Q: How will S.56 relieve our workforce crisis?
•  Coming Soon: New VTAEYC.org
• Upcoming Events

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