PITC Partners for Quality 

Director

Janet Poole

Contact Information

Arlene Paxton
415.289.2309

about the project

WestEd's Center for Child and Family Studies is working with the California Department of Education (CDE) to increase the supply and quality of infant/toddler child care and development services in California, funded by federal Child Care and Development monies earmarked for Infant/Toddler Capacity Building.

Components of California's groundbreaking endeavor include:

  • recruiting and training new and existing family child care and center-based infant/toddler providers;
  • developing an infrastructure at the local and regional levels to increase the supply and quality of services for children 0-3 with disabilities as well as typically developing children; and
  • creating an infrastructure to support training and technical assistance for family child care and center-based programs serving infants and toddlers.
WestEd's Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC) is at the heart of many of these initiatives, which share the core philosophy of care for very young children that guides capacity-building endeavors. Directly under the management of the Center for Child and Family Studies are a Regional Training Network (which includes 12 Regional Trainer/Coordinators working in each of the state's 11 regions), the PITC Partners for Quality program, and PITC Demonstration Programs.

WestEd also directs a variety of outreach efforts in which Regional Trainer/Coordinators and other staff work with local child care organizations responsible for improving the quality and availability of professional care for children 0-3 and their families. Included in outreach efforts are organizations such as child care resource and referral agencies, local child care planning councils, county Proposition 10 commissions, early intervention programs, and local affiliates of the California Association for the Education of Young Children.

The Regional Trainer/Coordinators are responsible for coordinating PITC Partners for Quality training in their respective regions, providing as well as supporting PITC Partners for Quality trainers in providing comprehensive technical assistance and training to centers, family child care homes, and in-home care providers serving children 0-3 and their families. PITC Partners for Quality trainers are certified graduates of the PITC module training institutes who receive a stipend for working with local child care programs. PITC Partners for Quality funding also supports conference presentations on the PITC philosophy and program topics.

PITC Demonstration Programs are being developed at five community college campuses in various regions of California. A collaboration among the Community College Chancellor's Office, WestEd, and CDE, this project provides demonstration sites where PITC training institute participants, early childhood education students, program managers, policymakers, and other visitors can unobtrusively observe the PITC philosophy of infant/toddler care in action.

To read about recent PITC articles, click here.