ThinkPlayful™ Aligns with Head Start

(a) Purpose. Center-based and family child care programs must structure education and child development services to recognize parents’ roles as children’s lifelong educators, and to encourage parents to engage in their child’s education.

(b) Engaging parents and family members. A program must offer opportunities for parents and family members to be involved in the program’s education services and implement policies to ensure:

1. The program’s settings are open to parents during all program hours;

2. Teachers regularly communicate with parents to ensure they are well-informed about their child’s routines, activities, and behavior;

3. Teachers hold parent conferences, as needed, but no less than two times per program year, to enhance the knowledge and understanding of both staff and parents of the child’s education and developmental progress and activities in the program;

4. Parents have the opportunity to learn about and to provide feedback on selected curricula and instructional materials used in the program;

5. Parents and family members have opportunities to volunteer in the class and during group activities;

6. Teachers inform parents, about the purposes of and the results from screenings and assessments and discuss their child’s progress;

a) Wellness promotion. To promote a program-wide culture that promotes children’s mental health, social and emotional well-being and overall health, a program must:

• provide supports for effective classroom management and positive learning environments; supportive teacher practices; and strategies for supporting children with challenging behaviors and other social, emotional and mental health concerns.

(a) A program must promote shared responsibility with parents for children’s early learning and development, and implement family engagement strategies that are designed to foster parental confidence and skills in promoting children’s learning and development. These strategies must include:

1. Offering activities that support parent-child relationships and child development …

(b) A program must, at a minimum, offer opportunities for parents to participate in a research-based parenting curriculum that builds on parents’ knowledge and offers parents the opportunity to practice parenting skills to promote children’s learning and development.