¡Versión en español a seguir!
September 2021
This month at QSLA, we're focusing on supporting and connecting with families as we return to school.
Scroll to through this newsletter to find links to the QSLA Professional Development Calendar, themed monthly resources, and the NEW "You Asked, We Answered" section where we respond to your specific support requests.
What's Happening This Month?
September 15th marks the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month, a time to recognize and celebrate the contributions and influence of Hispanic Americans to the history, culture, and achievements of the United States, as well as independence days for various Latin-American countries. Here are some resources to support this cultural learning opportunity in your early learning programs:
Staff Development and Support
Enhance Your Family Engagement Knowledge and Skills
As we continue building a positive and supportive culture in our early learning programs and with our families, this is a perfect time of year to work on our professional development. Our QSLA Professional Development Calendar is full of upcoming trainings that are sure to add ideas and tangible practices for supporting families and their children! These include many of LACOE's inclusion trainings, such as:
  • Sept. 22nd: ECE: Recognizing Trauma and Stress in Very Young Children
  • Sept. 29th: Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS)
  • Oct. 6th: Universal Design For Learning
As a Quality Start Los Angeles participating program, these trainings are FREE for you and your staff and count towards your professional development hours. Reminder:
  • Registration and Professional Development credit is provided through the ECE Workforce Registry. Don't have an account? Create one for free HERE.
These trainings support ECERS-R: Item 43- Opportunities for Professional Growth, PAS: Item 3- Staff Development, FCCERS-R: Item 37- Opportunities for Professional Development, and BAS: Item 1-Qualifications and Professional Development
Welcoming Environment
Ensure Your Program Feels Inviting
As we continue maneuvering a physically-distanced world, our early learning programs continue prioritizing relationship-building with families. Harvard's Center of the Developing Child offers this great short article, Building Responsive Relationships Remotely, based on tips from early educators. Read on to learn about:
  • Science Behind Responsive Relationships
  • Socioemotional considerations
  • Tangible tips & how-to's
These strategies will support ECERS-R: Item 9 and FCCERS-R: Item 35- Provisions for Parents, PAS: Item 16- Family Communications, and BAS: Item 7- Provider Parent Communications.
Family Partnerships
Work with Families to Build a Stronger Program
Are you and the families you serve supporting young children who are managing strong emotions as this program year begins? Dr. Cara Goodwin, child psychologist, is the creator behind Parenting Translator: a blog focused on "translating recent scientific research into information that parents can use". Take 5 minutes to check out her piece on Emotion Coaching, where Dr. Goodwin provides a series of 5 short steps to help young children with emotional support and regulation.

These resources will support ECERS-R: Item 38 and FCCERS-R: Item 35- Provisions for Parents, PAS: Item 16- Family Communications, and BAS: Item 7- Provider Parent Communications.
Community Partnerships
Use Community Resources to Strengthen Program Quality
Sesame Street in Communities offers a valuable resource page on School Readiness. This resource page is perfect for sharing with families of young children and using in your program! Consider these:
Knowing and using these community resources will support PAS: Item 17- Family Support Involvement, BAS: Item 8-Community Resources, and NAEYC Accreditation: Standard 7-Families
QSLA Family Engagement Webinars
Family Partnerships Series
Tuesday, October 19thth (English) 
Wednesday, October 20th (Spanish)
6:00 - 7:30 PM

Check your e-mail for registration updates!
Save the date! Join us for the third webinar in this series - Family Partnerships III: Building Programs that Reflect Families' Cultural Diversity next month! In the mean time, check out the Family Engagement tip that inspired this webinar topic and find inspiration to help you continue appreciating the cultural diversity of the families in your program!
QSLA Poll: Quality Start Los Angeles has social media pages on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter!

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Each month, we will respond to your needs as early educators by sharing helpful related QSLA resources as well as additional external resources.
This Month: Many of your early learning colleagues have expressed needing support in working with children who show challenging behavior.

Here we share valuable resources to assist with challenging behaviors (particularly during transition times) for your programs and the families you serve:

Are you looking for support in another area?
If you would like to share some inspiring words, click here! To see more provider perspectives, field related news, and early learning resources follow our social media accounts.
*These quotes have been edited for grammar and clarity.
We are currently working on improving our monthly Family Engagement Newsletter to provide you with the most useful information to support your work. Please be patient as we test out different layouts and content.

If you have questions, feedback, or ideas we would love to hear from you! Please email us at cristina.espinoza@ccala.net.