Despite over 40 years of mandates, legislation, and focus on including children with disabilities in preschool programs, most states report that only a small percentage of these children receive services alongside their typically developing peers.
In California, only 27.3 percent of preschoolers with disabilities receive services in regular education settings at least 10 hours per week.
Purpose
Beginning Together promotes appropriate inclusive practices in a variety of early care and education settings through training, technical assistance, leadership development, and information dissemination.
Beginning Together staff are specialists in early intervention, mental health, early childhood special education, child development, and research and evaluation, and they include parents of children with disabilities.
Building on years of experience as well as implementation science, Beginning Together works to empower teachers, administrators, and families to “change the world” for children with disabilities and their peers.
Our program integrates systematic training and team reflection into every professional development opportunity. In collaboration with the state funding source, Beginning Together has expanded in recent years to better address the need for inclusion training and support in the early childhood field. Additionally, we offer individualized professional development as part of our fee-for-service work.
Audiences Served
Beginning Together serves early care and education teachers and staff from all settings: child care; infant and preschool teachers; Head Start and Early Head Start staff; family child care providers; family, friend, or neighbor care providers; school district staff; special educators; early interventionists; and administrators.
Project Activities
Activities include an annual Inclusion Facilitator Institute with training-of-trainers materials, systems-change experiences with leadership development, and certification as an Inclusion Facilitator; webinars on inclusion with additional technical assistance activities; sessions with liaisons to work with regions, counties, and programs on increasing inclusive opportunities.
Project Director
Linda Brault
Funder
This project is partially funded by the California Department of Social Services with Quality Initiative funds.
Project Duration
Beginning Together was initially funded in 1999 and has been funded continually since that time.