News

February 10, 2025

Registration Open for OCDEL’s 2025 Early Childhood Education Conference

Registration is open for the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL)’s 2025 Early Childhood Education Conference.

Learn More

The two-day conference, Stable and Secure: Supporting Children Through Trauma Sensitive Approaches, will run from April 22 to 23 at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown. The event is free for attendees.

The conference focuses on deepening the understanding of child and adult well-being through trauma-sensitive approaches. It will bring together experts, practitioners, and educators who are committed to creating stable and secure environments for young children and their families.

Conference Highlights

The OCDEL conference’s highlights will include:

  • Networking opportunities
  • Well-being workshops 
  • Social and emotional supports
  • Trauma-informed care sessions

Answers to a variety of questions regarding hotel accommodations and reservations, vendors, and registration can be found in the FAQ section on the OCDEL conference’s website.

Please note: This conference is only for directors and teachers of Pennsylvanian licensed child care centers, group child care, family child care homes, and after school care. It is not open to EI, home visiting/family support, PA Pre-K Counts, Head Start, or School Districts unless they directly operate an OCDEL licensed child care.

News

December 20, 2024

OCDEL Announces Update to Health and Safety Pre-Service Training and PD Requirements

The Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) has announced updates to health and safety pre-service training and professional development requirements.

Learn More

The announcement provides a new two-part Health and Safety Training that must be completed by all child care providers hired on or after January 1, 2025 who have not previously completed an acceptable health and safety training.

This announcement replaces Announcements C-22-02, relating to Updates to Health and Safety Training and Professional Development Requirements, and C-22-06, relating to Updated Health and Safety Pre-Service and One-Hour Training.

Both parts of the new health and safety training will be available in Spanish.

More Details

The update applies to all DHS certified child care facilities, early learning resource centers, and OCDEL and Early Learning staff.

All current child care staff who completed the following Health and Safety Pre-Service training modules currently meet this training requirement and will not need to take the new health and safety training:

  • Get Started with Center-Based Care – Revised 2022/Get Started with Home-Based Care – Revised 2022 (10 hours)
  • Pennsylvania Health and Safety Update (1 hour), and any of the following courses: Health and Safety Basics: Requirements for Certification (6 hours), Get Started with Center-Based Care: Building Blocks for Quality (10 hours), Get Started with Home-Based Care: Building Blocks for Quality (10 hours)

The last day to enroll in Get Started with Center-Based Care – Revised 2022/ Get Started with Home-Based Care – Revised 2022 will be December 31. After this date, individuals who enrolled in the course prior to the deadline will have until March 31 to complete the course, as it will no longer be available after that date.

Next Steps

All DHS certified child care providers must: 

  • Develop, communicate, and implement policies and procedures to adhere to regulations regarding professional development in health and safety topics
  • Ensure all staff have completed and documented pre-service trainings within 90 days of employment and prior to caring for children unsupervised
  • Ensure all staff have completed and documented updated Pediatric First Aid and CPR training and Mandated Reporter training prior to expiration
  • For all staff, appropriate documentation and verification of pre-service and ongoing professional development training of all child care staff is retained in the facility person’s file or maintained in an electronic PD Registry

For information, read the announcement on the Pennsylvania Key website.

News

December 16, 2024

Nominations Open: Pennsylvania’s Early Childhood Education Recognition

The Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) is seeking nominations to recognize early childhood professionals for their accomplishments.

Learn More

Individuals can nominate people in the early childhood education field who have made accomplishments in the following areas:

  • Academic (accomplishment recognition can include directors, classroom staff, and support staff in an early learning program)
  • Years of Service (completed years are recognized in increments of 10, 15, 20 and 25+ years only)
  • Retirement

These recognitions are applicable to all staffing positions within an early learning program, including, but not limited to:

  • Directors
  • Classroom staff (teachers, aides, etc.)
  • Support staff (receptionists, janitors, kitchen staff, etc.)

Submissions can be nominations (submitted by someone else), or self-submitted (submitted by the individual to be recognized) and will be collected on an ongoing basis.

The deadline to submit is Friday, January 3.

Eligible submissions will receive a letter of recognition from OCDEL Deputy Secretary Shante’ Brown. Submit a nomination.