Avenues to Professional Development

Statewide & National Connection

• DHHS Statewide Listing of Resource Development Centers RDCs support child care providers by maintaining a referral database, by lending out available resource materials, and through published newsletters that offer information about child care issues and educational opportunities. Personnel at RDCs are trained to offer technical assistance, may be able to provide scholarship information, and each RDC has a Training Coordinator who organizes regional trainings.

• Finance Authority of Maine offers several avenues to professional development funding from grant applications to scholarships. See specifically the ‘Quality Child Care Education Scholarship’.  

• Maine Roads to Quality (MRTQ) The Maine Roads Registry and Career Lattice is our state's child care and early education professional recognition system. As a Registry member, you receive recognition for your experience working with children and families, your ongoing training and your educational accomplishments in early childhood education or related fields.

• National Association for the Education of Young Children NAEYC provides information on accreditation as well as a comprehensive contact list of accredited programs throughout the nation. 

• National Child Development Associates Council for Professional Recognition provides a service of keeping a national database of early childhood teacher preparation institutions. Just click on your state to find a drop-down list of institutions in your area which can be used for professional development.

UMaine Connections

• UMaine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies (CCIDS) The CCIDS website includes useful ‘tip sheets’ that cover the many topics that arise around child care settings, from developmentally appropriate practices, to child assessment, to legal issues.  The Center for Community Inclusion also has telephone consultation, email support, on-site consultation staff development and training activities, and a resource library to help Maine child care providers when they have questions or concerns about the children for whom they are caring. 

• UMaine Farmington - Early Childhood Special Education: Core Courses Offered at a Distance The Early Childhood Special Education Program at the University of Maine at Farmington is designed to prepare professionals to work with young children with disabilities, birth to age 8, and their families. To meet the needs of a statewide audience, selected core courses utilizing distance education technology are offered for baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate professionals seeking to complete courses which can be applied to the State of Maine teacher endorsements Teacher of Young Children with Disabilities, Birth to School-Age Five or Teacher of Students with Disabilities, K-3.

• The Regional Teacher Development Center located on the University of Maine at Farmington campus, is one of three regional centers in the state devoted to providing professional development opportunities for educators. The founding philosophy of the RTDC is one of collaboration and innovation, designed to bring the best thinking and best educational practice to pre-K—12 educators, both new and experienced, who are eager to build their own capacities to become exceptional classroom teachers and leaders. Check out their Service Schools page to see if their expertise is available in your area. 

• UMF Office of Educational Outreach provides a listing of new programs by UMF targeted to ECE professional development (distance & non-distance learning). There are also links on the page to other sources of professional development. 

• Child Development Services Early Childhood Intervention Certificate Information Maine Department of Education (MDOE) is working with UMaine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies (CCIDS) through a State-University Partnership Project. As part of this initiative CCIDS is providing technical assistance to MDOE and Child Development Services (CDS) to support the changes in certification requirements for personnel providing developmental therapy / special education.