Extension Service offers online child-care certification

The Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Office is now offering a “Early Childhood Educator Training Program” virtual mini-conference series. The new monthly conference is under the direction of Dr. Jodi Nerren, Early Childhood Health & Safety State Specialist. It is targeted at early childhood professionals but open to anyone interested in early childhood education.

Each district within the state organizes an agent team and selects a month to provide leadership for the conference. The District 5 agent team will present the first conference, which is scheduled for Jan. 30. The topic will be New Obesity Prevention Standards.

“This first webinar will include sessions on the content of the new minimum standards related to obesity prevention that will be adopted soon, as well as strategies to meet and exceed those standards in your approach to physical activity and nutrition,” Nerren said.

Each monthly session will explore one or more topics aligned with the requirements from the Texas Health and Human Services Child Care program.

The presentations will be broadcast live from 9 a.m.-noon via the Microsoft Teams platform.

Trainings in the 2021 virtual mini conference series will take place: January 30, February 20, March 27, April 17, May 15, June 26, July 10, August 7, September 18, October 9, November 13, December 4. Attendees must register to participate in each training session they choose to attend.

The cost for each series presentation is $25. Registration and payment can be completed online at www.agriliferegister@tamu.edu. Upon completion, participants will receive an email with two attachments — a receipt and a registration confirmation. Instructions on how to access the virtual conference will be at the bottom of the registration confirmation.

After the virtual conference, participants will receive an email with instructions to complete a course assessment and obtain a certificate of completion.

In addition to these instructor-led webinars, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension’s Child Care Online Training website offers a wide variety of online childcare training courses to support continuing education and early childhood professional development needs.

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension is the largest agency for childcare provider training in the state.