Early Care Education Specialist (1979)

About the role

The Early Care and Education Specialist is a relationship builder and valued member of the Texas Rising Star program, responsible for developing close working partnerships with child care providers.

Responsibilities

• Recruits providers for Texas Rising Star (TRS) certification
• Provides mentoring or conducts provider assessments for Texas Rising Star (TRS) certification as assigned
• Performs technical assistance, training visits, and monitoring visits to providers’ facilities to ensure contractual compliance as well as Texas Rising Star (TRS) certification compliance and progress
• Works closely with Supervisor in developing inclusion plans for providers caring for children with disabilities
• Prepares and maintains updated paperwork for all records within the time frames specified by the Texas Workforce Commission and Board area directives, policies and procedures
• Conducts monitoring of providers to ensure compliance with contractual regulations, and provides technical assistance as needed
• Conducts follow up visits on Service Improvement Agreements (SIAs)
• Fulfills unit procedures and guidelines and participates in meetings and other events to increase understanding of the Workforce Solutions system
• Solves any problems related to provider contracts and works well with management staff, account representatives, and Intake/Eligibility Specialists to resolve any provider complaints or issues
• Ensures all provider files contain all the required documents pertaining to the service agreements, tax forms, deposit forms, state licenses, etc.
• Collaborates with other Child Care Services staff to enhance program operations
• Identifies and documents process improvement opportunities
• Performs other duties as assigned

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree from an accredited four-year college or university in early childhood education, child development, special education, child psychology, educational psychology, elementary education, or family consumer science or Bachelor's degree from an accredited four-year college or university with at least 18 credit hours in early childhood education, child development, special education, child psychology, educational psychology, elementary education, or family consumer science with at least 12 credit hours in child development or Associate's degree in early childhood education, child development, special education, child psychology, educational psychology, elementary education, or family consumer science with two years of experience as a director in an early childhood program, with preference given for required experience with a provider that is accredited or TRS certified
• Work Experience: 1-3 years: 1 year of full-time early childhood classroom experience in a child care, Early Head Start, Head Star or prekindergarten through third grade school program
• Knowledge, Skills And Abilities: Intermediate experience in Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook and Internet; Demonstrated ability to work with customers and vendors, keep detailed records, and enter data accurately and timely into automated data bases; Ability to handle escalated situations with critical thinking skills and problem solving techniques; Utilizes best practices in early childhood education; Ability to apply early childhood evaluations, observations, and assessments for both teachers and children; Ability to use related assessment instruments including: Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ITERS-R), Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R), Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale-Revised (FCCERS-R), Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS); Must be able to work a variable schedule Monday through Saturday with some night and weekend training and travel; Understanding of TRS Certification Guidelines and the minimum standards of Texas child care licensing; Ability to relate to individuals from culturally diverse backgrounds; Detail oriented with strong oral and written communication skills; Basic administrative skills, including recordkeeping and use of a computer or tablet for data entry