Brownwood News – Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service have announced a series of free online trainings for child care providers and parents who are either in need of, or who will be providing care for, children of essential employees throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first three trainings are available on Texas A&M AgriLife’s online learning platform.
Additional free training sessions will be rolled out incrementally and will address health and safety guidelines, practices for staffing, essential materials for child care operations, developmentally appropriate activities, adult-child interactions and more. Trainings will also address topics such as emergency management planning, stress management and self-care for caregivers, planning at-home activities for children, parent-child communication, and supporting children’s emotional needs. Additionally, Texas First Lady Cecilia Abbott provided an introductory video for the child care training sessions.
“AgriLife Extension has long been a leader in providing practical, research-based, objective information to the people of Texas so we are very well positioned to help them address various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said AgriLife Extension director Jeff Hyde, Ph.D. “I’m proud that we were able to develop these trainings to help support the Texas Frontline Child Care Task Force in providing important information and assistance to essential employees and their children during this difficult time.”
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These online training courses were developed through a collaboration between the Governor’s Texas Frontline Child Care Task Force, specialists in child and early child development, health, disaster assessment and recovery and family economics from AgriLife’s Family and Community Health Unit. It also included experts from the Texas Association for the Education of Young Children, Children’s Learning Institute, Texas Workforce Commission, Texas Health and Human Services Commission and Texas Department of State Health Services.
The first three trainings available now are: