Butler County Community College has been awarded a $315,000 contract with the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) to create a child care apprenticeship program. The contract was awarded after competitive bidding for the program.

The Early Care and Education Apprenticeship program is aimed at raising the quality of child care by providing college-level early childhood education to child care workers. SRS received funding from the United States Department of Labor to initiate the program. Kansas is one of only 10 states and the District of Columbia to receive funding for the apprenticeship program.

Butler County Community College (BCCC) will work with child care agencies in their service area and in the Emporia State University (ESU) service area to identify child care professionals interested in attending training at either of the colleges beginning in the second semester in January, 2001. BCCC and ESU are partnering on the project.

Under the apprenticeship program, full-time child care professionals who are accepted in the program will have their tuition, fees, and books paid. In order to be considered for the program, they must be working 30 or more hours a week as a child care worker and must take at least 10 hours of college credit a year in early childhood education at either BCCC or ESU.

SRS Secretary Schalansky praised the program’s purpose. She said Butler County Community College will work to provide a program design that can be duplicated in other parts of the state.

"Providing quality child care has a long-lasting, positive impact on children," she said. "Research has shown that one key to quality child care is professionally-prepared child care workers."

Judy Carney, director of resource development for BCCC, said they were very happy to win the contract. She said they will work to enroll 50 child care professionals in the apprenticeship program at the start-up.

"It will be a great boon to child care providers in South Central Kansas and eventually to the rest of the state," she said.

Carney said both Butler County Community College and Emporia State University already have early childhood education curriculum, which may have helped their contract application. She mentioned courses already in place such as ‘Interaction Techniques with Young Children,’ ‘Principles of Early Childhood,’ ‘Curriculum Planning,’ and ‘Infant Development.’ Butler County Community College will begin this month interviewing for a project director for the program, Carney said.

A subcommittee of the Early Care and Education Apprenticeship Grant executive advisory committee made the recommendation to Secretary Schalansky to award the grant to Butler County Community College. The advisory committee is made up of representatives of non-profit agencies, including the Head Start Association, the Kansas Department of Education, the Kansas Department of Human Resources, the Office of the Governor, SRS, and the federal government.

Page Last Updated: May 29, 2001