Answer:   Effective January 1, 2010, the Connecticut Early Childhood Professional Registry will be the sole determiner of whether coursework and degrees meet the Common Standard, and will report to state agencies and the public using the Common Standard.

The Office of Early Childhood's licensing division will apply the Common Standard to head teacher and technical assistance provider approvals.

Answer:   Yes. Life span development courses would be included as long as some of the course content is relevant to children under the age of five. However, courses only in adolescent development would not be included.

Answer:   No. A course that is specifically about infants or solely about 3- and 4-year-old children will be included.

Answer:   Yes. Courses can be general or specific and can cover one or more areas of child development. For example, courses in language, social emotional or cognitive development of young children or the play behaviors of young children would be included.

Answer:   Yes. Courses about teaching literacy, science, math or social studies or other subjects that include teaching children under the age of five would be included. Courses that are solely about teaching children of kindergarten age or older would not be included.

Answer:   Yes. As long as it is clear that the content is relevant to working with children under the age of five years, those courses would be included.

Answer:   Yes. As long as it is clear that the content is relevant to supervising staff persons who work with children under the age of five years they would be included.

Answer:   No. There are no distribution requirements specifying required courses, however, the OEC strongly recommends that the individual have a solid ECE foundation by distributing courses as follows:

3-credits in child development and learning which includes study of children under the age of 5 years

3-credits in teaching pedagogy which includes study of children under the age of 5 years (examples: introduction to early childhood education; methods for teaching young children; methods for teaching infants and toddlers)

6-credits in any of the content areas identified by early childhood professional organization, the National Association for Education of Young Children (NAEYC), listed below:

1) Child development and learning
2) Family and community relationships
3) Observing, documenting, and assessing young children
4) Teaching and learning (pedagogy)
5) Becoming an early childhood professional