Staff Planning and Instructional Time

To achieve maximum consistency for children and allow intentional support for learning outcomes throughout the day, teaching team members are required to implement all facets of the curriculum and program day with children, e.g., music, technology, outdoor/physical activity time, meals and rest time. The ISD and program administrators must ensure sufficient paid time for all staff to participate in instructional planning, child assessment, professional learning, and family engagement activities outside of the child attendance schedule. These activities are time-intensive and valuable and are best accomplished through collaboration of teaching team members. 

Thus, programs typically operate four days of classroom programming per week, with the fifth weekday set aside for these activities. If the program operates five days per week, the weekly schedule must still include paid time for instructional planning, child assessment, professional learning, and family engagement for each teaching team member. The ISD, assigned ECS, and program administrators must collaborate to establish a staff schedule where the Lead and Associate Teachers are in the classroom when children are present and engaged in planned activities and ideally outdoor time and meal/snack time. If teaching team members are granted non-contact time for planning, etc. while children are in program, every effort must be made to schedule this time during rest time.