Maine's Expanding
 Inclusive Opportunities Initiative

Early Childhood Settings Inclusion Toolkit

National Resources / Related Links

Behavior – Social-Emotional Development

• Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Young children (TACSEI) 

• Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning 

Inclusion

• CAST is a nonprofit research and development organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals, especially those with disabilities, through Universal Design for Learning.

• Center for Inclusive Child Care – Information Modules – General disability topics and specific disability topics 

• California MAP to Inclusion and Belonging - The newly updated California M.A.P. to Inclusion and Belonging...Making Access Possible website. The MAP Project supports the inclusion of children with disabilities and other special needs ages birth to 21 in child care, after school and community settings. This site provides many resources including training materials, handouts, and web sites.

• Caring for Our Children, 3rd Edition. - is intended to be used by all who care for young children in early care and education settings and who work toward the goal of ensuring that all children from day one have the opportunity to grow and develop appropriately, to thrive in healthy and safe environments, and to develop healthy and safe behaviors that will last a lifetime. The new third edition contains significant content and format changes. Chapter 8 covers children with special health care needs and disabilities. The appendices include sample forms such as a care plan for children with special health needs and medication administration forms.

• Connect Ability – Supported Inclusion: Skills for success: Adapt and Accommodate 

• Financing Strategies and Collaborative Funding - a new toolkit for economic collaboration to support inclusive early childhood programs developed by NECTAC—the national early childhood technical assistance center. This online toolkit includes a collection of collaborative strategies, sample interagency agreements, planning tools, and funding sources to assist states and communities in providing inclusive preschool special education services.

• Growing Ideas Tipsheets – University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion & Disability Studies 

• Guide to ADA Accessibility: Guidelines for Play Areas (PDF) (May 2001) - These guidelines establish minimum accessibility requirements for newly constructed and altered play areas and provide specifications for elements within a play area to create a general level of usability for children with disabilities. 

• Head Start Center on Inclusion

• Let’s Play Project, University of Buffalo Center for Assistive Technology 

• National Center on Accessibility –

  • Designing for Inclusive Play: Applying the Principles of Universal Design to the Playground 

  • Access to Play Areas - A publication designed to assist park and recreation professionals, designers and consumers in creating inclusive play environments for children with and without disabilities.

• National Professional Development Center on Inclusion - is working with states to ensure that early childhood teachers are prepared to educate and care for young children with disabilities in settings with their typically developing peers

• NICHYCY, the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities serves the nation as a central source of information on disabilities in infants, toddlers, children, and youth. The website provides easy-to-read information on IDEA, the law authorizing early intervention services and special education and other resources, fact sheets and materials.

• Playground accessibility - ADA compliance (PDF)

• NAEYC Resources for Supporting All Kinds of Learners Bibliography (PDF) (2009) 

• NECTAC Web Collection on Inclusion

• Tots 'n Tech Research Institute - The Tots 'n Tech Research Institute (TnT) is an inter-university collaboration between Thomas Jefferson University (TJU), Philadelphia and Arizona State University (ASU), Temp. TnT's mission is to provide up-to-date information and resources about adaptations, including assistive technology, to use with infants and toddlers for states, Early Intervention providers of all disciplines, and families across the country. This website provides free resources including research briefs, newsletters, and practical tools and resources to use with young children.

• SpecialQuest Birth to Five Multi Media Training Library – Three training modules and additional resources. Modules focus on collaboration, teaming and working with families. New Preschool adaptations. 

• The Child Care Law Center - a national nonprofit legal services organization. The Center’s work includes promoting equal access to child care for children with disabilities. 

• The National Training Center on Inclusion