CHS Hershey: Continuity of Care in Action
One of the key Early Childhood Education (ECE) strategies supported and implemented by Catherine Hershey Schools for Early Learning is the practice of Continuity of Care.
Continuity of Care is an approach that enables children and caregivers to stay together for as long as possible, ideally for the first three years of a child’s life. It has emerged as a strongly recommended practice for infant and toddler care and education, also supported by National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), Zero to Three, the Program for Infant/Toddler Care, and Catherine Hershey Schools for Early Learning, among others.
At CHS, children remain with the same teachers throughout their time in the infant/toddler classrooms (six weeks-36 months), moving together to new classrooms with age-appropriate materials at the start of each new academic school year. The model keeps a group of children with the same teachers, who then loop back to begin with a new group of infants for another three-year cycle once the children move to a preschool classroom at age 3.
CHS Hershey, which opened in fall 2023, has begun its second school year in operation, so teachers, children, and families are beginning to experience the benefits of the model.
CHS Hershey Lead Teacher Amy Stuck, alongside Assistant Teacher Natalie Stoops and Associate Teacher Sara Crowther, led a classroom of infants last year. In August, she and her teaching team moved into an age-appropriate classroom to prepare for the same children to return, now as young toddlers.
Stuck holds a bachelor’s degree in Education from Millersville University, a teaching certificate in Early and Elementary Education, and has been in the ECE field for 22 years. Teachers have the opportunity to prepare for the opening of a center through our paid, nearly year-long professional development program: Seeds to Lead. Stuck and her team are seeing firsthand the benefits of Continuity of Care.
“Continuity of Care is important because it allows children to remain in a consistent environment where they get to form secure attachments with trusted adults,” Stuck said. “The children get the opportunity to make connections with other children who they get to move along with for three years. We as teachers get to make meaningful connections with the families. It allows us to be intentional with our approach to the families and children.”
Stuck, Stoops, and Crowther have seen the infants in their classroom grow into young toddlers and will continue building secure relationships with them as they become older toddlers and reach preschool age. These secure relationships and environment boost learning and development in areas such as emotion regulation, attention, memory, and language.
“Our children started as infants, and they have all blossomed into such confident, curious, and kind toddlers!” Stoops said. “It’s been incredible to be by their side for these huge developmental milestones.”
With a low child-to-teacher ratio, CHS teachers can ensure that each child receives the appropriate care and education. Infant and toddler classrooms serve eight children, each with three teaching staff members.
“After spending the first year working on relationships and learning what the children are interested in and how they might interact with a new provided experience, this year we get to provide new opportunities and experiences based off what we learned in year one with each of the different children,” said Crowther, who obtained her Child Development Associate credential through the CHS professional development program. “Watching them go from little infants to mobile, verbal toddlers is very exciting!”
Recently, the children wrapped up a project on corn that consisted of taking trips to a crop field every Wednesday. The children observed the corn when it first started growing on the stalk and watched the stalks change from green to brown. The children explored drying stalks and even husked and ate their own corn.
“In year two, I am looking forward to watching the children grow and change and reach their developmental milestones,” Stuck said. “It’s fun to look back at the very first pictures we took of the children and compare them to where the children are now.
“Besides the children growing physically, which is happening so fast, how independent the children are becoming is amazing to witness. They are feeding themselves, talking, and moving so much, at varying levels, and wanting to do so much on their own.”
When the children turn 3, they’ll move to a preschool classroom, which includes a new teaching team of teachers who they will remain with until they transition to kindergarten.