Standing Up and Standing Strong for Developmentally Appropriate Practices

Hear from Dr. Barbara Cooper, Start Early's SVP Professional Learning and Alabama's former Secretary of Early Childhood Education, about her unique experiences implementing, supporting, and advocating for Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) both with early childhood teachers, leaders, parents and with community and state level politicians. In the face of significant challenges across the early childhood field, and resistance to DAP and related philosophy, we must continue to champion the practices that we know advance access and quality for the young children and families we serve. Dr. Cooper will share lessons learned from her personal experience and discuss strategies and actions we can all take to build a more equitable and sustainable early childhood system that champions the use of DAP into the future.