Trauma Informed Care in Practice (Certificate)

The Merced College Child Development Department offers students classes and training to meet California requirements for credentials and licenses, as well as an Associate of Arts in Child Development (AA) degree and an Associate of Science in Early Childhood Education for Transfer (AS-T in ECE) degree. Preparation includes transfer level courses with several that meet general education requirements and Certificates of Achievement. Throughout all courses, students are trained culturally sensitive and family-focused perspectives that emphasize the value of individual differences in your children. The Child Development Department works closely with many community programs to meet the specific needs of the early care and education workforce.

Students are strongly encouraged to transfer to a 4-year college or university. In several courses, students are given information about pursuing their bachelor, masters, and doctorate degrees. In particular classes, information, materials, and workshops on the California Teaching Credential Child Development Permit Matrix are shared. The permit matrix covers entry level positions through a master’s degree option. To increase the likelihood that students will transfer, students are required to develop an education plan with a counselor. Increasing numbers of our students are transferring to pursue degrees in child development, liberal studies, and other related fields.

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The Child Development Department proposes to create a Certificate of Achievement Trauma Informed Care in Practice. This Certificate directly aligns with the California Child Development Permit, a credential required for employment in the field of Child Development and Early Childhood Education, issued by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. This Permit allows teachers to advance on the Permit Matrix by obtaining a “specialization” within the major (e.g., Infant and Toddler, School Age, Challenging Behaviors, Foundations in ECE, etc.). As such, students who complete this proposed Certificate of Achievement will be considered eligible for a “Master Teacher” Permit.

The Trauma Informed Care in Practice Certificate is intended to train care, education, and services practitioners and requirements include participation in field experiences with community-based programs. Students develop skills to work with both children and families who have experienced trauma.

This proposed Certificate will not only serve current Merced College Students but will allow degree completed professionals from the community to potentially return to school and advance their careers in the field. Therefore, the Child Development Program will be enhancing the Early Childcare and Education workforce of those working with children and their family’s birth through school age.

The Trauma Informed Certificate will fill a current gap in Merced College’s Child Development Program, that of preparing a workforce ready to work with children, families and professionals to provide a system of support for those in the community who have or are experiencing trauma.

Over the past decade, Child Development and Early Childcare and Education has grown substantially. This is in terms of increased recognition of the importance of the first few years of life and the need for professionals to have specialized knowledge around Child Development and Early Education. The importance of high-quality programs became widely acknowledged as necessary when then President Obama (2013), initiated “Race to the Top” a quality improvement system for Early Care and Education. Likewise, the past California’s Governor Newsom (2019) pledged to address California’s long running goal to offer “Preschool for All” (i.e., Universal Preschool, Transitional Kindergarten and the upcoming Preschool-3rd grade P-3 Credential). These commitments to Child Development and Early Childhood Education prove that a qualified and well-educated workforce is and will continue to be needed in our community, county, and state overall.

In the Article, the impact of trauma-based training on educators (Parker, Olsen, & Bunde, 2019), we learn that “Childhood adversity involves early exposure to various forms of abuse (i.e., psychological, physical, and sexual), household dysfunction (e.g., substance abuse, mental illness, domestic violence, criminality), and problematic social-contextual stress (e.g., community or school violence). These “Adverse Childhood Experiences” (ACEs) have been the subject of significant scholarly attention in recent decades” (Kalmakis & Chandler, 2015).

“First, ACEs are disconcertingly common, with a high percentage of children experiencing at least one potentially traumatic event before reaching adolescence and many exposed to multiple, varied sources of adversity. Second, ACEs are associated with significant negative outcomes later in life. Informed by research linking specific forms of early maltreatment to problematic development, the original ACE study (Felitti et al. 1998) revealed powerful, graded relationships between the number of categories of ACE exposure and a host of psychological and physical difficulties in adulthood. Third, trauma and adversity are linked to concurrent problems in emotional, cognitive, and social development, and are associated with an array of behavioral and psychological difficulties in children and adolescents. ACEs, particularly if repeated or sustained, are associated with impaired attention, memory, and concentration, as well as difficulties with emotional regulation, healthy attachment, communication, and impulse control” (Parker, Olsen, & Bunde, 2019).

“It is unsurprising, therefore, that ACEs are also predictive of academic difficulties, conduct problems, and delinquency, and that traumatized students are at increased risk for suspension and expulsion, poor attendance, risky behaviors, low self-esteem, and disengagement. Given the challenges they face, it would appear unreasonable to expect such students to behave, react, and perform typically in a standard classroom. Indeed, many traditional scholastic expectations and practices (e.g., punitive responses to problematic behavior) represent unnecessary, counterproductive, and potentially insurmountable obstacles to their success” (Parker, Olsen, & Bunde, 2019).

This specialized certification will allow MC students to gain the foundational knowledge about the effects of childhood trauma and key strategies for providing care, education, and services to children and their families who have experienced mental or physical trauma. ECE’s and professionals must understand the neurobiological effects and other consequences of trauma, as well as strategies for supporting children and helping them build resilience. The certification will apply to anyone looking for employment or employment advancements while working with children or families from prenatal to age 8 including “parents or caregivers, family childcare providers, infant and toddler teachers, preschool and K-12 teachers, administrators, coaches, mental health consultants and therapists, social workers, foster care providers, inclusion and disability specialists, occupational and physical therapists, home visitors, family advocates and medical providers” (adopted from De Anza Community College).

The students would have to fulfill all the requirements for degree completion at Merced College. Total Units will be 24-32 units.

In addition to the core courses, the student must take at least 8 units from the following courses: