The Champions for Young Children Symposium was developed in 2015 by the Preschool Committee of the Advisory Council for the Education of Students with Disabilities. This annual event aimed to provide a rich professional development experience around a specific theme for participants and to offer an opportunity for professionals from multiple facets of early childhood education and parents to access information and network (e.g., mental health, Head Start, pre-K (public and private), early intervention, home visitation, child care, early childhood education, early childhood special education).
Based on feedback from conference evaluations, participants requested more content related to supporting children with challenging behaviors. In addition, interest in the Pyramid Model across sectors in South Carolina has led us to shift the focus of the Champions for Young Children Symposium to support the broader dissemination of practices that are part of the Pyramid Model framework. Thus, The Champion’s Path: Advancing the Pyramid Model was born.
The vision for the SC Early Childhood Inclusion Conference grew out of SCPI’s initial work with school districts and the District Leadership Day events we hosted in our early days. We have designed this day to support early childhood leadership teams to build upon program capacity to increase inclusive preschool practices.