For Providers

Professional Development

Florida Child Care Professional Certificate

The Florida Child Care Professional Certificate (FCCPC) curriculum is designed to meet the requirements that have been instituted by the Council for Professional Recognition. In Florida, for every twenty children in a center, one caregiver must have a FCCPC. The FCCPC credential is awarded after completing the training, the preparation of a professional resource file, accumulating 480 hours of direct care of young children, successful completion of site observations in an approved early childhood setting, the successful completion of the verification visit, and acquirement of first aid certification. The FCCPC credential meets the State of Florida requirement for childcare personnel.

The ELCFH works cooperatively with Charlotte County Vocational Center and South Florida Community College to assist you and your staff with meeting the FCCPC program requirements. For more information about these programs contact:

Mentoring Program

The ELCFH Mentors will support providers in developing meaningful interactions with the children they serve. This will ultimately help to create an optimal learning environment and improve the quality of the service being offered. Research shows that on site coaching is the key to ensuring that knowledge and skills learned through training opportunities actually become integrated into the classroom where the children will benefit from the training received by the classroom teacher.

School Readiness Programs

The ELCFH is a private non-profit organization comprised of four counties: Charlotte, DeSoto, Hardee and Highlands. Prior to July 2005 each county was a School Readiness Coalition which operated independent of each other. The School Readiness Act (FS 411.01) passed by the Florida Legislature in 1999, mandated the creation of School Readiness programs and establishment of local School Readiness Coalitions within the state of Florida. The purpose of the law was to oversee program implementation, monitor budgets and expenditures and the development of local projects intended to raise the quality of childcare delivered in each county. Passed into law in 2003 and implemented in 2005, the Early Learning Act mandated that small Coalitions serving fewer than 2000 School Readiness children merge with one or more Coalitions to form a regional Coalition and the new Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) education program be implemented in each county during the fall of 2005. In keeping with these mandates, the Early Learning Coalition of Florida's Heartland, Inc. (ELCFH) was created on July 1, 2005 by merging the Early Learning Coalition of Charlotte and DeSoto Counties, Early Learning Coalition of Hardee County and the Early Learning Coalition of Highlands County. One Executive Director oversees the operations of the ELCFH with offices located in each of the four counties.

The Early Learning Coalition of Florida's Heartland, Inc. (ELCFH) offers financial assistance to eligible families to obtain affordable, quality child care. Children birth through 12 years of age and children with special needs birth through 17 years of age are eligible. Parents have a choice of approved ELCFH child care programs.

Eligibility requirements are based on total family income as well as:

VPK Programs

The ELCFH administers the state funded VPK Program created to prepare Florida's four year olds for kindergarten. The VPK Program is free for all children who are four years old by September 1 and reside in Florida. The ELCFH maintains a list of approved VPK providers for each county.

Program includes:

Thank you for your interest in becoming certified as a VPK provider for the Early Learning Coalition of Florida's Heartland in 2010-2011. Download VPK Forms for application process and forms for VPK providers.

Resource & Referral

There are no charges/fees associated with a provider listing in the Child Care Resource & Referral Database or for referrals to your program. If you are asked to provide a payment for a referral or listing in the Child Care Resource & Referral database, please call the Agency for Workforce Innovation's Office of Early Learning at 1-866-357-3239. The information reported about a provider's program is objective program information that is based on standards that are attainable for providers based on their type of care.

Accreditation Information

For more information on the ELCFH Mentor Program contact our quality department.

Training Information

T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Scholarship Program

The T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Scholarship Program provides scholarships for child care / early learning teachers and directors for educational costs to obtain a Child Development Associate credential or state equivalency certificate, Director's Credential or an Associate degree in early childhood at a community college. For more information about how to access a T.E.A.C.H. scholarship, visit the Children's Forum web site.

Useful Links and Information

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Early Learning Coalition of Florida's Heartland

ELCFH serves a four-county area. Please contact the local office listed for your county for access to local services and information or email at information@elcfh.org
Charlotte Office | DeSoto Office | Hardee Office | Highlands Office