About The Nevada Registry

Serving early childhood educators throughout Nevada, The Nevada Registry is a career development, recognition and data collection system that captures important data about the Early Childhood (ECE) workforce. Through the validation of the professional and educational achievements of ECE professionals, the Registry aims to help raise the status of the profession by promoting a well-trained, educated, supported and fairly compensated workforce; a workforce that represents a viable and critical profession in our society. The Nevada Registry is one of the statewide efforts geared toward reducing staff turnover, increasing wages, heightening professionalism and increasing advancement opportunities for ECE practitioners.

As the host of Nevada’s Early Care and Education Professional Career Ladder, the Registry collects, validates and warehouses the professional and educational achievements of early childhood educators throughout the state and highlights those accomplishments through Career Ladder placement. Providing a single point of access, the Registry provides professional development planning tools, including an online Professional Development Plan, and hosts a comprehensive website containing an online calendar of approved training, an industry-related blog, statewide job board and community resources/information. The Registry also operates the statewide training approval system for all informal, community-based training (not-for-college-credit) in Nevada.

In April of 2009, participation with The Nevada Registry was adopted into State Child Care Licensing regulations R112-06 and R001-09 for all early childhood educators working in licensed child care settings. Mandatory participation was fully phased-in as of December 31, 2012, positioning The Nevada Registry to collect and provide a vast amount of essential, and previously unavailable, data on the early childhood workforce in Nevada that will be used inform the work of stakeholders and policy makers in the future, as well as helping to direct decisions regarding future funding and program development.

Facts and Frequently Asked Questions About The Nevada Registry

Guiding Principles of The Nevada Registry

Research demonstrates the vital importance of professional education for individuals providing early care and education experiences for children. What we do or do not do for young children makes a difference in their learning capabilities and their future success in life. Ensuring that individuals who provide these experiences have the knowledge and the skills to provide quality early care and education environments is essential. Ensuring that ECE professionals are then recognized for their professional accomplishments, formal ECE education and specialized training is essential to the growth of the field and to the public understanding of Early Care and Education as a viable and critical profession in our society. These are the guiding principles that form the foundation of The Nevada Registry’s vision and mission.

Vision

Nevada’s Early Care and Education professionals are empowered, well-educated, highly-skilled, valued, respected, and equitably compensated.

Mission

The Nevada Registry supports and empowers Early Care and Education (ECE) professionals in Nevada to promote high quality Early Care and Education through recognition, professional development and educational growth.

Goals of The Nevada Registry

Raise the status of the ECE profession by honoring and recognizing the professional achievements of those working in the field.

Promote professional development.
Help ECE professionals achieve greater respect and appreciation for their invaluable work with young children.
Empower Nevada’s providers to take responsibility for improving the quality of Early Care and Education.
Promote the achievement of state and national standards in Early Care and Education.
Encourage personal responsibility for actively pursuing professional and educational goals.
Identify and document professional achievements.
Collaborate with and unite partners to promote the vision, mission and goals of The Nevada Registry.

History of The Nevada Registry

In April 2002, a voluntary Career Ladder and a set of Core Knowledge Areas were formally adopted by the Nevada State Child Care Advisory Committee. The adoption of these systems was based on recommendations received from the Quality, Training and Licensing sub-committee and hundreds of Early Care and Education professionals from across the state. Since the adoption of these systems, the Office of Early Care and Education, through a contract with the Washoe County School District, has been hard at work to develop a structure to implement each of the systems. The structure has been officially named and has become what we now refer to as The Nevada Registry.

The concept of a statewide Registry is not a new one. In fact, developing and implementing a professional development system for Early Care and Education professionals in the state of Nevada has been on the agenda of many ECE organizations for years (see Timeline of Program Development and Implementation). Thankfully, this collective vision of professionals from across the state is now a reality. The Registry could not have been possible without the collaborative efforts of a diverse group of Early Care and Education professionals and programs across the state who:

Share the desire to improve the quality of Early Care and Education environments for children;
See the need to address the issues that lead to high staff turnover among our workforce;
Are working to develop innovative systems that lead to increased wages for professionals in the field;
Work to professionalize the field of Early Care and Education;
Support the development of a central clearinghouse of information linking all professionals in the state.

Funding

The Nevada Registry is one of the various programs available through the Nevada Department of Education, Office of Early Learning and Development. The project is funded through the Federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) - Quality Improvement Dollars and is administered through a contract with the Washoe County School District.

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