Our Mission: To advance an equitable society by supporting early childhood educators and parents who seek to provide the highest quality care for children.
For Early Childhood Educators
From helping individual childhood educators receive trainings to guiding childcare centers through the Great Start to Quality rating system, Leaps and Bounds is here.
Become a better-rated, better-trained, better-paid childhood educator today!
​Our programs include:
GSQ Wayne Oakland Macomb Resource Center
The Resource Center is responsible for working with over 2,400 licensed childcare providers and over 500 family-licensed exempt providers in the counties of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb to provide quality improvement support, coaching, and workshops focused on improving quality for children. Resource Center staff meet with every licensed provider and are actively working with a caseload of 352 providers having the licensing capacity to serve 152,992 children. This work focuses on improving quality within these facilities and professional development for staff as well as support in applying for grants.
Leaps and Bounds Family Services provides quality improvement services to childcare providers and is a registered provider of Great Start to Quality's Resource Centers and Orientation. We are here to help your center navigate the Great Start to Quality rating system.
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Great Start to Quality is Michigan's quality rating and improvement system that supports programs and providers in their efforts to provide high-quality care while helping families find and choose quality programs that meet their children's needs.
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There are numerous benefits to connecting your center to Great Start to Quality, including:
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Quality improvement support including coaching, consultation, training, professional development, and workforce development;
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A profile that can be personalized and used for marketing to show your program's success;
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Providing an unbiased assessment of care provided;
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Having a consistent set of program quality indicators to measure quality; and,
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Access to our local Great Start to Quality Resource Center with a resource library that has books, CDs, and other learning materials
ECE Career Center: Early Childhood Educators
ECE Career Center: Early Childhood Educators Learning Together provides professional development training to all providers in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties. These trainings are free to all childcare providers, are listed in MiRegistry, meet licensing requirements, and are developed using the Instructional Design model. Over 70 trainings have been developed with approximately 40 offered monthly. Training in health and safety, business basics, early literacy, early math and science, working with challenging behaviors are some of the offered. All trainings are designed to support early educators/childcare providers gain skills and knowledge to provide high quality care and education to young children. Trainings are provided through in person and virtual opportunities.
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Services include:
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Training for child care licensing is available for all providers including registered relative and friend providers, licensed family and home providers, and those working in childcare centers
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A free resources library of books and educational materials is available for all providers
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Over 30 training sessions are offered monthly
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All trainings use instructional design and all trainers are approved by the state’s registry and participate in ongoing professional development
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These trainings take place virtually through Zoom and in person. If you'd like to attend a training, please call (313) 402-0802 or (586) 879-3303 or you can register below.
Childcare Development Associate (CDA)
The Child Development Associate (CDA) credential is the most widely recognized credential in early childhood education and is a key stepping stone on the path of career advancement. Leaps and Bounds Family Services received the CDA Gold Standard SM Award from the Council of Professional Recognition. The Council granted the award in recognition of expertise in providing exceptional CDA training toward preparing students for successful careers in early childhood education.
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“The CDA is the next step in professional development for all childcare providers, and we are pleased to have received this special endorsement of our work,” says Denise Dorsz, executive director of Leaps and Bounds. This recognition from the Council underscores our efforts in ensuring the best professionals are available to families seeking the best childcare resources for their children.”
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Criteria that must be met in earning the CDA Gold Standard include the successful demonstration of three of the Council’s industry-leading principles:
1. Alignment with the CDA formal education coursework in eight subject areas.
2. Sound business policies and practices.
3. Quality student services that meet their educational and professional needs.
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Our CDA trainings are done virtually using Zoom and Google Classroom.
For more information and to begin CDA Course Enrollment, email CDA@leapsandbounds.org
