Easterseals Head Start/Early Head Start provides high-quality, family centered education for children birth to five years old. We collaborate with 40+ early childhood programs located in the city of Chicago and suburban Cook County to promote school readiness in young children of all abilities from families with incomes below poverty guidelines. Easterseals also directly operates two Early Learning Centers in Head Start/Early Head Start in Chicago and in Hickory Hills.

Under the direction of the Birth to Three Education Manager, the Instrunctional Coordinator Lead provides content area support and oversight in the areas of education and disabilities services for Easterseals Early Learning services in compliance with the Head Start Program Performance Standards, the Head Start Act, and the Illinois State Board of Education requirements.

This position is located at the Easterseals Early Learning Services Headquarters at 1939 W. 13th Street, Chicago 60608.

MAJOR FUNCTIONS/ACCOUNTABILITIES:

Planning and Program Services:

• Participate in the selection and onboarding of new Instructional Coordinators and Instructional Coaches and provide mentoring to new staff.
• Float to partner sites as needed to support vacancies of Coordinator/Coaches.
• Provide supervision to Instructional Coach floater staff.
• Act as discipline leader for content team, providing training, support, coaching and feedback to e levate overall performance in the content area and ensure best practices are implemented consistently across regions.
• Work with the Instructional Coaches and other Easterseals staff, partner site directors and staff, and the community to ensure consistent, high quality education and disabilities services at all assigned HS/EHS programs.
• Work with Easterseals st aff, site directors and staff, and the community to ensure that programs recruit and enroll Head Start/Early Head Start children, including children with disabilities, to meet their funded enrollment numbers and to keep an active waiting list.
• Collaborate with the content area managers to implement systems to ensure consistent, high quality child development services at all Head Start and Early Head Start programs in accordance with all Head Start Performance Standards/ ISBE/PI guidelines.
• Participate in program planning based on analysis of child and program educational outcomes.
• Provide support to Instructional C oaches at sites, including assisting with building collaborative relationships with the Family and Health Services team, and site directors and staff, to provide integrated services to families.
• Ensure that a family strengths-b ased approach is understood and followed by staff.
• Participate in active supervision to ensure the safety of all children and that no child is ever left alone or unsupervised.
• Participate in program planning and implementation of all service areas as part of an integrated leadership team.
• Participate in the self-assessment process, community needs assessment, and strategic planning.
• Participate in the monthly analysis of monitoring data with the leadership team, provide recommendations, and ensure that data is utilized to guide planning.
• Participate in site visits, presentations, and orientation for prospective new sites as part of an integrated leadership team.

Record Keeping, Reporting and Communication:

• Implement a system to ensure that all education and disabilities information is entered into Child Plus and Teaching Strategies GOLD in a timely manner, including developmental screenings, referrals, disability status, home visits, parent-teacher conferences, observations, and assessments.
• Prepare monthly reports with updates about PIR information and information tracked for education and disabilities.
• Complete the annual PIR as part of the leadership team.
• Facilitate and/or participate in regularly scheduled content area, team, director, and other meetings.
• Travel to Easterseals and partner sites regularly.

Ongoing Monitoring and Self-Assessment:

• Implement and monitor systems for ensuring the active supervision and safety of children so that no child is ever left alone or unsupervised.
• Implement a system to monitor educational services for all children at all sites, including classroom observations and file reviews.
• Implement a system to ensure that all developmental screening information is completed within 45 days of children’s enrollment.
• Implement a system to ensure that all children identified as benefitting from further evaluation are referred and evaluated according to timelines.
• Implement a system to ensure that all children and families that are identified as benefiting from mental health services receive support in a timely manner.
• Implement a system for supporting children with behavioral concerns, including a behavior review process and behavior plans.
• Implement a system of ongoing monitoring for education, disabilities, and mental health to for tracking non-compliances and developing and monitoring action plans. (Child Plus/PIR data)
• Participate in the ongoing self-assessment of the program.

Human Resources:

• Implement reflective and relationship-based practices.
• Provide ongoing technical support to the Instructional Coaches, including their performance evaluations and professional development plans.
• Conduct trainings for Coaches, ELS program staff and site staff.
• All other duties as assigned.

Education/Certification:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education or Child Development, or in another field with at least 30 semester credit hours in ECE required.
• Masters preferred.

Experience Required:

• 3 years of early childhood classroom experience.
• 2-3 years of administrative, supervisory, or coaching experience.
• 3 years of experience in Head Start/Early Head Start.
• Home visiting experience preferred.

Required Knowledge:

• Obtain certification as a CLASS-reliable observer within 1 year.
• Creative Curriculum and Teaching Strategies GOLD.
• Head Start Performance Standards.
• ECERS/ITERS knowledgeable preferred.
• NAEYC.
• MS Office.

Vehicle/Transportation Requirements:

• Valid driver’s license.
• Auto insurance.
• Reliable vehicle.

Skills/Abilities:

• Able to work well with all levels of the organization, partner sites, other agencies and funding source personnel.
• Demonstrates the ability to conceptualize and articulate program outcomes.
• Able to manage multiple projects.
• Well organized, highly detail oriented and accuracy driven.
• Excellent interpersonal, organizational and supervisory skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

ADA: Easterseals will make reasonable accommodations in compliance with the Americans with Disability Act of 1990. Unless exempted by the Americans with Disabilities Act, all persons hired for this position are required to possess the ability to perform the physical tasks necessary to treat clients, i.e., bending, floor-sitting, etc., as well as to have the ability to lift up to 50 pounds frequently.