The Early Childhood Council of Western CT

04/11/2026

The Early Childhood Council of Western CT and our Early Childhood Programs celebrate the 55th anniversary of the Week of the Young Child, celebrating early learning, young children, their teachers, families and communities. A wonderful time to recognize the importance of high-quality early childhood education and to cheer on our amazing teachers, administrators and community partners who make it possible.

04/10/2026

A fantastic start to the day at the Danbury Chamber Eggs & Issues Breakfast with Governor Ned Lamont, U.S. Congresswoman Jahana Hayes, State Senator Julie Kushner and Early Childhood Council members, Liaison Eileen Costello, Michelle James, CACD & Tara Carvalho, Danbury Library, joined by Danbury Board of Education member, Kate Conetta, Allison Cusano from Shine Early Learning, Bruni Edwards, Birth to Three, Parent Ambassador, Deborah Hicks and CIFC Health educator, Tara Nielsen. Happy to hear that Education & Early Childhood continue to be on the list of priorities for CT.

04/09/2026

Summer Movie Nights are back in Danbury!
Join us on Fridays in July & August at Candlewood Town Park.
Free admission, great movies, and summer nights done right
Movies begin at dusk—bring your chairs, blankets, and crew!

04/09/2026

Early Childhood Council of Western CT Liaison, Eileen Costello and I joined 250 Early Childhood advocates from across the state who had gathered for a press conference at the Capitol yesterday, participating in the CT Early Childhood Alliance Advocacy Day to talk with legislators about current issues in Early Childhood and to draw attention to the lack of funding for the Endowment, Care4Kids and Birth to 3.
We are grateful for the continued support of Office of Early Childhood Commissioner, Elena Trueworthy, Senator Julie Kushner, Senator Steve Harding, Rep. Marty Foncello, Rep. Patrick Callahan, Rep. Farley Santos, Rep. Allie-Brennan, Rep. Ken Gucker, Rep. Bob Godfrey and others.

04/09/2026

04/06/2026

Early Childhood Roundtable on Successful Kindergarten Transitions being held at our Litchfield office in May.

04/06/2026

Parents Supporting Educational Excellence (PSEE)
Join PSEE and become a leader in your child’s education and your school community.
https://forms.gle/M4xLPLhKG6LcoZ7MA

🗓 May 4 – June 8
🕠 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM
📅 Mondays & Wednesdays

📚 Learn about:
✔️ Equity in education
✔️ What effective schools look like
✔️ How and why schools change
✔️ How a school district functions
✔️ Your role as a parent leader

🍽 Dinner provided
👨‍👩‍👧 Childcare provided

Connect with other families, build your leadership skills, and help shape the future of our schools.

04/02/2026

We can't wrap up the week without sending out a huge thank you to Wellmore Behavioral Health/Early Childhood Consultation Partnership and Yuleidy Cruz for her workshop presented on Supporting Challenging Conversations with our CT Early Start Educators earlier this week as part of our Spring Professional Learning Series.

04/02/2026

Our Spring Professional Learning Series had a full house of Early Start CT educators for the BEFORE THEY READ: BUILDING THE BRAIN FOR LITERACY presented by the fabulous Danbury Schools Kindergarten team from Park Ave. School. Teachers walked away with a toolkit of how to strengthen early literacy by focusing on the most important phonological awareness skills and explored strategies for developing preschoolers ability to hear, recognize, and manipulate sounds in spoken language.

03/30/2026

A fantastic day of professional learning with Early Childhood Specialist, Lori Borysewicz from EdAdvance. Our CT Early Start educators took a closer look at the recent changes made to the CT Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS). Participants used the updated framework to plan learning experiences for their classrooms.

03/30/2026

The Early Childhood Council of Western CT. is thrilled to announce our team of Parent Ambassadors who have a voice at the Local Governance Community Table meetings and assist in planning activities to connect families with young children to early childhood services, resources and activities. Their unique perspective will assist in identifying the needs of the community and provide a voice for parents at statewide gatherings.

Meet Thomas Schrack , another one of our Early Start CT Parent Ambassadors.
Thomas is proudly rooted in Scottish, Irish, German & English heritage. With 14 years of experience working in the Early Childhood field, Thomas is dedicated to nurturing our young students and supporting the families in our community. A teacher at Action Early Learning Center, he champions child development and a safe and inclusive learning environment. Thomas is tri-lingual speaking, Spanish, English and Portuguese and enjoys being a resource to the families they serve.

03/26/2026

We kicked off our Spring Professional Learning Series with REGGIO-INSPIRED SCIENCE INQUIRY with Adjunct Professor Rebekah Seaton from CT State Community College. Our Early Start CT educators explored how young children engage with scientific elements of space, light, color, and natural objects with a variety of teacher-led and child-driven inquiry projects, exploring multi-media techniques for documenting and reflecting on the learning process.
A fun evening with a fabulous and very talented group of educators!!