Article Link: http://www.exchangepress.com/article/meet-cover/5011589/
"No child is an isolated individual. Each lives in a family, a community, a culture. Each brings a unique medical and developmental history. Our aim is to integrate learning within that broader context."- Julie Quaid, Director
To fulfill this mission to serve the needs of children and families, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon, opened the doors of their new Warm Springs Early Childhood Education Center on May 28, 1992. The center is a state certified child care center, licensed for 420 children. Nearly 100 people are employed to provide comprehensive services which include child care, preschool, early intervention, integrated special education, Head Start (full and part day), after-school care, infant care, parent education, infant follow along program, home base program, and various outreach services.
Plans for the $4.5 million center were announced in November 1989, but the story of early education in Warm Springs began in the early 1960s, when a group of Warm Springs women created an independent cooperative kindergarten. Shortly thereafter, the growing number of working parents led to the formation of a tribal child care program and after-school care program. In 1965, Warm Springs was selected to pilot a two month summer Head Start program which eventually ...