QCM Newsletter

Play in Practice 2026

• Thirteen local teachers presented breakout sessions at Play in Practice! It isn't always easy to stand in front of a room and share your ideas and expertise. We are so grateful they took that step; it made for a wonderful event!
• North Coast Opportunities Rural Communities Child Care (RCCC), who provide Quality Counts support to our county's home-based providers, offered 27 workshops for childcare providers in 2025-26, with 19 Mendocino County providers attending!
• In collaboration with our IEEEP grant, we offered the first three sessions of the California Teaching Pyramid Model in Fort Bragg. Seven centers with a total of 30 staff participated!
• Fourteen family child care and center-based providers received EMSA-certified Health and Safety courses through RCCC! These types of trainings are required for licensure and can be so expensive for providers to fund on their own, so RCCC's sponsorship is so important!
• QCM partnered with First 5 Mendocino to host a two-day wellness conference, Rooted and Ready. Prioritizing ourselves and our wellness doesn't always come naturally (especially for people in our line of work!), but it's so important. If you enjoyed R&R, we have two reflective tools linked below, one for processing last year and one to set intentions for the coming year.
• Over 200 providers engaged in coaching and/or technical assistance through QCM! We are continually inspired by the dedication of the providers in our county and your commitment to providing the highest-quality care for children and families!

"Community" is the word for 2026-27! There is so much knowledge, experience, and wisdom in our field, and we want to ensure there are spaces for peer collaboration and learning where you all can share with one another. In that spirit, we are offering multiple group-based learning opportunities in 2026-27, which are detailed below!

• We have heard from the field that teachers and providers are interested in learning more about inclusive environments for children with disabilities. To support this effort, our Inclusive Early Education Expansion Program (IEEEP) coordinator, Sarah Leoni, will be offering quarterly Inclusion Communities of Practice. More details to come!
• QCM Coach Sharlene Mann and Sarah Leoni will be partnering on a California Teaching Pyramid Model Community of Practice, with quarterly meetings to support continued implementation for teachers and teams that have previously been trained in the Teaching Pyramid Model. The schedule for these CoPs will be announced soon!
• RCCC offers amazing trainings throughout the year, in both English and Spanish! You can view their training calendar near the bottom of this page
• Beginning in September, we will hold QCM Office Hours three times per month: from 1:00-2:00 pm on the first Tuesday of each month and from 3:00-4:00 pm on the second Friday and the third Wednesday (you can download the calendar below). Every meeting will use this Google Meets link: meet.google.com/xji-bryp-zrt.

If you have any QCM-related needs, please join us for any part of the hour! Looking for a Workforce Pathways advisor to complete your professional growth plan? Want some feedback on a lesson plan or activity? Want to practice a delicate conversation you need to have with a parent? Just need to see friendly faces who understand the work? Hop on to an office hour; we're here for you!

• The Workforce Pathways grant applications will be available in the fall and, for the first time, will be completed digitally! Community of Practice participation will earn PD certificates that can be applied to Workforce Pathways.
• Play in Practice will be held on Saturday, March 6. Location, theme, and other details still to come but be sure to download the Save the Date below! As in past years, participants will earn a certificate for 6 hours of PD.

See the flyer below for more information about joining Quality Counts Mendocino!

Contact Maddie Torrey mtorrey@mcoe.us or 707-467-5160

If you would like your program to be spotlit, please contact Maddie Torrey mtorrey@mcoe.us!