Child & Family Development Specialist

Wilshire Boulevard Early Childhood Centers - Child & Family Development Specialist 

Position Description: 

The Child & Family Development Specialist will provide support for students and families through their years in Wilshire Boulevard Temple Mann and Resnick Early Childhood Centers. The CFDS reports directly to the Mann and Resnick Head of School. 

The Mann and Resnick Early Childhood Centers are located in West Los Angeles and in the LA Brentwood neighborhood, serving about 350 preschool-age children and offering robust programming for infants and toddlers and their parents and caregivers.

Qualifications:

• A master’s degree in counseling, social work, or a related field is required.
• Prior experience working in an early childhood center or school setting.
• Strong communication skills, both oral and written
• Must be flexible, organized, proactive, and possess strong interpersonal skills
• Proven commitment to excellence and ability to work both independently and in a collaborative environment
• Experience working with sensitive information and ability to maintain strict confidentiality.

Essential Job Duties and Responsibilities:

Work with Classroom Educators

• Serve as a resource to faculty about children’s social, emotional, and behavioral concerns, and deepen their understanding of the developmental needs of children.
• Observe children presenting challenging behavior, coach educators on effective strategies, develop behavioral plans, and support their implementation.   
• Monitor effectiveness of individual plans by following children's progress and communicating with educators and families.
• Guide educators in incorporating social skills into the curriculum
• Attend age-level meetings with faculty. 

Work with children

• Observe the whole class to assess the class dynamics and individual children’s needs.
• Support children through short-term individual counseling and guidance to address specific social, emotional, or behavioral needs and, if necessary, make recommendations for ongoing outside support services.
• Maintain documentation of observations, meetings with individual children, and communications with parents.
• Meet with individual or small groups of children if there is a crisis or immediate situation.
• Participate in the admissions process through individual assessments during playgroup sessions and other needed times.

Work with parents

• Coordinate and facilitate parent education programming.
• Communicate and meet with parents on a limited basis regarding children behavior and well-being and provide guidance to find outside support when children need more ongoing counseling.
• Chair the team meetings about individual children, in coordination with the parents, the school administration, educators, and outside providers.
• Manage the follow-up process after children begin services, with parents needing support processing, and coordinating with service providers

• Provide timely information and updates to the Mann and Resnick Head of School and the Executive Director of Education on our students with differing needs and outside supports.
• Other duties as assigned by the Mann and Resnick Head of School.

Salary and Benefits

• Salary range: $80,000 to $100,000 annual salary dependent on education and experience
• Competitive benefits package

Application Requirements

• A cover letter explaining interest in the position 
• A current resume.
• The names, titles, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers of three references and a brief description of the applicant’s relationship with each person.

Please send a cover letter and resume to [email protected]. Include the job title (Child & Family Development Specialist) in the subject line.