General Description of MO-SECA

Missouri Supporting Early Childhood Administrators (MO-SECA) provides early childhood administrators across the state with the knowledge, skills, and connections they need to effectively lead and operate sustainable, quality programs.

MO-SECA is sponsored by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Office of Childhood and provides professional development to support participants in their business and career growth. Through group training, participants connect with fellow child care providers in their area and 1:1 coaching supports reaching personalized, self-directed goals.

Program participants receive a stipend for participation, clock hours for state licensure requirements, free resources, subscriptions, and more.

Project Partners

MO-SECA is sponsored by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE’s) Office of Childhood and is supported by a collaboration across the University of Missouri System and critical early childhood supports from Child Care Aware(R) of Missouri.

Coaching

Work with a highly trained early childhood specialist dedicated to supporting you and your self-identified goals in a personalized coaching experience.

Using the Practice-Based Coaching model, you and your coach will collaborate to implement strategies from your group trainings and respond to specific areas of need determined by evidence-based assessments. You’ll work together to cultivate your leadership and administrative business skills to enhance your child care business and career.

Assessments

Administrators will receive program assessments to guide their coaching experience. Targeted program assessments may include the Program Administration Scale (PAS), the Business Administration Scale (BAS), the Early Childhood Work Environment Survey (ECWES), and the Organizational Equity Assessment (OEA). Administrators will be able to self-evaluate their capability with the Administrators Role Perception Survey (ARPS).

The PAS, BAS, ECWES, and OEA are conducted once for each engaged program rather than once per participant.

These assessments do not impact your licensure.

Early Childhood Work Environment Survey (ECWES)

The Early Childhood Work Environment Survey (ECWES) helps you assess the organizational climate of your early childhood program. The resulting Work Environment Profile summarizes staff perceptions about different organizational practices and can serve as a springboard for creating a great place to work. Since the ECWES was developed in 1985, more than 40,000 early childhood practitioners working in 3,500 programs have completed the survey and received their summary profile.

Organizational Equity Assessment (OEA)

A survey, developed by the YMCA of the USA, that assesses perceived practices and policies within early childhood programs at the site-level across seven domains: organizational practices, organizational culture, supports, community-informed practices, resource allocation, linguistically and culturally appropriate practices, and long-term equity development.

Group Trainings

MO-SECA group training offers a chance to connect with fellow early childhood providers and learn together about proven  leadership and business strategies.

Interactive leadership training covers critical knowledge and skills in the Whole Leadership Framework, leading effective teams, sustaining early childhood programs, managing organizational change and serving as community leaders. MO-SECA’s robust business management training includes fiscal management, operations, human resources and more, with different sessions tailored to larger early learning organizations, smaller independent early learning centers, and family child care businesses.

MO-SECA Academy

MO-SECA Academies deliver leadership and buisness trainings in 2-day events across the state of Missouri where participants receive a $25/clock hour. Attendees can earn up to 9 clock hours and $225 in stipends at each Academy. See more details about stipends below.

Standalone & Virtual Trainings for Family Child Care

In addition to sessions at MO-SECA Academies that are particularly designed for them, Family Child Care providers can also attend standalone trainings across the state of Missouri and virtually. These trainings offer 1.5-2.5 clock hours, depending on the session, and also earn stipends at a rate of $25/clock hour for in person sessions and $15/clock hour for virtual sessions. See more details about stipends below.

Group Training Stipends

Stipends are paid out to attendees within 90 days of training completion and stipend paperwork submission. If you’d like to confirm your stipend paperwork is complete, please email moseca@umsystem.edu. We can issue payment by mailing a check or via direct deposit depending on your preference.

Each participant can earn up to $225 for attending leadership sessions (only available at Leadership Academies) and $225 for business sessions (available at Business Academies and as stand alone sessions). Stipends are earned at a rate of $25/clock hour for in-person session and $15/clock hour for virtual sessions.

If you have questions about what sessions you’ve already completed or if you are still eligible to earn more stipends in a particular category, please reach out to moseca@umsystem.edu.

Stipend Paperwork

To issue your stipends, we need some paperwork from you! Please do not email your paperwork to us. Instead, your training invitation from moseca@umsystem.edu will have a link to a secure portal. If you can’t find the link, send us a message and we will provide it to you! Here are the details about what paperwork you should submit:

• Completed W9
  • Find a digital version of the form here. It works best in the free software Adobe Reader. You can see a sample W9 form here. 
  • Submit your W9 via the secure portal. Do NOT email your W9 to us.
• Direct Deposit Form (optional)
  • If you’d like to receive your stipend via Direct Deposit, complete this Direct Deposit form. You can see a sample direct deposit form here. We recommend reviewing it to see which fields you can ignore!
  • Submit your direct deposit form via the secure portal. Do NOT email your W9 to us.

RESOURCES

As a MO-SECA participant, you will have access to many business development tools and resources including:

• A copy of Building on Whole Leadership: Energizing and Strengthening Your Early Childhood Program resource book
• A subscription to Show Me Child Care Resources which provides materials, information, and savings opportunities for child care educators
• Free initial LivePlan and QuickBooks licenses

This collection of resources is curated to support you as you implement your MO-SECA learnings and as you grow your business beyond the program.

Thanks for your interest in MO-SECA!