Curbing the Expulsion of Kids with Disabilities at Child Care
In The News Piece in The Hechinger Report
Sarah Carr/The Hechinger Report
Aug. 4, 2025
Sarah Carr writes for The Hechinger Report about how state-led efforts—from Ohio’s PROMISE program to Vermont’s grant initiatives—are working to prevent the exclusion of young children with disabilities from child care.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — When Selina Likely became director of the Edwards Creative Learning Center six years ago, she knew there was one longstanding practice that she wanted to change. For as long as she had taught at the thriving child care center, it had turned away many children with disabilities such as autism and Down syndrome. The practice was even encoded in the center’s handbook as policy.
Likely, the parent of a child with a disability, wanted to stop telling families no, but she knew that to do that she and her staff would need more support. “I said, ‘Let’s start getting training and see what we can do.’”
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