Washington State Early Learning and Development Guidelines

Guidelines redesign

DEL, in partnership with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and Thrive by Five Washington, has convened a steering committee to undertake a redesign of the Early Learning and Development Guidelines (formerly known as the Benchmarks). The goals of the resdesign are to ensure the guidelines:

• Are culturally relevant for Washington’s increasingly diverse population.
• Provide links to the K-12 system.
• Reflect the most up-to-date knowledge about how children grow and learn.
• Have been reviewed by individuals and communities around the state.

The guidelines redesign steering committee began meeting in October 2010. The redesigned guidelines will be complete in Spring 2012. The National Equity Project and a private consulting organization are facilitating this process.

Provide input on the draft guidelines

To ensure the redesign process is inclusive of individuals and communities around the state, the workgroup conducted multiple rounds of outreach as the document was developed. In the first round of outreach in Summer 2011, the workgroup solicited advice on a draft Statement of Purpose and Guiding Principles and received more than 75 sets of comments. Next, the workgroup developed a draft guidelines document and conducted a second round of outreach in Fall 2011 that garnered more than 200 sets of comments.

On January 3, 2012, the workgroup kicked off the third and final round of outreach to seek advice on the final, formatted guidelines. The outreach closed on January 18.

• View the final draft guidelines.
• Guidelines redesign fast facts
• Summary of rounds 1 and 2 of comments on the Guidelines

About the guidelines

Early learning guidelines are a resource for understanding how young children grow and develop and what parents, early learning educators and caregivers can do to support that growth and learning. In addition to supporting individuals, a set of generally agreed-upon guidelines for child development are an important feature of a strong early learning system.

Originally developed in 2005, The Washington State Early Learning and Development Benchmarks have been Washington’s early learning guidelines. This existing document includes examples of skills and behaviors you might expect to see as children grow and simple activities to support children’s learning and development. It covers the general areas of early childhood development:

• Physical well-being, health and motor development
• Social and emotional development
• Approaches toward learning
• Cognition and general knowledge
• Language, literacy and communications

Top Downloads

Washington State Early Learning and Development Benchmarks [60.8MB]

Puntos de Referencia para el Desarrollo y el Aprendizaje Temprano [6.9MB]

An Introduction for Parents to the Washington State Early Learning and Development Benchmarks [556k]

Una Presentación a Los Padres sobre Los Puntos de Referencia para el Desarrollo y el Aprendizaje Temprano del Estado de Washington [574k]

An Introduction to the Washington State Early Learning and Development Benchmarks for Early Care and Education Providers [4.6MB]

A Guide to the Formation of Washington State’s Early Learning and Development Benchmarks [569k]

An Introduction to the Early Learning and Development Benchmarks for Trainers of Early Care and Education Professionals [7.1MB]

Zero to Three Early Learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers: Recommendations for States [862k]

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