PITC Academy for California Infant/Toddler Program Directors
The Academy supports leaders in guiding educators to provide high-quality care for infants and toddlers in partnership with their families.
10 hours of training
English
Free event for California residents
The Academy offers high-quality, engaging sessions featuring opportunities for peer learning and exchange in small group breakout sessions. Each Academy is centered around PITC’s caregiving approach, grounded in 40 years of research and real-world application. Sessions are led by PITC faculty, including renowned trainers, researchers, authors, and leaders, who have expertise in the selected topics.
CDSS-CCDD fully funds fellowship opportunities for California residents to attend the Academy. There are no fees charged to attend this event.
Our training goes beyond theory to provide practical, immediately applicable strategies that transform daily routines and interactions into the heart of care and child-centered curriculum.
The topic, content, and schedule for the event will be announced in early 2027.
For any questions, please email PITCEvents@wested.org.
Click on the following sections below to find out more information.
The application consists of four sections:
- Contact
- Organization
- Education and Employment
- Statement of Interest (include details about how your participation will positively impact your program)
- All sections must be completed with sufficient detail to evaluate your related experience and interest in attending the training. Refer to “Review Criteria” section below for guidance.
- Once all sections are completed, make sure to select the Submit button.
- Be sure to check your email (including junk and spam folder) for confirmation that your application was submitted.
- Applicant’s Title and Position: Participation is limited to Californians in a leadership role in programs serving infants and toddlers, inclusive of preschool programs serving children under 3 years of age.
- Education/Professional Certification: Your educational background, including credit hours in early childhood education (ECE) and Child Development Associate (CDA), and other child development-related licenses, certificates, degrees, and training. This information is collected for data purposes only and does not impact decisions on fellowship awards.
- Past Professional Experience: Professional experiences in child development, with a focus on serving infant and toddlers and program leadership.
- Description of your program. The description should include information on:
- Program type (e.g., campus-based, EHS, EHS-CCP, family child care, Pre-K, CCSP, fee-for-service, etc.)
- Program structure (e.g., number of children served, number of employees, age groups, group size and ratios per age group, etc.)
- Funding sources (i.e., state-funded, privately owned, etc.)
- Statement of interest to participate. Address the following items briefly, but completely:
- Why are you interested in participating in this training project?
- How do you plan to utilize the knowledge gained from this experience on an individual and professional basis? How will the training be disseminated to your childcare community and to others?
- Please describe your professional experiences listed in the Education & Employment section.
- Consideration of geographic, linguistic, and program type diversity are part of the review process.
WestEd will review and consider each completed application based on specific criteria (refer to “Review Criteria” section) and space availability.
WestEd does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations.
California child care program leaders whose services include infants and toddlers, inclusive of preschool programs serving children under 3 years of age
Directors and Assistant Directors
Managers
Supervisors
Coordinators
Curriculum Specialists
Owners of Large Family Child Care Homes (licensed for 12-14 children)
Lead and Mentor Teachers
Academy participation is limited to California child care program leaders who serve infants and toddlers.
Our Funding Partner
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What people are saying...
"I am grateful to have been able to participate due to the California grant. This made the amazing opportunity very accessible to my program and my program will benefit greatly because of it. Thank you."
"For me as a head teacher, (the Academy for Program Directors) has really had an impact on how to not only guide the toddlers I work with, but also how to support my team of teachers with information and theory. Materials are very important to me because the expectations we agree on are not my ideas; instead, we are making agreements based on good theory information by PITC."
"I really became more aware of how important it is to take into account my teachers' points of view and how to support them to put some ideas aside when it comes to working with little ones."