Our Roots
Florida Early Steps Learning Center

 

The Florida Early Steps Learning Center grew from many years of partners across Florida working together on a shared vision for supporting families and caregivers and increasing positive outcomes for infants or toddlers with or at-risk for disabilities.   

 

In 2017, the Early Steps State Office (ESSO) made investments in job-embedded professional development for the State Systemic Improvement Plan, including coaching for providers. Providers in Florida learn to use an evidence-informed caregiver coaching model known as Florida Embedded Practices and Intervention with Caregivers (FL-EPIC). FL-EPIC is adapted from EPIC, a project funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. We have grown from three initial demonstration sites to providers and families across all local Early Steps sites -- from the Panhandle to the Keys -- using FL-EPIC! 

 

Resources and materials provided by the Florida Early Steps Learning Center include content developed and adapted from the Embedded Practices and Intervention with Caregivers (EPIC) project funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (R324A130121, J. Woods, Principal Investigator); Embedded Instruction for Early Learning: Tools for Teachers (R324A07008 & R342A150076, P. Snyder, PI; R324A200044, C. Bishop, PI); and Family Guided Routines Based Intervention (FGRBI) for Early ACCESS project funded by the Iowa Department of Education, (J. Woods and M. Romano, Principal Investigators).  

 

Some content in the Tools for Early Steps Teams (TEST) Toolkit has also been updated and adapted from the Early Steps TEST Toolkit initially developed in 2011. The toolkit provided resources for providing early intervention services and supports from first contacts through transition. This earlier work was funded by ESSO and was a collaborative effort between ESSO, the University of Florida (UF) School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, UF Anita Zucker Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Studies, and the North Central Florida local Early Steps site.