2026 International Early Childhood Inclusion Institute

This session centers the growing intersection of inclusion, relational health, and systems level early relational health (psychological safety) But we supports for young children and their families. Participants will explore how implementation leaders can strengthen systems through practices that prioritize connection, emotional regulation, family voice, and reflective leadership.
Drawing from current work in early childhood mental health, Pyramid Model implementation, and family belonging frameworks, the session offers practical strategies for integrating inclusion and emotional wellness into professional development systems, community partnerships, and family engagement structures. Participants will examine how leadership teams can move from isolated practices toward a coherent systems approach that supports educators, families, and children through a lens of belonging, dignity, and prevention.
 This session is especially relevant for leaders/ professionals interested in bridging inclusion work with early childhood mental health and cross sector collaboration.
Participant Outcomes
Participants will:

• Deepen understanding of relational health as a foundation for inclusion
• Explore systems strategies that connect mental wellness with Pyramid implementation
• Strengthen family belonging and community partnership structures
• Apply reflective leadership strategies to systems level change
• Leave with tools to align inclusion and mental health priorities across teams

Preschoolers are suspended at nearly three times the rate of their school‑aged counterparts, with disparities across gender, race, and disability status placing some young children at significantly greater risk than others. While certain forms of exclusionary discipline are widely recognized, many young children experience “informal” or “soft” exclusion—practices that families and even early childhood professionals may not identify as exclusionary at all.

In this session, attendees will learn about and discuss what exclusionary discipline looks like in early childhood settings, how it affects children and families, and what we can do together to reduce its use and support more inclusive, developmentally appropriate practices.

Fathers play an important role in child development and learning, yet their voices and experiences are often under-represented in conversations around family-professional partnerships. This session will highlight the roles of fathers in early child development and explore perspectives and experiences of fathers of children with complex disabilities. We will present strategies to support fathers' engagement in early childhood settings with a discussion around the application of these approaches across diverse Early Intervention and Early Childhood Education contexts. ,

Children in foster, adoptive, and kinship families often bring unique histories of trauma, loss, and neurodiversity that can significantly impact early learning and behavior. This session equips early childhood professionals with a compassionate, brain-based lens to better understand behaviors that are often misinterpreted as defiance or delay. Participants will learn practical, inclusive strategies to promote safety, regulation, and connection in classrooms and early care settings. The session also highlights the critical role of partnership with caregivers to create consistency and trust across home and school environments. Attendees will leave with tools they can immediately apply to support belonging and resilience for children and families in their care.

The Assessment, Evaluation, and Programming System - 3rd Edition (AEPS-3) has gained recognition in a variety of international contexts due to its adherence to recommended practices for serving young children with disabilities. In this presentation, the presenter will describe the process of validating a tool, developed in the United States, for use in countries with different languages and cultures. The presenter has wide experience conducting this work and will share the opportunities and barriers of adapting tools like the AEPS-3. Those not working in international contexts will find the presentation useful as they consider how measures they are using address the needs of the diverse populations of children and families they serve. ,

We will describe an embedded learning framework for use in birth-to-five contexts. We will discuss the rationale for the framework and the effective practices it includes. We will describe how and why the framework and practices have been adapted over time, based on implementation experiences, user feedback, and research findings. Strategies and resources to support its use will be shared. Discussion with participants on ways the framework and practices have been used successfully in local and state contexts in the United States will set the stage for Part 2 of this session.

In this session, we will expand discussions of the embedded learning framework and its effective practices. We will describe why and how they have been adapted to enhance contextual and cultural fit in two international contexts: New Zealand and Australia. We will discuss examples of current activities and resources supporting the use of the framework and practices in these two contexts. Lessons learned about cross-sector and cross-cultural adaptations will be shared, including opportunities and challenges for different contexts. Participants will have opportunities to engage in discussion with the presenters and other participants about considerations related to the adoption, adaptation, implementation, scale-up, and sustainability of the framework and practices.