💰 Avg $29k–$39kFull-TimeSign-On Bonus
Job Title: Lead Teacher 0-3 (Infant/Toddler)
Location: South Shore
Supervisor: Site Director
Welcome to Family Focus, where we're on a mission to empower families and their children across Chicagoland! Through our comprehensive range of holistic family support services, including center-based and home-based services, emergency assistance, prevention initiatives, early childhood education, after-school programs, and more. At Family Focus, we believe in the power of community support to unlock the full potential of our neighborhoods. With 11 centers already making a difference, we're excited to expand our reach and touch even more lives. That's why we're on the lookout for passionate individuals who share our vision to join our team as we grow and serve more families. Are you ready to make a difference? We want you to be a part of our journey!
The Lead Teacher 0-3 is responsible for the care, supervision, and management of a class of Infants and Toddlers following the goals and curriculum plan. The principal duties of the Infant Lead Teacher include conducting focused observations of children, developing action plans, carrying out activities daily and evaluating the effectiveness of child development activities, ensuring the safety and well-being of the children, maintaining regular communication with parents, and contributing to the effective operation of the overall early care and education center. Lead teachers serve as ambassadors for the school and the agency.
Duties include, but are not limited to:
- Lead and supervise the classroom team in planning and implementing developmentally appropriate curriculum across language, cognitive, physical, social-emotional, personal, and creative domains, incorporating the Project Approach and Creative Curriculum.
- Foster a warm, nurturing, inclusive, and supportive learning environment where infants, toddlers, and families feel safe, valued, and comfortable.
- Provide engaging experiences that promote language development, individual expression, creativity, play, and early learning.
- Provide strong classroom leadership by facilitating team meetings, promoting collaboration, delegating responsibilities, and supporting effective teamwork.
- Observe, assess, document, and monitor children’s development and well-being using Teaching Strategies GOLD and ASQ-SE; collaborate with specialists when developmental concerns or referrals are identified.
- Maintain safe, hygienic, and developmentally appropriate classroom routines, including diapering, handwashing, meals, napping, transitions, and active supervision.
- Build strong, respectful partnerships with families by communicating regularly about children’s development, supporting parent-child relationships, and facilitating parent-teacher conferences and family engagement activities.
- Maintain accurate records related to attendance, health and safety, nutrition, incidents, observations, and developmental assessments.
- Collaborate with education leadership and classroom staff on purchasing, classroom organization, equipment care, and maintaining a clean, safe, and orderly environment.
- Participate in professional development, trainings, workshops, committees, and other school or agency initiatives to maintain current knowledge of early childhood education.
The ideal candidate will have the following education and experience:
- Bachelor’s degree in early childhood education or child development from an accredited institution is required.
- Must have a minimum of an Infant Toddler Gateways Credential Level 5.
- Minimum of one-year of teaching experience.
- Experience supervising and leading classroom team in preparation and implementation of lesson plans for classroom activities covering all developmental areas: language, cognitive, physical, personal, social/emotional, and creative. Explore new curriculum ideas and implement the Project Approach along with the Creative Curriculum.
- Knowledge of childcare routines as carried out in a manner that is prompt, hygienic, and consistent with child development principles. This includes routines related to diapering, hand washing, eating, napping, and transitioning between activities.
- Observe, document, and report appropriate aspects of and changes in the child's health, including but not limited to injuries, changes in physical appearance, and/or social behaviors. Fill out appropriate accident and incident reports on the day of occurrence. This is to include Active Supervision incidents.
- Ability to establish and maintain working relationships with peers, direct reports, children’s parents, families, and community partners.
- Experience organizing and/or delegating administrative record keeping, including daily attendance, CACFP food forms, daily health, and safety checks, and evaluate the quality of childcare services provided, reporting regularly to the Infant Toddler Specialist.
- Knowledge of Early Head Start program principles, practices, and cornerstones.
- Excellent comprehension and navigation of computers, software, and databases.
Salary: $55,000/year
This is a full-time exempt position.
Schedule: Monday-Friday 7 AM - 4 PM
$2,500 Sign-on Bonus Available!
Discover all the benefits we offer to support your well-being and professional growth here: https://www.family-focus.org/about/benefits/
Family Focus is an Equal Opportunity Employer
Family Focus is an Equal Opportunity Employer that invests in strengthening families and their children in Chicago and NE Illinois, so they build social capital and achieve upward economic mobility through high-quality innovative programs and services, grounded in anti-racism and social justice.
Family Focus provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age, disability, gender identity, results of genetic testing, or service in the military. Equal employment opportunity applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leave of absence, compensation, and training.
Family Focus provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age, disability, gender identity, results of genetic testing, or service in the military. Equal employment opportunity applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leave of absence, compensation, and training.
Keywords: Early Childhood Education, Infant Toddler Teacher, Child Development, Early Head Start.
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