Early Childhood Teacher Preparation in Special Education at 2- and 4-Year Institutions of Higher Education

The movement toward inclusion has made educating and caring for children with disabilities an increasingly critical part of the early education teacher's role. The goal of this paper is to describe the extent to which early childhood teacher preparation programs are including early childhood special education/early intervention content and experiences as part of their core course and practicum requirements. A nationally representative survey of 438 chairs and directors of early childhood teacher preparation programs revealed that while a large proportion of programs consider early childhood special education/early intervention to be a part of the mission of their program, the amount of coursework and practicum experience vary considerably by content area and level of degree offered by the program. Implications are offered for policy and future research.