Our Mission

The New Futures School Child Development and Parenting Center provides culturally sensitive parenting education and developmentally appropriate childcare to pregnant and parenting students attending New Futures School. Children two-weeks to three years are eligible to attend the child development and parenting center during the school year.

Our Philosophy

Infants and toddlers require a secure emotional base in order to explore and understand the world around them. Infants begin to learn through their positive attachment to adults. As infants develop cognitively they use all of their senses to integrate information and make neural connections. Cognitive growth continues along a continuum with the child’s physical, social and emotional growth. The critically important secure emotional base supports all these domains of development.

Toddlers who experience and develop a secure emotional base with important adults are free to use their curiosity to expand their cognitive skills, to think and learn experientially and to communicate by using cues, signs and words. Caregivers enable toddlers to grow cognitively, physically, socially and emotionally by scaffolding learning experiences and helping toddlers to communicate and problem solve during active play. Toddlers’ egocentric behavior is recognized, and caregivers provide support during challenging exchanges with adults or other toddlers.

Albuquerque Public Schools funded and constructed specially designed suites of infant and toddler rooms that provide an environment conducive to developmentally appropriate care. Child development assistants and students collaborate to create a rich environment that enables each infant and toddler to develop at his or her own pace utilizing age appropriate toys and equipment during active play.

New Futures School Child Development and Parenting Center staff members encourage enrolled students to register in child development and health classes as well as child development laboratories in order to learn about typically developing infants and toddlers. The child development assistants partner with the mothers to support the children in childcare to establish a trusting relationship that mitigates the separation anxiety that some children experience. The child development assistants model developmentally appropriate care of infants and toddlers for students. Students learn that consistent routines and nurturing care enable their children to develop trust in the care providers and the learning environment.

About Our Program

Our Goals

The program goals apply to the children of teen parents, and the goals are integrated into the child development curriculum teen parents attending New Futures School pursue. A teen parent attending NFS Child Development and Parenting Center can choose to enroll in one eighty-minute period with his/her child each day. A teen parent enrolling in a child development lab provides nurturing care and play for her child and other children in a cooperative childcare setting.

• A child has one primary caregiver for one school year and optimally for the entire time the child attends New Futures Child Development and Parenting Center.
• A child receives care that is individualized and the care of children in a group is child-centered so that children can learn at their own pace.
• A child’s needs are met promptly and consistently to promote a sense of trust that leads to positive social and emotional development.
• A child participates in a developmentally appropriate curriculum that includes activities based on a child’s interests, physical and cognitive abilities.
• A child’s care occurs in a safe and healthy learning environment because students and caregiver’s follow prescribed licensing and best practice regulations.

About Our Program