Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children

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DEC Vision & Mission

To cultivate a society where inclusion and belonging is a lived reality for young children and their families across a diverse diaspora that embraces, celebrates, and empowers them to be actively engaged in their communities.

It is the collective responsibility of the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) of the Council for Exceptional Children to center the needs and realities of those who are most negatively impacted by systemic inequity. We advance and shape leadership, research, policy, and practice that supports, engages, and informs those who care for, educate, and work on behalf of young children with or at risk for developmental delays and disabilities. DEC works to identify, interrogate, and dismantle systemic inequities so that young children and their families thrive.

News

Call for Leadership: DEC Family Partnership Community of Practice (FP CoP)

The DEC Family Partnership Community of Practice is recruiting two new co-facilitators. This is an opportunity for the family members involved in the DEC community and/or professionals who are also family members to level up their leadership and help ensure the CoP's sustainability through future leadership transitions. Members representative of the diversity of DEC membership are encouraged to apply, including race, ethnicity, culture, language, dialect, age, ability, gende

Deconstructing and Reframing Challenging Behavior: From Understanding Children’s Needs to Supporting Development Across Contexts

Division for Early Childhood Monograph Series — Issue 1 Call for Manuscripts The Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (DEC) will publish its first monograph in the DEC Monograph Series in 2026. The topic of this inaugural issue is children’s behaviors that adults perceive as challenging. The series will be aligned with DEC Racial Equity Point of View. Racial equity is both a process and an outcome. It is the intentional and continual practice o

Call for Participants - Surveying of the EI & ECSE Field: What does leadership look like to you?

This research is in collaboration with Elmhurst University, George Mason University, and Southern Illinois University. If your work involves supporting young children (birth through age 8) and their families receiving early intervention (EI) or early childhood special education (ECSE), we want to hear your perspective on the Leadership strand of the DEC Recommended Practices. Whatever your role and experience in EI/ECSE, we are interested in learning about how you think of le

Join Us for the 2025 DEC Awards Ceremony

Sunday, November 16th, 2025, 1:00 PM Eastern Time - Register here. The DEC Awards Committee invites all members of the DEC community to the 2025 Division for Early Childhood Awards Ceremony. This special virtual event will honor outstanding leaders, advocates, and changemakers whose work has made a lasting impact on young children with disabilities, their families, and the professionals who support them. We encourage all DEC members, colleagues, families, and friends to atten