Innovative Practices
Connections for Kids
Innovative Practices
Connections for Kids
Goal: Streamline early childhood interventions to ease implementation for educators, while strengthening professional competencies, relationships and retention.
Why: There is a significant need to bring more consistency to the work of early childhood educators.
What We’re Doing: We are developing Connections for Kids, an innovative educational approach that combines the strengths of three evidence-based interventions used in Nebraska. This integrated and aligned approach promotes supportive classroom environments, strong family engagement practices and positive educator well-being — equipping educators to meet children’s needs and reducing their stress. We are offering professional learning opportunities to educators and pre-service students to implement Connections for Kids.
Three interventions will inform our approach:
ASSESSMENT
Social & Emotional Assessment Tool
ASSESSMENT
Social & Emotional Assessment Tool
Goal: Develop an assessment tool for practitioners and researchers that provides meaningful data on children’s social and emotional skills while reducing burden.
Why: Assessments track children’s progress, support decision-making and inform best practices. However, there are critical gaps in existing assessments.
What We’re Doing: We are developing an innovative social and emotional assessment tool, using input from educators and families, that prioritizes children’s developmental needs. The tool helps educators improve classroom practices, manage challenging behaviors and reduce workload.
COLLABORATION & COMMUNITY
Nurture Nebraska
COLLABORATION & COMMUNITY
Nurture Nebraska
Goal: Raise awareness of children’s social and emotional development as essential for lifelong success and a bright future for Nebraska.
Why: It is important for community members to recognize and prioritize children’s social and emotional development as a key factor in their long-term success.
What We’re Doing: In partnership with the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, we are launching a statewide public awareness campaign to empower families, parents and caregivers to learn more about social and emotional development.
Community Events
Goal: Provide opportunities for professional collaboration and community engagement across systems to leverage expertise, share resources and drive change.
Why: Professional collaboration and community engagement are crucial to sustain this work in the future.
What We’re Doing: In partnership with the Nebraska Academy for Early Childhood Research, we are hosting events that bring together experts from the state’s early childhood practice, policy and research communities. These events provide opportunities for our partners to collectively set goals, problem solve and improve practices.
Upcoming Events
The TransformED team has partnered with the Nebraska Academy for Early Childhood Research (NAECR) and the Nebraska Association for Infant Mental Health (NAIMH) to provide the following events:
TransformED Community Partner-Researcher Roundtable
May 13, 2025 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Virtual via Zoom
This virtual event will bring research, practice and policy partners together to explore practitioners’ challenges in supporting children’s social and emotional development. An interactive discussion will follow to set priorities and shape a collaborative research agenda.
To register, contact Sommer Fousek at sfousek2@unl.edu.