Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** the virtual laboratory school (VLS;…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** the virtual laboratory school (VLS; WWW.virtuallabschool.ORG) is designed to be a dynamic professional development system that is reflective of the latest research that should inform the care and education of children and youth and is responsive to emerging needs in military child care settings. The objective of this project is to continue the work of the VLS in providing innovative and cost-effective virtual professional development (PD) for child development, school age, and youth program staff and family child care providers by offering a system grounded upon the effectiveness of reflective practice, tailored coaching to support staff members' use of optimal practices, and evidence-based strategies to support adult learners. We will accomplish this objective by revising website and backend database code in response to user feedback and changes in industry standards, updating current VLS content and resources in response to new research as well as expert and user feedback, and providing training and technical assistance for military-affiliated training and curriculum specialists, program managers, and other child and youth program leaders and inspectors. To support the continuous quality improvement of the VLS PD system, we will collect feedback using technical systems, virtual feedback forms and meetings, and in-person activities. In addition, we will continue to visit military child and youth programs to gather and refine high-quality demonstration videos to embed across the coursework and develop and pilot new content in response to needs identified by project stakeholders, including for youth personnel and family child care monitoring.