305: Building Strong Connections in Early Childhood Leadership With Lori Buxton

In this episode of ChildCare Conversations, you’ll sit in on a warm chat with Lori Buxton from the Association of Early Learning Leaders and our hosts Kate and Carrie. Lori shares her unexpected journey into early childhood care, the healing power of children’s love, and her passion for supporting leaders. 

Together, they swap stories about leadership, communication, and the joys (and chaos!) of running childcare centers. You’ll pick up practical tips on staff support, parent relations, and the value of community—plus a few laughs along the way.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lori-buxton-995bba29/

AELL Annual Conference - https://web.cvent.com/event/25f30ec2-d9b6-4485-8579-8779f7d9b318/websitePage:09fc6960-9255-42dd-b154-f54a2bc45685?rt=Cw32CnkCOkuRvS1slJkv_Q

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Transcript

Kate Young (00:47)
So welcome to today's episode and we are so excited to bring Lori Buxton from AELL, also known as the Association of Early Learning Leaders as our guest. ⁓ Carrie was still trying to figure out how to get ready, so I apologize for anybody who was watching. ⁓ But we are so excited to bring Lori on and she's going to share with us a little

Lori Buxton (01:09)
The struggle is real.

Kate Young (01:15)
about we're gonna start with kind of how Lori ended up in early childcare. And then we're gonna just talk a little bit about AEL and yeah, no, have a conversation.

Lori Buxton (01:25)
Sounds good. So thank you guys so much for having me on. You know, I love you more than my luggage. We have such a good time and we get to hang out together. And so this is fun. And you know, I was telling Kate and Carrie before, while we were in the virtual green room, how much I love that, you know, that the brand and this whole concept is about conversations because, you know, that's my favorite thing to do is have a conversation. And so I'm really excited about this one.

So you asked about how I got in this. Well, it was quite by accident and I didn't intend to stay. ⁓ mean, being honest, ⁓ I went through a pretty rough divorce in the early 2000s and my younger sister was an assistant director at a childcare center. And I came home to Texas with my little ones with, you know, a broken heart and a broken life. And ⁓ I just, honestly, I needed a place to land while I figured out what was next for me.

And so she said, you know, we need somebody in the three-year-old room and you're really good at telling stories and we can teach you the rest. And I said, okay. She goes, and you get free childcare. I'm like sold. And so they put me in the three-year-old room with, and I've always been really good with children. That wasn't an issue, but I'd not really been with the littles. And so this was going to be a new adventure other than the ones that I gave birth to. you know, that's, that was the extent of my experience. Right. And so, so I went into that three-year-old classroom with just

Kate Young (02:45)
Hahaha!

Lori Buxton (02:53)
so busted up and broken up. I, to this day, and it's been so many years later, I still remember what that day felt like. Those kiddos came up to me, they couldn't even remember my name. I was Miss Teacher, and Lori is hard to say when you're three. And so all day long I was Miss Teacher this, Miss Teacher that, and it was such pure, unconditional, unending love.

for no good reason at all. If I made a misstep, I still got invited to the birthday parties. If I didn't get all the I's dotted and the T's crossed, they still loved me and wanted me to come back tomorrow. And I think that my broken heart and my children's broken heart were healed in that place because people were there for all the right reasons, doing all the right things. And I remember feeling like I couldn't wait to go back because it was kind of like a balm, you know, to your soul.

And I just realized how important that work was. And I saw the impact it had on my own children. And I was like, okay, I'm in, I'm in 150%. What can I do next? And I've always been in leadership in my, you know, I was in retail for years before that. And I just, you know, when you're a leader, you lead. And so I learned, I made it my business to learn and to grow.

And then I found out how I could contribute and how I can grow. And how it's funny because I was in a classroom for probably five or six years before I started to move up into leadership because I needed to learn the field. I needed to, you know, I needed to learn and understand before I could truly lead. And so I did that. And as I started moving up through the ranks and you know how you wear all the hats and you get a t-shirt in a variety of sizes and colors. And I did all that work.

Kate Young (04:40)
You

Lori Buxton (04:44)
And as I started to lead, knew, especially when I took my first director's role, when I said yes to that, I knew that I needed to have something to support me in that. And at the time, there wasn't a lot out there for focused leadership. It was, you know, you'd have beautiful, wonderful teacher conferences and you'd have tracks that provided resources and training for leaders. It may be, yeah, if you were lucky, right. Might've been one or two. Exactly.

Kate Young (05:03)
Yeah. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Might have been one or two. What do you think, Gary?

Lori Buxton (05:13)
And so I knew that I needed some supports. And so my mentor and my friend, Chris Smith, was a part of the National Association for Child Care Professionals, which is what we were back in the day. We had a rebrand about, I don't know, 10, 15 years ago and became the Association for Early Learning Leaders. But I went to my first conference in...

2001 was my first conference. So I guess I got my timing off. You know, when you get to be my age, your timing starts to go out the window. So, so it was the late nineties. Yeah, it was the late nineties when I started. My very first conference win.

Carrie Casey (05:42)
Just tighten it in.

Kate Young (05:43)
So do you mean your first cof...

Are you talking about your first conference as a teacher? First conference as a teacher?

As a teacher, that what you meant? No. Okay. All right.

Lori Buxton (05:53)
No, this was as a new leader, as a new leader. She said, this

is where you go. This is because these people are all about leaders. The whole conference is focused on leaders. You're not just a sidetrack. You're not just to anything. You're the whole thing. You're the main focus. And so I showed up and I was kind of blown away by all of the opportunities I had to learn there. And it wasn't just about education. It was about business. It was about leading people. was about

taking care of resources and understanding the laws and all the things that, you you go get your credentials in early education and they don't always come with the business part. They don't always come with how to do the whole thing, not just the fun part where you get to, you know, educate people. And so I went to that first conference and I'll tell you in April, when we're in Reno, I will be celebrating my 25th consecutive conference with the association. And

Kate Young (06:49)
Awesome!

Lori Buxton (06:51)
Yeah, I drank that Kool-Aid, both hands, big cups. And I have been a part of the association. I volunteered for a lot of years. And then I was invited to be on the board. I served on the board for eight years and then ⁓ came off to, ⁓ I was only actually supposed to fill in for the ED position. you know, you go to the bathroom and you come back and you have a new job. That's how it works, you know.

Kate Young (06:56)
Exercise!

Yeah.

Carrie Casey (07:16)
Yeah,

you never, you're not allowed to do that. That's why you gotta do it before the meeting.

Lori Buxton (07:19)
No, I learned

the hard way. Yeah, yeah, I absolutely learned that the hard way.

Kate Young (07:25)
Yeah, I also

had similar stories. Well, at least in Texas. So the Texas Afterschool Association, I was their first ED. Same kind of thing. Now in Oklahoma, they tried to hire me for one job and I talked them into having an ED's position because I really didn't want to be an admin assistant. And so, well, and that was, you know, 22 years ago before people really worked remote.

Lori Buxton (07:32)
Yeah.

Well done you!

Yeah.

Kate Young (07:52)
And I lived

Lori Buxton (07:52)
Right.

Kate Young (07:53)
in Lawton, Oklahoma and the job was in Oklahoma City. And I went, how about you get two roles? You get a part-time admin who can stay in your office and then all come up three days a week and to work from home two days a week. yeah, so that was ⁓ Kelly Ramsey's first year as board chair with Oklahoma AYC. yeah, so it's the only time I actually asked for a job and wasn't.

Lori Buxton (08:09)
It's very creative thinking there.

Kate Young (08:21)
you know, like Carrie said, to the bathroom and came back and had a new position.

Lori Buxton (08:23)
See, look, see what I hear you saying.

Yeah, so what I hear you saying is that you were kind of on the, you were on the leading edge. You were an influencer in remote work well before any of us knew what that was.

Kate Young (08:36)
I I remote worked pretty much for over 30 years before it was a thing. so like my original cover letters all talk about the fact that I have a home-based office and that I am very used to this kind of work. because Carrie and I had our business had an office, I had a publishing company that had a traditional office. And then I had four kids.

Lori Buxton (08:41)
Nicely done.

Mm-hmm.

Nice.

Thank you.

Yeah, that changes things.

Kate Young (08:59)
and I

needed to figure out how to work around all their schedules and all their stuff. So it was just easier to do it that evening. yep.

Lori Buxton (09:04)
Yeah, sure. Sure.

Well, like I said, I really love this idea of conversations. Even when I teach and train, if I don't think of it, if I'm on a stage in front of 500,000 people or I'm sitting in a room with five people, for me, it's all a conversation. know, it's all...

Kate Young (09:24)
So you

mentioned when we were starting that NACCP started as a conversation. So tell us more about that.

Lori Buxton (09:27)
Yeah. it really did.

Absolutely. So, you know, back in 1984, a long, long time ago, before many of you were born, I know it makes me sad, but it is what it is. Yeah, you know, leaders did what leaders do. They, they, they realized, if you haven't realized this yet, ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you, you'll realize it really quick. You can't do this alone. It is a big job.

Carrie Casey (09:39)
Hahaha!

Lori Buxton (09:55)
And it's a big load on the shoulders and it's just not intended to be a solo sport. And so, you know, some leaders reached out to other leaders in their neighborhood and said, can we talk? You know, they needed, I don't know if you've ever gone home with to your significant other and described one of your days in a center and, and, and, and, and,

heard what their solutions to your problems are. I'm married to a ⁓ landscape general contractor. And when I first took this role and I started coming home with the stories you know we all have about, you're not even gonna believe what happened today. And ⁓ when I'd come home and tell him those stories, he goes, well, you know, you just need to get rid of them. I said, are you gonna be in the two year old room tomorrow? Because somebody has to be there. It's not as easy as saying bye, you know? And what, what...

What these leaders discovered who founded the organization is that we don't need to see each other and shouldn't see each other as competition. We really need to see and embrace the collaboration that when we have these conversations, the first thing we discover is that even though our stories sound crazy to other people, they make complete sense to us. also, get the kind of support that I think we need that

You know, there's not judgment, there's not ⁓ accusation, there's not any of those things. We just really get each other. And I have found in my life, whether it's in your personal life or professional world, when you can find somebody that gets you, that is one of the greatest gifts you can ever receive. Because the worst thing in the world is to feel like you're all alone in this and nobody understands. I think that is the shortest road to burnout.

And Lord knows that we need every one of us that has this calling, that has this heart and passion for this field to stay. They need to have what they need. They need to have the people they need, the resources they need, the phone of friends, all of the things so that on the days that are tough, they don't die of it. And on the days that are great, they have someone to celebrate them with. That really understands why we're celebrating.

Kate Young (12:07)
Absolutely,

you know mine would be who can I call because look I got the the toddler teacher to stay past lunch. Yay! yes and I mean

Lori Buxton (12:09)
Yeah!

Carrie Casey (12:16)
Yeah.

Lori Buxton (12:16)
I know, right? We said yes! ⁓

Carrie Casey (12:20)
They said yes to

the room, not yes to the dress. Yes to the room.

Kate Young (12:26)
I mean, absolutely.

Lori Buxton (12:26)
See, that's your next project right there. Yeah.

Kate Young (12:30)
Carrie and I have all kinds of stories related to significant other stories and clients we've worked with over the decades that we were like, look, because teaching director credentialing here in Texas for the last 24 years, we have a lot of stories that folks can tell us about. ⁓

Lori Buxton (12:35)
Sure.

yeah.

Kate Young (12:47)
you know, how their spouses responds or significant others or parents or siblings, right? you know, who, nobody ever really liked going home for the holidays because they want to ask you how your job is and you have to act like it's all okay. And meanwhile, you might've had a parent got mad at you because you're going to be closed and they want you and you want them to pay. I mean, it is that time of year. So, you know, in December, we always have parents who never understand

Lori Buxton (12:48)
Mm-hmm.

Sure.

⁓ We have.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kate Young (13:16)
why they need to pay. you know, as this is my one tidbit, maybe not my one, but it's the one I'm going to give right now, which is if you're listening to this and you're about to start January and you've got even one parent who doesn't understand, like Lori said, you know, sometimes people get into this field because they love children, but not because they necessarily understand the business aspect.

Lori Buxton (13:16)
Yeah

Mm-hmm.

Kate Young (13:40)
start

talking about your tuition as being annual tuition that the parents have the option to pay as 12 months or 52 weeks. And therefore, if they get a two week vacation, so do you. And I was very fortunate. I was actually one of Carrie's directors. had four locations and Carrie actually was super about this because everybody had a two week paid vacation and she decided for everybody in advance when that was going to be. And that went for the families and it went for the staff.

Lori Buxton (13:47)
Yes.

Aww.

Okay.

Kate Young (14:10)
and no parent ever. So I was the director of location number four and we never had a parent argue and we even took over a program and so it wasn't even like because they were raised with us, they weren't even raised with us and no but not a single parent ever complained when positioned as an annual tuition and that you know again during initial parent meetings how many of you have a vacation two weeks they would all raise their hand

Lori Buxton (14:10)
And go.

Yeah.

Right.

Thanks

Kate Young (14:38)
Right, here's when you're gonna be planning them.

Carrie Casey (14:41)
And

also, if, and you know, they could pay it in one lump sum, and they got one rate. If they wanted to pay it in 12 payments, this is what those 12 equal payments were. If they wanted to pay it in 50 increments, this is what the payment was. Now, very few people ever did the math and realized that if they paid in 50 payments, they were paying more than if they paid it in one. And if they asked me, I just said, well, is

Lori Buxton (15:07)
Sure.

It's a convenience.

Carrie Casey (15:11)
the milk cheaper

at 7-Eleven or at the grocery store. It is cheaper at the grocery store. And so if you want the cheapest price, pay me once. If you want the convenience, you have to pay a little bit more. And then they were like, oh, that makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. And I'm like,

Lori Buxton (15:16)
Right. You're paying a convenience fee.

Mm-hmm.

But you know what you did that I think a lot of people don't and you can apply it to this policy on vacation and tuition and you can apply it to a hundred other policies and procedures both internally and externally is that we don't tell people why we just say do this we say sign here do this follow that and we don't ever tell them why or what it's about or what it's for

Kate Young (15:48)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Lori Buxton (15:56)
And I think that's such a disservice, not only to them, but really to us, because we spend so much time arguing and convincing and retailing and retailing and retailing when you could just tell them, this is, this is what we do. This is why we do it this way. And, and then they have, then they're making an informed decision about whether they're cool with that. Right? If they don't like the way that you do business, have options, you know,

Carrie Casey (16:13)
Yeah.

for

instance, like when they enroll at your center and they have to write their name and address and phone number on 16 different things or enter it on the computer on 16 different things. And they, if you just say, no, no, no, you need to do these 16 different forms, then they don't understand. But if we say, this is the teacher, this is the classroom form, I can't, because of confidentiality, I can't tell them anything.

Lori Buxton (16:27)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Carrie Casey (16:51)
about your child's development. So I need you to put it here in the teacher form. And if you don't wanna give them your contact number so that they can't contact you, that's fine, we have it in the office. You don't have to put your contact information in the teacher form. You need to put your child's name and birth date. And everything else you put on there is what that teacher will know about your child's development.

Lori Buxton (17:05)
Sure. Yeah.

Yeah, basic information,

Carrie Casey (17:19)
I as the director or I as the owner cannot, you can tell me that your child was born with cerebral palsy and addicted to 47 different things, including, you know, hot rollers. And, ⁓ but I can't tell the teacher that this kid is a hot roller kid because I can only take confidential information up the chain of command and the teacher is down the chain of command. So if you want to let the teacher know that your kid gets hot rollers in their hair,

Lori Buxton (17:35)
Right, it's not mine to share.

Carrie Casey (17:49)
you have to tell them. I can't tell them. And they're like, ⁓ you're protecting my child's confidentiality. That's why I have to fill out one set of forms for the kitchen manager, because we're on the food program, and one set of forms for the teacher and one set of forms for the state and one for the school roster so that the parents can communicate with each other.

Lori Buxton (17:51)
Right.

⁓ huh.

Exactly.

Mm-hmm.

Yep, sure.

Carrie Casey (18:19)
about birthday parties.

Kate Young (18:20)
and the county health forms. So yeah, like right, like the list goes on and that's such a valid point, Carrie, is that sometimes we forget to tell people why. And if you think about that communication skill, that conversation skill that we want every leader to have, whether they are a classroom leader or a leader over multiple classrooms, or they are the director or even

Lori Buxton (18:21)
Yeah.

Carrie Casey (18:23)
Right.

Lori Buxton (18:23)
Right.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Kate Young (18:49)
head of parents or head of curriculum. Whatever leadership title we've given them, we expect them to communicate, but sometimes we forget some of the basics, which is why. And so, you know, I kind of feel like if a two-year-old is gonna ask you why, assume that that parent should have asked you why, and chances are your staff, if you don't tell them why, they're gonna make up their own decision on why you need that information.

Lori Buxton (18:58)
We do.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, in the

absence of information, make it up. And I just wonder, Carrie, how much time you saved from the other 25 conversations that would have happened because they didn't understand why, you know, or the aggravation and what have you that you saved by doing it that way. And, you know, never underestimate the opportunity to connect even through the business routine, what have you. If you have presence with that family, with that

parent, that grandparent, whomever they are, then you have an opportunity to create a meaningful connection with them that's going to support the relationship moving forward. So these are, it's more than just a, you know, a task to check off the list. It's an opportunity to be with that family and to connect. And so I think that, and you know, how much do they appreciate you taking the time to explain it? You know, rather than sit there aggravated because they have to fill out the same form 12 times.

Kate Young (20:12)
And

we've lost some of that as we've gone to more digital and everybody's filling out, I'm going to send you the email with all your forms, right? We've lost some of that there. ⁓ I've noticed fewer and fewer programs have parent boards and parent specific events. There's a lot of family events, but we have a tendency to kind of forget those parent events. when Carrie, I mean, now Carrie's vacation time, I will tell you that that theory

Lori Buxton (20:15)
Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kate Young (20:40)
saved so much agony over the years of those programs because I don't know, mean Lori, as a director I know you had to schedule vacations, right? Not only do you have your staff vacations but you got the parents going on vacation and the parents who don't think they should have to pay while they're on vacation and all of that. And now granted, Carrie's was entirely selfish because, so if you don't know Lori, Carrie and I are cousins and we have a, ⁓ sorry, surprise.

Lori Buxton (20:45)
sure.

Sure.

Mm-hmm. Right.

I did not know-

So many fun things

today.

Kate Young (21:09)
But one of the things that was is that for literally, I don't know, a century, our family has celebrated 4th of July in Wisconsin at this family farm. And so it's always the week of 4th of July. So when Carrie opened her first program when it was a registered family home, she was always closed the week of 4th of July. And she noticed the parents were always gone the week between Christmas and New Year. So there we go.

Lori Buxton (21:30)
Right.

Kate Young (21:37)
It was just decided. ⁓

Lori Buxton (21:40)
I'm good.

Carrie Casey (21:41)
I did

have conversations with parents before doing it and so many of the parents were like, yeah, we either get bonus time or we're scheduled off. So even the people working retail who didn't get the days off between Christmas and New Year's, they were getting paid time and a half and somebody in their family was available. So it might be me, ma, it might be, you know, whatever, but.

Lori Buxton (21:59)
Right.

That's I was going to say.

Carrie Casey (22:07)
They were like, yeah, we could probably, yeah, that week would probably be okay. So I did do some market research. wasn't just, I didn't on the July 4th. I was like, the July 4th is happening. But the other one I was like, should it be spring break or Christmas? And they were like, let's, know, Christmas, cause it's like six months. And it allowed people to accrue some more personal time off at their work if they needed that and all of that. But.

Lori Buxton (22:10)
Make that work. Yeah.

Yeah.

It's consistent, yeah.

Right.

Kate Young (22:32)
allowed the teachers and staff and especially the teachers and staff to come back with that sense of joy and one of the things that literally the whole time Carrie and I've been training that we've wanted folks to remember is that you have a unique opportunity in this job you get to play and you have the ability to play now a lot of

Lori Buxton (22:52)
You do.

Kate Young (22:55)
women and men and leadership in that role don't, right? Like we schedule ourselves down to the 15 minutes and we don't schedule in play-doh time. We don't schedule in infant snuggles. I think about how every, I mean, every director would be so much happier if they had every day at 10 30, they had to go snuggle some infant. Now, if you had to put me in a toddler room, we might have an issue.

Lori Buxton (23:05)
You're preaching not you're preaching my Simon girl

I mean... Replay! Mm-hmm. ⁓

Carrie Casey (23:17)
Okay.

Hey, it's...

Lori Buxton (23:21)
It's a sweet place

to visit, but I couldn't live there, no.

Carrie Casey (23:24)
No, no. Okay,

guys, here's the thing. When you're going into a toddler room, I suggest doing it when they're outside on the playground and bringing a spray bottle full of water. Because if you spray water on grass or even on, you know, AstroTurf, snails will just show up. I don't know where they were, but if you spray that little bit of water, the snails just show up and the toddlers are fascinated by those snails walking around.

Lori Buxton (23:52)
How

fun is that?

Carrie Casey (23:54)
And it's a real easy way to get some amazing time with toddlers is to get the snails and the roly-polies to come out.

Lori Buxton (24:00)
Okay,

noted.

Kate Young (24:03)
Can't you tell that Carrie was a toddler teacher,

Carrie Casey (24:05)
You

Lori Buxton (24:06)
Yep. Let

me just tell you that in my mind, toddler to teachers are gifts from heaven, straight from heaven. It is such a beautiful calling. Well, that's okay. That's all right. ⁓ You know, it takes, I think we're all a little crazy. That's what gives, that's why we're willing to play and to be silly and what have you. But I'm just telling you, that is, that is such a beautiful and very unique calling.

Carrie Casey (24:14)
No, we're just crazy.

Kate Young (24:30)
All right, so we can sit here and have this conversation all day with Lori, but Lori, why don't you take a few minutes and tell folks who are listening who maybe have only heard of AELL, like that you have a conference or I don't know, some webinars where like, I don't know, people like us are on. ⁓ cause I'm sure they've all heard that because that's appeared in our newsletter. ⁓ Tell them some other things that AELL offers other than one annual conference and some webinars, because there's a lot that you guys bring to.

Lori Buxton (24:35)
Yes.

Thank

Sure.

Yeah!

sure.

Right.

Kate Young (25:01)
as resources to the industry. There we go, that's the word I'm looking

Lori Buxton (25:01)
Yeah.

Right, words are hard. Yeah, and especially at the end of the day. So yes, and I'm so proud to have been a part of developing a lot of this. And what I love is because this was founded by directors, it always kind of has that director's heartbeat. And we don't wander too far from where we came from so that we can stay connected, have our ears and eyes tuned into what leaders need. And so,

We have, as you said, we have the national conference every year, typically in April. We go all over the country and it's about two in the, well, it's really a week for me, but three and a half days for everybody else ⁓ where we just come together and grow, connect and network and what have you. And I love that. It's a wonderful time.

But we also understand that not everybody can get away for a national conference. It's not feasible. They'll have the resources, they'll have the coverage, et cetera. And so in 2019, you mentioned our mutual friend, Tim Smith. We worked together with our board to create a regional training series for people that couldn't get out. But we wanted them to know the resources we have and the resource that we are. And so LEAD is a regional event where we go out and about.

kind of do it regionally and it's a Friday, half day, Saturday kind of thing. So people don't have to get it, you know, get a long time away from the office, out of work, don't have to go far. And it's a smaller group, which I'll tell you, I wasn't sure how it was going to go. You know, when you start something, you throw in spaghetti at the glass to see what sticks, but this has been so special for us because I think when you come together in a smaller collective, you have different kinds of conversations.

You know, you're able to kind of take a deeper dive. You're able to talk more specifically to what's going on in your world, what's going on in your schools, you know, how we can meet those needs, how we can support those needs and what have you. And it has just become our favorite. I love conference and I always love conference. You know, it's where I found, you know, that's how I found this association. But I got to tell you, I love me some lead. It is, ⁓

and with some groups it's we've had as you know as many as 100 125 and sometimes we have 20 and the the dynamic is so good because again they're coming together with people in their neighborhood which is nice you know because like i said we need to move past the competition thinking and move into the collaborative space because if we all showed up with the best stuff we had on every day of every week we still couldn't meet all the need

So we need to lock arms and we need to lock hearts and support our communities and raise good humans, you know, in our schools. And so, you know, and that's what we try to make possible. So through LEAD, we're able to do that in kind of micro groups. And a lot of times that's the first time people have heard about us. They're like, this is our first event. And then that will lead them to find other resources. Like we have a national accreditation platform.

that is on par with Nacy Nechpa or anybody else. And we are recognized all over the United States. And one of the things I think that makes us unique is that our approach is we. You know, it's not you going, it's not you're going through accreditation or self study. It's we're going through it. Our team is there to support. We support with support teachers and helping them understand the why of accreditation and elevating standards so that it's not just the owner.

or the director saying we're gonna do this, we want them to have the buy-in and we support those leaders in getting it. So we are very much a we ⁓ on accreditation. So if you are accredited through another agency, I encourage you to check us out when you come up for renewal. If you're currently accredited with us, then you know what I'm talking about. And if you have not done accreditation and wanna know more, please ask because that, to me,

minimum is never going to be good enough. The standards that the states require or regionals, you know, whatever the makeup is in your particular state, that's what, that's the bare minimum that we do to stay open. For any child, minimum is not enough. We need to always be elevating, always be improving. And so that's what accreditation does. And then of course we have the webinars where my friends are frequent guests and bless us with all their knowledge and their wit and their passion.

Carrie Casey (29:22)
Now.

Kate Young (29:25)
Absolutely.

you

Lori Buxton (29:37)
And we have kind of a special event every January. Yeah. It's called the Executive Invitational Series. And it is designed for owners and executive leaders in early education. it really, that's also conversations. People having conversations about what's going on 100,000 feet because...

Kate Young (29:43)
Okay.

Lori Buxton (30:01)
If you, you know, we've been teachers in classrooms, we've been directors and we've worked for other people, et cetera. And I've got to tell you that we need our owners to be equipped. We need those executives to be well-rounded so that they can support the work we're doing in schools. And that's what the purpose of that event is, is we bring in business experts, leadership experts that support the work that happens way up here to make sure that policies are right, that best practices are in place.

Kate Young (30:10)
Mm-hmm.

Lori Buxton (30:29)
that resources are available, all those things to support strong, healthy early education programs.

we are always looking at ways that we can bring things online. We have great relationships with vendors that offer discounts to our schools to ensure that they have the very best in resources.

We have great relationships with other agencies that can support growth and development, both of your skills as well as your business practices. We have good friends like you guys that come alongside and partner with us to make sure that every leader is fully equipped, fully empowered, and inspired to do this. Whatever their race is, I don't want us to get through the finish line.

just dragging our tired, weary bodies. I wanna run through the finish line with my hair on fire, you know? And I wanna support every leader to do the same. I think that this is such a unique and incredible calling on our lives. And I just, breaks my heart when I see somebody burn out. And that's probably my underlying motivation.

Kate Young (31:33)
Absolutely.

Well.

Carrie Casey (31:37)
Well, on that note, I don't think we can end on anything that is more of a, we all three agree on that. And that is why we do what we do here at Child Care Conversations and why we do what we do at ECE NAC. And that's why we do what we do in all of these places. So if you enjoyed this show, if you got something you need to share with someone else, please go ahead and share the show. ⁓

Lori Buxton (31:44)
This is really funny.

Yeah. Yep.

Yes.

Carrie Casey (32:06)
or subscribe or follow whatever it's called on your podcast player of choice. Remember, you can see our silly faces on YouTube if you would like to. ⁓ And if there's a message you need to get to AELL, you can go into the show notes and ⁓ email the show or text the show, sorry, text the show. And we will get that over to Lori and her team over at AELL. And remember to come out

Lori Buxton (32:30)
I it. Yes.

Carrie Casey (32:36)
Go to those conferences, whether it's the regional ones or the national ones, and go find your people. Go find your people. We'll talk to you in a few days.

Lori Buxton (32:39)
Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Bye bye.