At Hannibal High School, we've had the Child Care class for 31 years. Mrs. Estes founded the program to help students learn to work with young children and get their Child Development Associate credentials. In child care, we work hands on with children 3 days of the week and learn how to connect to them. We learn how to understand their needs and plan activities for their developmental skills (large motor, small motor, sensory, art, etc). We also learn first aid and become certified in CPR. Child care is a great opportunity for students to build their career path, and we get embedded credits for our other core classes. In child care, we can get our CDA and start our career right out of high school. Next year, Mrs. Estes is retiring, and the school wants to completely get rid of the child care class. They want to replace it with a class that teaches students how to be teachers, but they get no hands on experience with children. This will crush the chances of students getting their CDA, and making it extremely hard for students that are currently working towards it or students who want to work towards it. To get your CDA, you have to have a certain amount of hours working at a daycare, and 120 hours of classroom learning. Unfortunately, not all places can get students their 120 mandatory hours of classroom education. With this class, it makes it so much easier to start your career and life. For students who are in their first year of child care, they won't be able to take it again next year, and have spent a whole year working toward their CDA for no reason. There would be no motivation for us to keep doing good in class if we can't get our credentials. This petition is to keep the child care class alive and well at HHS, and if we need a teaching class, we can give the option for either/or.