The Plattsmouth Early Childhood Center exists for one reason: to give every child the best possible start.
We partner with families — because we believe parents are a child's first and most important teachers. From prenatal services through Pre-K, PEC wraps children and the people who love them in support that's intentional, comprehensive, and deeply community-rooted. Whatever your child needs to grow — socially, emotionally, academically, physically — we're here for all of it.
Our programs include center-based full-day Preschool through Head Start and tuition-based enrollment, Birth to 5 Home-Based Special Education services through the Early Development Network, and Early Head Start and Sixpence prenatal and Birth to 3 services. Every program is grounded in hands-on, developmentally appropriate learning — structured enough to build real skills, flexible enough to honor how each child learns best.
Small group time, large group experiences, purposeful play, and family-style meals aren't just components of our day. They're how children build curiosity, confidence, self-regulation, and a love of learning that follows them into kindergarten and beyond.
We're looking forward to working with your family.
Mission
To create a foundation for success through creative, interactive, and intentional experiences that build safe and positive relationships, develop independent problem-solvers, and foster each child's learning potential while displaying empathy, tolerance, and appreciation of differences.
Plattsmouth Early Childhood Program Vision
Students who attend the Plattsmouth Early Childhood program will have effective social skills that allow them to accept others, be cooperative, and appropriately accommodate individual needs and perspectives. Our students will be able to recognize problems as well as identify and persistently work towards solutions. They will be creative, flexible, and critical thinkers who inquire about the world around them. Students will be independent and dedicated to ongoing learning and recognize the importance of doing things to the best of their ability.
Plattsmouth Early Childhood Program Belief Statements
We believe:
Each child has the ability to enthusiastically learn and apply knowledge across a variety of new situations to achieve success.
Promoting independence through developmentally appropriate, structured, safe, and nurturing environments based on children’s interests is essential for learning.
Children learn by and gain independence by exploring with hands-on learning activities that inspire curiosity.
The collaborative efforts of students’ home, family, school, and community are essential for success.
Approaches to learning should include balanced comprehensive services focusing on the whole child.
Balancing child-directed and teacher-directed instruction, that includes all domains of learning is important for student learning.
Children have a variety of languages in which to express ideas and need open-ended materials to express their languages.
Children are capable of accommodating and accepting individual needs and perspectives while using social skills to solve problems and self-regulate.
Providing structured opportunities and environments that allow children to make discoveries, solve problems, and challenge creative thinking is essential to an effective early childhood learning experience.
Intentional, aligned, and systematic learning opportunities provide an effective foundation for children.
Monitoring of progress and differentiating instruction is important for developing individual students to their full potential.
It is important for children to develop secure, safe, and trusting relationships through positive interactions.