In order to qualify, you must meet the general and/or specialized experience requirements described in the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Qualification Standards for General Schedule Clerical and Administrative Support Positions.

FOR CONSIDERATION AT THE GS-05 LEVEL

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: Applicants must have at least one (1) year of specialized experience at the next lower grade GS-04, or equivalent in other pay systems. Examples of specialized experience include knowledge of an extensive body of child development program rules and procedures requiring extended training and experience to plan and perform a wide variety of interrelated child care assignments and resolve a wide range of problems; knowledge of early child development theory, methodology, and practices relating to physical, intellectual, social, and nutritional development to effectively interact with the children and design and implement activity plans and specialized programs depending on the individual needs of the child; knowledge of Child Development Center procedures to ensure processes such as receiving children from parents; maintaining accurate count of children, and seeing children home at the end of the day are properly carried out, and to ensure established procedures for preventing, treating, and reporting all child injury, illness, and/or abuse are adhered to; ability to promote and foster effective working relationships with others to interact effectively and appropriately with the children and ensure effective communication with parents; ability to communicate effectively and be an effective role model to provide technical guidance and leadership to lower graded employees.

OR EDUCATION: Successful completion 4-years of education above the high school level, in any field for which high school graduation or the equivalent is the normal prerequisite, obtained in an accredited business, secretarial or technical school, junior college, college or university. NOTE: you must submit a copy of your transcripts.

OR COMBINATION OF EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION: A combination of post high-school education in excess of the first 60 semester hours (i.e., beyond the second year) and experience may be used to qualify for this position as long as the computed percentage of the requirements is at least 100%. NOTE: You must submit copies of your transcripts.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES (KSAs): Your qualifications will be evaluated on the basis of your level of knowledge, skills, abilities and/or competencies in the following areas:

• Knowledge of training in Early Childhood Education
• Knowledge of Child Development Center Regulations, procedures, programs, processes and operations
• Knowledge of early child development theory, methodology, and practices relating to physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development.
• Ability to ensure the safety and hygiene of children through constant supervision, effective arrangement of space, and proper management of equipment.
• Ability to develop creative and innovative activity and special program plans
• Ability to promote and foster effective working relationships with others and to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
• Ability to gather, maintain and compile pertinent data

FOR CONSIDERATION AT THE GS-06 LEVEL:

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: Applicants must have at least one year of specialized experience at the next lower grade GS-05, or equivalent in other pay systems.

FOR CONSIDERATION AT THE GS-07 LEVEL:

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE FOR INTERNAL CANDIDATES: Applicants must have at least one year of specialized experience at the next lower grade GS-05, or equivalent in other pay systems.

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE FOR EXTERNAL CANDIDATES: Applicants must have at least one year of specialized experience at the next lower grade GS-06, or equivalent in other pay systems. Examples of specialized experience include comprehensive knowledge of child development program rules and procedures extending training and experience to plan and perform a wide variety of interrelated childcare assignments and resolve a wide range of problems. Extensive knowledge of early child development theory, methodology and practices relating to physical, intellectual, social and nutritional development to effectively interact with the children and adapt activities from OSD approved curricula as necessary for the individual needs of the child. Knowledge of child development program procedures to ensure processes such as receiving children from parents, maintaining accurate count of children, seeing children home at the end of the day are properly carried out. Ensure established procedures for preventing, treating and reporting all child injury, illness and/or abuse and neglect are adhered to.

OR EDUCATION: 1 year of graduate-level education from an accredited college or university which is directly related to the work of the position. NOTE: you must submit a copy of your transcripts.

OR COMBINATION OF EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION: A combination of graduate-level education and experience may be used to qualify for this position as long as the computed percentage of the requirements is at least 100%. NOTE: You must submit copies of your transcripts.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES (KSAs): Your qualifications will be evaluated on the basis of your level of knowledge, skills, abilities and/or competencies in the following areas:

• Knowledge of early childhood education, as well as practical knowledge of elementary education/youth development, or related field to promote and foster effective working relationships with children.
• Knowledge of physical, intellectual, social, emotional and nutritional stages of development of young children in applying basic child development principles, concepts and practices.
• Knowledge of comprehensive child development requirements, policies, procedures, and processes.
• Knowledge of appropriate early childhood guidance, practices, techniques and programs to include safety and security regulations, practices, and procedures.
• Skill in communicating factual and procedural information clearly, orally and in writing.
• Ability to ensure the safety and hygiene of children through constant supervision, effective arrangement or space and proper management of equipment.
• Ability to analyze, plan, and adjust work operations of one or more organizational segments to meet program requirements and objectives within available resources.
• Ability to promote and foster effective working relationships with others and to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
• Ability and skill to lead subordinate employees and foster effective working relationship with others

FEDERAL TIME-IN-GRADE (TIG) REQUIREMENT FOR GENERAL SCHEDULE (GS) POSITIONS: Merit promotion applicants must meet applicable time-in-grade requirements to be considered eligible. One year at the GS-05 level is required to meet the time-in-grade requirements for the GS-06 level. INTERNAL CANDIDATES: One year at the GS-05 level is required to meet the time-in-grade requirements for the GS-07 level. EXTERNAL CANDIDATES: One year at the GS-06 level is required to meet the time-in-grade requirements for the GS-07 level. TIG applies if you are in a current GS position or held a GS position within the previous 52 weeks. NOTE: Applicants applying as VEOA candidates who are current GS civil service employees or are prior GS civil service employees within the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements.