Mini Santosh

Child Care Director, Action Early Learning Center, Danbury, Connecticut

Mini Santosh spends her days overseeing a staff of 40 and the early learning and engagement of 153 children, 18 months to 6 years old. The NAEYC-accredited Action Early Learning Center is part of the Community Action Agency of Western Connecticut, which provides services to families with lower incomes and to the under-resourced area.  

Mini’s days are busy. Still, she spends an additional 20 hours each week advocating for early childhood educators and the greater Danbury community. “What I do for five days a week, I enjoy. But for up to 20 hours, I do advocacy. I reach out to everyone.” Mini received a citation in 2021 from the Connecticut State General Assembly for her outreach efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was named a Hometown Hero in 2022 by the United Way of Western Connecticut. Here are excerpts from a recent conversation. 

You’re known as an advocate for early education. How does that impact the families in your community and center? 

My advocacy work begins with a focus on children. During the pandemic, a lot of federal funding came our way. We were able to provide iPads for all our children and computers for our teachers so that learning could continue. We became a distribution center for cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment. All our staff were vaccinated before the state mandated it, and we had Zoom meetings with families to keep them updated and to encourage them to get vaccinated. We said, “Your children are safe with us, but they’re going home to you. We want to make sure we’re safe when they come back to us.” To help, we opened a vaccination clinic on site. We had an unbelievable response: over 100 families stopped by and got vaccinated. 

When I started reaching out, I realized my voice and my actions can lead to positive actions for young children. So I said, “Let’s do more of this.” I participated in the Day of Action (where people around Connecticut volunteered) and A Day Without Child Care (where child care programs closed for a day to show policymakers how essential they are). I coordinated the Early Childhood Community Fair in 2022 to bring together early childhood educators, families, business owners, and interested community members to talk about the child care crisis in our state. I found my voice, and I found that people are listening. 

What do you see as early childhood education’s most pressing issues right now? 

Improving compensation is very important. That’s why we’re losing our workforce. We’re competing with employers who are able to pay more. But increasing wages could negatively impact early learning programs that are state-funded and have not received an increase in reimbursements. How do you pay your staff without burdening families? Seventy-five percent of our families are below the state median income.  

The field needs more systemic supports. We need more investment! It’s important to organize the collective voice. During the Day of Action, we discussed with state senators and assembly representatives the need for a legislative council to convene to study the child care crisis in Connecticut and create legislation to support accessibility and affordability along with increasing the wages of the workforce. 

How did you learn about NAEYC? 

Action Early Learning Center receives state funding, and programs like ours will not qualify for certain funding unless we’re NAEYC-accredited. That’s how it started. But when I took a deep dive to understand NAEYC as an early childhood educator, I loved it. NAEYC helped me understand that our relationships with children will help them feel safe, allowing them to participate in engaging activities and learn. NAEYC helped me understand developmental milestones. “The Code of Ethical Conduct” is excellent—I bring it to every meeting. I say, “Hey, do we meet this?” 

NAEYC created an evolution in the early childhood education field. There’s a wealth of knowledge and resources available to early childhood educators, birth to age 8. There are benchmarks and developmental milestones to be met.  

You’ve served the early learning community for over 30 years. What brought you to early childhood education? 

I immigrated when I was 30 years old. I had been teaching in a Montessori school in India, but when I landed in this beautiful land, I stayed home with my son. One of the struggles was to find a child care provider. A quality provider. An affordable provider. So I said, “Let’s dive in.” I landed at Action Early Learning Center as a part-time assistant, but I had credentials. After two or three years, I became licensed to be a lead teacher in preschool in Connecticut. I was promoted to lead teacher and was also helping with administrative duties. I slowly transitioned into an administrative role. When the director left, the center needed someone to be the “driver of that bus.” It was a great opportunity, and I love what I do! 

What is it about this field that resonates with you? 

Little children and their perspectives about the world—it’s beautiful. That’s what attracted me. I come from a family of educators who wanted me to be an engineer or a doctor. And I did head in that direction but dropped out of engineering school. I preferred to go to school to become a teacher. My faith always guides me in what I do. This is what I was called for. My heart is here. 

What’s ahead for you? 

I want to see the system change. I want to sit at the table and on panels and be part of these conversations. I want to find ways to fix the system. I want to stay connected to this industry that I always say I was called for. 

Photographs: courtesy of Mini Santosh
Copyright © 2023 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. See Permissions and Reprints online at NAEYC.org/resources/permissions.

Copyright © 2023 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. See Permissions and Reprints online at NAEYC.org/resources/permissions.