ADE Summit 2026

Arkansas is currently in a CLASS pilot year.  As Local Leads, part of our job is to go into all publicly funded classrooms, provide a CLASS assessment, and support programs in building positive, meaningful interactions. The four presenters for this season have collectively completed more than 150 CLASS observations in the last year and a half across infant, toddler, and pre-K settings.

We started noticing the same pattern over and over: teachers are working hard during large group, centers, and small group time to build relationships, model language, and support problem-solving. But mealtimes and snack times — which easily take 30 to 45 minutes of a child’s day — are often treated as “get through it” moments instead of intentional interaction time. That is a huge missed opportunity for building connections, positive interactions, concept development, scaffolding, and language modeling. “What’s on the Menu? Interactions!” is designed to change that.