What is COS Classroom Foundations?
COS Classroom Foundations is a comprehensive online professional development course that delivers directly to professionals strategies that support secure relationships in early childhood care and learning settings. By offering a new lens to educators, the focus shifts from finding ways to manage difficult behavior in search of compliance, to relationship-building that promotes well-being. Educators learn to apply Circle of Security strategies to daily classroom interactions, challenging behaviors, and transitions.
Educators complete COS Classroom Foundations for foundational understanding, then connect with trained COS Classroom Coaches for ongoing support applying concepts with specific children and classroom challenges.
Benefits for Educators
- Effective strategies to teach children emotion regulation
- Strengthen educator-student relationships
- Reduce stress and increase job satisfaction
- Skills to respond to challenging behaviors
- Recognize behavioral expressions of stress and trauma
Benefits for Children
- Promotes children's sense of belonging and connection
- Reduces stress of morning transitions
- Builds lifelong regulation skills with the help of trusted adults
- Increases confidence in learning
- Decreases challenging behaviors and increases prosocial behaviors
Those interested in training to be a COS Classroom Coach can learn more here.
How does COS Classroom Foundations work?
COS Classroom Foundations provides 6 hours of video content plus a comprehensive workbook, totaling 9-12 hours of learning that educators complete at their own pace over 6 months. Participants receive individual login credentials and earn 1.2 IACET CEUs (12 clock hours) upon completion.
Program Details:
- Investment: $250 per individual learner
- Access Duration: 6 months from enrollment
- Total Learning Time: 9-12 hours estimated completion
- Credentials: 1.2 IACET CEUs (12 clock hours)
- Format: Self-paced online modules with progress tracking
Early care and learning professionals can engage individually during prep time, in small groups with colleagues, or as whole staff professional development while maintaining individual accounts.
Why is attachment science important for educators?
First relationships with educators provide foundational experiences that shape children's capacity for lifelong learning, emotion regulation, and social connection. These early classroom relationships become the template for how children approach learning, handle challenges, and form future connections at school.
When teachers understand attachment science, they are able to create secure classroom environments where children feel safe to both seek connection and also to explore and develop essential social-emotional competencies. Research shows children with secure educator relationships demonstrate enhanced emotional regulation, improved social skills, greater learning confidence, increased resilience, and stronger foundations for future relationships.
For young children, relationships in early care settings may be the first important relationship they have with someone outside of their home. The Circle of Security recognizes the role of an educator extends beyond instruction—they serve as attachment figures who profoundly impact a child's developmental trajectory through relationship quality.
What will I learn in COS Classroom Foundations?
The course helps educators understand how to apply attachment theory to group care settings, focusing on relationship-building strategies that support individual children's needs and classroom-wide social-emotional learning. COS Classroom also engages the ancestral wisdom of educators in a reflective process that taps into the wisdom of a committed educator to find caring ways to make a difference.
Core Learning Components:
(COS Classroom Workbook)
Understand Your Role as an Attachment Figure
- Recognize how educator relationships shape lifelong learning capacity
- Build security through consistent, responsive classroom relationships
Behavior Translation Skills
- Move from "What's wrong with this child?" to "What is this child communicating?"
- Understand challenging behaviors as expressions of attachment needs
Relationship-Based Teaching Strategies
- Teach children emotion regulation through adequate experiences of co-regulation
- Create environments that promote safety and belonging
Self-Reflection and "Shark Music" Awareness
- Recognize your triggers and responses to children's behaviors
- Develop strategies to stay emotionally available during challenging moments
Repairing Relationships and Building Security
- Learn "time-in" approaches rather than exclusionary discipline
- Understand individual children's "limited circles" and responsive strategies
Cultural Responsibility and Practice
- Approach problem solving with curiosity rather than judgement
- Identify the universal needs of all children on the Circle of Security as expressed in a unique way by each child
Continuing Education Units (CEUs)
Circle of Security International, Inc. is accredited by the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and awards IACET Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for its learning events that meet the ANSI/IACET Continuing Education and Training Standard. IACET is internationally recognized as both a standards development organization and an accrediting body dedicated to advancing quality in continuing education and training. Rather than earning seat time, our courses focus on competency-based instruction that include assessments to measure learning outcomes.
| Course | CEUs | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| COS Classroom Foundations Course | 1.2 IACET units | 12 clock hours |
| COS Classroom Coach Training | 4.0 IACET units | 40 clock hours |
Frequently Asked Questions
COS Classroom Foundations includes approximately 6 hours of video content plus workbook activities, totaling 9-12 hours. Teachers work at their own pace with 6 months of course access.
Yes, COS Classroom Foundations offers complete flexibility—teachers can engage individually, in small groups, or as whole teams while maintaining individual logins and progress for assignments and certificates.
There is no prerequisite. COS Classroom Foundations course is included in the coach training that also features a coaches addition with additional learning to deepen your understanding of the attachment science that makes the Circle of Security model of change so powerful.
Yes, participants earn 1.2 IACET CEUs (12 clock hours) upon completion, meeting professional development requirements for early childhood educators.
COS Classroom Foundations focuses specifically on the attachment relationship between educator and child as the foundation for all learning. Rather than teaching discrete social-emotional skills, this approach helps children develop internal capacity for regulation and connection through secure relationships with teachers.
Circle of Security Classroom isn’t meant to replace your classroom curricula, but rather it’s foundational and leads to the success of other curriculum. To say this another way, can you imagine trying to make any curriculum work in the classroom if you don’t have secure attachment as a foundation with children? When children feel held in a safe and secure relationship, you can’t stop them from learning and developing lifelong capacities.
Many classroom models tend to assume that there’s a secure relationship with the teacher. We know that’s not always true. In fact, many early care professionals come from histories of trauma, and may struggle to trust that relationships are safe. And many children come with a history that makes it difficult for them to trust adults.
The overall goal of Circle of Security Classroom is to enhance or even develop security in relationships between teachers and children. It’s hard for any classroom program to work if teachers and children don’t trust the relationship.
COS Classroom Foundations creates positive outcomes for both children and educators by transforming classroom relationships and supporting teacher wellbeing through deeper understanding of attachment dynamics.
Benefits for Children:
- Enhanced emotional regulation and self-control
- Improved social skills and peer relationships
- Greater confidence in learning and academic exploration
- Increased resilience when facing challenges
- Stronger foundation for future teacher relationships
- Sense of confidence that their educator is in change and can keep them safe
Benefits for Teachers:
- Reduced stress
- Increased job satisfaction
- Practical tools for managing challenging classroom dynamics.
- Increased confidence
- Less burnout
- Strengthened parent relationships
- More feelings of being appreciated
- Increased resilience
COSI hosts an active registry of COS Classroom Coaches who have completed the specialized training as well as maintained annual continuing education requirements for endorsement. Once educators and centers complete the online Classroom training, they have access to the registry to contact a coach and inquire about their services. Endorsed COS Classroom Coaches and Educators enter independently into a coaching agreement. COSI serves as a third party to connect interested educators with qualified coaches.
COS Classroom Foundations is currently available in English only. We are exploring translation opportunities for future releases.
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