Caroline Chequim is a 2025-2026 Teach Plus Illinois Early Childhood Educator Policy Fellow and Child Development Associate at the Early Child Development Laboratory at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. She supports the implementation of developmentally appropriate practices for toddlers and collaborates with colleagues to create inclusive, play-based learning environments. Caroline worked for more than 15 years as a special education teacher in public schools in Brazil. She also taught in teacher training programs focused on inclusive education and specialized support for students with special needs and helped develop the pedagogical proposal for special education schools in Porto Alegre, Brazil (2021–2022). Caroline earned her BA in special education and her MA in education, with a focus on special education, from the Federal University of Santa Maria in Brazil.
