Idania Barrera is teacher in the KHIT program who brings years of hands-on experience caring for children. Before entering the early childhood education field professionally, she spent many years as a trusted neighborhood babysitter, providing care for numerous families, especially single parents.

Idania and her husband have been happily married for 24 years and have raised six children—two girls and four boys. Their family lived in the Sacramento area for many years before moving to East Palo Alto in 2022. Her youngest children, twin boys, graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School.

Idania enjoyed completing the WestEd Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC) and plans to continue her education for as long as God allows. She is passionate about learning and believes that understanding child development can make a tremendous difference in the lives of children and families. Looking back, she often says that if she had known then what she knows now about early childhood education, parenting would have been much easier. She believes every high school senior would benefit from taking an early childhood education course.

In her spare time, Idania enjoys spending time with her family, thrift shopping, caring for her plants, and relaxing with a good romantic movie.