Family Resource Center earns accreditation

After a year of meetings and reports, not to mention pounds of paperwork, the Family Resource Center has earned accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
“We had been accredited two times prior to this,” said Becky Stahl, director of early childhood services at The Center.
However, she added, the NAEYC recently reinvented the whole accreditation process.
“Let’s just say that this was a lot more work,” Stahl said. “We are among the first in the nation to be accredited under this new system.”
NAEYC now deals with programs for children from birth to age 5, so no evaluation was done of The Center’s programs for school-age children.
The  early childhood programs were  judged on 10 new NAEYC program standards in the areas of relationships, curriculum, teaching, assessment of the child’s progress, health, teachers, families, community relationships, the physical environment and leadership and management.
Within these 10 standards were 330 criteria covering a wide range of issues.
“I think my favorite one of the criteria was about integrated pest control,” said Monica Murnan, The Center director. “Yes, we do have an integrated pest control program.”
“I spent a year working on this accreditation and leading the whole staff through,” Stahl said. “This meant monthly staff meetings with lead teachers, assistants and providers. We talked about what we were doing right, and what we could improve on.”
She had to create a program portfolio — which came out to be around six inches thick — and every classroom teacher had to do a classroom portfolio.
“In the portfolio we had to show that we were meeting the criteria,” Stahl said.
The more than 90 staff members dealing with early childhood programs had to have four hours of instruction in working with special needs children, culturally sensitive areas, child behavior and working together as a team.
Final step in the accreditation process was an on-site visit.
“A woman from New Jersey, who’s employed by NAEYC to do evaluations, spent several days here,” Stahl said. “She went through all the class portfolios, did a one-hour observation in each preschool classroom, then met with the teacher afterward.”
After three months of waiting, the good news came that The Center had earned accreditation.
“We received 100 percent or better in seven of the 10 standards,” Stahl said. “We were able to score above 100 percent in some standards because there were emerging criteria that we could choose to meet or not, and we chose to meet some of them.”
Only about 8 percent of all preschools, child care centers and other early childhood programs are accredited.
“The Center’s NAEYC Accreditation is a sign that they are a leader in a national effort to invest in high-quality early childhood education, and to help give all children a better start,” said Mark Ginsberg, Ph.D., NAEYC executive director.
“The whole accreditation process was really a time for reflection, growth and change,” Stahl said. “Our entire staff met it head-on and responded to the challenge. I’m really proud of them. They know the importance of their jobs and are constantly working to make The Center a great place for kids.”