Augusta Health Childcare Center earns national NAEYC accreditation

The Augusta Health Childcare Center has earned accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)- the world’s largest organization working on behalf of young children.

NAEYC Accreditation is a rigorous and transformative quality-improvement system that uses a set of 10 research-based standards to collaborate with early education programs to recognize and drive quality-improvement in high-quality early learning environments. “Our goal has always been to provide high-quality child care for Augusta Health employees and other members of our community,” said Renee Anschutz, the center’s education coordinator. “We are proud to now be recognized for our commitment by reaching the highest professional standards through NAEYC.”

The Augusta Health Childcare Center became managed by the international early education company Bright Horizons Family Solutions in late 2014, at which point the center began the NAEYC accreditation process at the request of Augusta Health. Both Augusta Health and Bright Horizons acknowledge how important early childhood development is, and strive to provide a safe, nurturing and engaging environment where children can learn and develop to their full potential.

To earn NAEYC Accreditation, the Augusta Health Childcare Center went through an extensive self-study and quality-improvement process, followed by an on-site visit by NAEYC Assessors to verify and ensure that the program met each of the ten program standards and hundreds of corresponding individual criteria. NAEYC-accredited programs are always prepared for unannounced quality-assurance visits during their accreditation term, which lasts for five years.

In the 30 years since NAEYC Accreditation was established, it has become a widely recognized sign of high-quality early childhood education. More than 7,000 programs are currently accredited by NAEYC- less than 10 percent of all childcare centers, preschools, and kindergartens nationally achieve this recognition.

“NAEYC- Accredited programs bring our definitions of excellence for early childhood education to life each day,” said Kristen Johnson, senior director of Early Learning Program Accreditation at NAEYC. “Earning NAEYC Accreditation makes the Augusta Health Childcare Center an exemplar of good practice for families and the entire community.”

For more information about Bright Horizons at Augusta Health Childcare center, visit their website [email protected].