Seekng a High Quality Child Care Program

ABC Academy has always strived to provide a high quality program for the families that we serve. We utilize the Program Assessment Tool (PQA) to assess each of our classrooms to help guide our staff in our quest to provide a high quality program. Approximately ten years ago we challenged ourselves to strive for higher quality standards and elected to become a NAEYC Accreditation Applicant. Collectively our teaching teams worked very hard gathering evidence of their performance and making improvements to ready our programs for the validators visit, achieving our goal of becoming an accredited program.  Programs maintain their accredited status through annual reporting to the National Association for the Education of Young Children and must reapply every five years. During that time they must complete the full accreditation process; Enrollment in Self- Study; Becoming an Applicant; Becoming a Candidate; and finally demonstrating to a validator that the center meets the NAEYC Program Standards. Recently our Laurence St. center was approved for Candidacy for Accreditation by NAEYC.  This location had completed the accreditation process five years ago, maintaining accredited status during this period. It is now time for the center to reapply for accreditation. During the past five year period NAEYC has restructured the guidelines set to become an Accredited Program or to maintain the status as one. The NAEYC Governing Board brought together a panel of national experts in early childhood education, curriculum, early childhood special education, family involvement, leadership and administration and child health. Their task was to develop explicit early childhood program standards and researched based accreditation criteria to establish the measure of quality for the reinvented accreditation system. Many of the criteria had changed in the process. Our agency has spent the past several months collecting evidence to demonstrate that it meets the ten standards and accreditation criteria set by NAEYC under the new accreditation process.

Standard 1: Relationships

Program Standard: The program promotes positive relationships among all children and adults to encourage each child’s sense of individual worth and belonging as part of a community and to foster each child’s ability to contribute as a responsible community member.

Standard 2: Curriculum

Program Standard: The program implements a curriculum that is consistent with its goals for children and promotes learning and development in each of the following areas: social, emotional, physical, language and cognitive.

Standard 3: Teaching

Program Standard: The program uses developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate and effective teaching approaches that enhance each child’s learning and development in the context of the program’s curriculum goals.

Standard 4: Assessment of Child Progress

Program Standard: The program is informed by ongoing systematic, formal, and informal assessment approaches to provide information on children’s learning and development. These assessments occur within the context of reciprocal communications with families and with sensitivity to the cultural contexts in which children develop. Assessment results are used to benefit children by informing sound decisions about children, teaching and program improvement.

Standard 5: Health

Program Standard: The program promotes the nutrition and health of children and protects children and staff from illness and injury.

Standard 6: Teachers

Program Standard: The program employs and supports a teaching staff that has the educational qualifications, knowledge, and professional commitment necessary to promote children’s learning and development and to support families’ diverse needs and interests.

Standard 7: Families

Program Standard: The program establishes and maintains collaborative relationships with each child’s family to foster children’s development in all settings. These relationships are sensitive to family composition, language, and culture.

Standard 8: Community Relationships

Program Standard: The program establishes relationships with and uses the resources of the children’s communities to support the achievement of program goals.

Standard 9: Physical Environment

Program Standard: The program has a safe and healthful environment that provides appropriate and well-maintained indoor and outdoor physical environments. The environments include facilities, equipment, and materials to facilitate child and staff learning and development.

Standard 10: Leadership and Management

Program Standard: The program effectively implements policies, procedures, and systems that support stable staff and strong personnel, fiscal, and program management so all children, families, and staff have high-quality experiences.

As we wait for our visit from the NAEYC validator and learn if we have successfully demonstrated that our program meets the new standards to retain our accreditation status we are certain that setting standards for high quality will help many more people recognize the value of early childhood education.

Kathy Hoszkiw is the owner of ABC Academy and a founding member of Jackson's Great Start Collaborative.

Jackson County Prenatal Task Force

The Jackson County Prenatal Task Force (PNTF) was created in 2003 as an ongoing partnership between local health and human services groups and individuals, to function as the Action Team for the Jackson County Fetal Infant Mortality Review Team.  The mission statement of the PNTF is: “We empower women and families to make healthier choices for themselves and their babies before, during and after pregnancy.” Our goals are to reduce infant mortality, eliminate racial disparities in infant mortality rates, and improve appropriate preconception and prenatal care.  The PNTF is led by Allegiance Health and the Jackson County Health Department, additionally, many Jackson County organizations are represented on the PNTF’s Advisory team and provide assistance during trainings and educational opportunities including: AWARE(domestic violence) Shelter, Community Action Agency, Center for Family Health (a federally qualified health center), Allegiance Tobacco Treatment and Behavioral Health Services, Born Free substance abuse services, Great Start Collaborative, LifeWays mental health services, United Way of Jackson County, Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative, Partnership Park Neighborhood Association, Planned Parenthood, Safe Sleep Coalition, local obstetrics/gynecology providers, local pediatricians, Jackson Community College, Family Services and Children’s Aid, Jackson County Court System, Department of Human Services, Talk Early and Talk Often, faith community representatives, parents and other concerned Jackson residents.  Since its inception, the Prenatal Task Force has been very successful in coordinating community resources, educating women, and collaborating with service providers. 

Infant mortality is often used as a measure of a community’s overall health and well-being because it reflects multiple, complex and inter-related issues such as a community’s environmental conditions, access to health care, social/living conditions, and poverty rates.  Infant mortality also reflects personal health indicators such as maternal and infant medical conditions, maternal substance abuse and poor nutrition, domestic violence, maternal education levels, and maternal knowledge of safe infant care.  Additionally, infant mortality is one of the best predictors of the health status of a community’s next generation.

Despite efforts to improve prenatal care and advances in medical science and technology, maternal and infant health in the United States has improved very little in the last few decades.  One factor that contributes to adverse pregnancy outcomes is the start of prenatal care late in the first trimester and sometimes after the first trimester.  This delay in care allows little or no opportunity to prevent serious maternal and infant health problems, which often begin in the earliest stages of pregnancy.

There is evidence that improving women’s health before pregnancy is important for optimizing pregnancy outcomes.  However, many women continue to enter pregnancy in less than optimal health, which increases the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes.  Making preconception care services available to women and couples is expected to significantly improve maternal and infant outcomes, particularly for women at risk of adverse outcomes.  Since nearly half of all pregnancies are unplanned, it is necessary to make education about preconception health and access to preconception health care services the norm for women and couples during their reproductive years.  Clinical guidelines often recommend that healthcare professionals should involve patients in decisions about screens, treatment, and other interventions, to help them to arrive at informed choices.  Preconception care should be an integral part of routine primary care and serves as an opportunity to screen for current and future health risks, to provide health promotion messages and education, and to offer interventions that address identified risks.

In addition to the clinical services that constitute preconception care, the PNTF wishes to emphasize the importance of efforts to improve the overall health of women of childbearing age and their partners.  Increasing awareness of reproductive health risks and enabling individuals to have reproductive life plans, for example, are as important as clinical services that can improve preconception health and pregnancy outcomes.  Improving preconception health for the approximately 65,269 women and men of childbearing age in the Jackson community will require multiple strategies and multilevel actions.  Change is needed in consumer knowledge and demand for preconception services.

For more information about the Prenatal Task Force (PNTF) or how you can help please contact Kara Beer, (517)841-7498 or kara.beer@allegiancehealth.org