Young Child Week event at UTSA Child Development Center

UTSA Child Development Center earns accreditation

By Cindy Brockwell
Development Assistant, Office of Student Affairs

(Sept. 1, 2006)--The UTSA Child Development Center, directed by Luretta Filberth, recently earned accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the nation's leading organization of early childhood professionals.

NAEYC created its accreditation program more than 20 years ago to set professional standards for early childhood education and to help families identify high-quality childcare and early-education programs.

To earn NAEYC accreditation, a childcare program conducts a self-study to determine how well it meets the standards. This phase normally takes more than a year to complete, but UTSA's Child Development Center completed the self-study in just 12 months.

After a self-study, necessary improvements are made and the program is observed by independent, professional evaluators and then reviewed by a national panel. UTSA's center demonstrated such high-quality programming that they were asked to host a new program trainee for a day.

The UTSA Child Development Center provides childcare services for UTSA students, staff and faculty. Licensed by the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services, the center operates at its capacity of 96 children for nine months of the year. The waiting list for admittance is a long one with 375 names.