The NAC (National Accreditation Commission for Early Care and Education) is one organization that a quality preschool should definitely be a part of. Unfortunately, a lot of preschools haven’t heard of it before. With this in mind, it is important to educate yourself about what this organization does and what it can offer you.
What NAC Offers
NAC Accreditation offers a quality preschool the opportunity to show that they really are a quality preschool through the use of research-based criteria. The process that you must go through in order to do this was developed for preschool professionals from their leading peers. It promotes a professional, high quality preschool program and uses comprehensive performance standards and evaluations for all parts of the program. This program is being used by preschools across the nation because it respects your program’s autonomy and philosophy and includes government-funded quality enhancement initiaitives.
Why You Should Consider Accreditation
There are a lot of reasons why you should consider having your preschool accredited by the NAC. Some of these reasons include improving your program; it will demonstrate that you really are a quality preschool; some states offer special funding to NAC accredited preschools; and it will help you to recruit new families and staff.
Why Choose NAC Accreditation In Particular
There are some great reasons why you will want to choose to get NAC accreditation. To begin with the NAC is the top choice of accreditation throughout the nation. With NAC you will get specific, easy to use indicators that you can use as evidence that you really are a high quality preschool. You also will not be told what type of curriculum or philosophy to use like you would with other types of accreditation. NAC simply ensures that you meet optimal child development standards. If you are a faith-based preschool, NAC does offer a component that will help you to expand your ministry while also improving the relationship that you have with the faith organization that is sponsoring your preschool. Furthermore, the NAC staff is knowledgeable and available to answer your questions, provide you with resources and offer you encouragement along the way. Even the validators can answer your questions while onsite.
The NAC accreditation process has three steps. It begins with self-study and then there will be an on-site visit by a validator. Finally a commission will decide whether or not to grant accreditation.
Who Is Eligible?
You can apply for NAC accreditation as long as your preschool program is in compliance with your state and local regulatory agencies and has been operating with 15 or more children for at least a year.
In Conclusion
Now that you see just how important NAC accreditation is to a quality preschool, isn’t it time that you get your preschool accredited? This will go a long way towards helping both you and the children in your care and really isn’t as difficult as it may seem. In fact, in the end you will be glad that you did it because then you can really say that you have a quality preschool.
