Accreditation
There are currently more than 7,000 NAEYC-accredited programs, serving more than 600,000 children and their families nation-wide. Since the system began in 1985, NAEYC accreditation has provided a powerful tool through which early childhood professionals, families, and others concerned about the quality of early childhood education can evaluate programs, compare them with professional standards, strengthen the program and commit to ongoing evaluation and improvement.
Significant growth in and demands on the accreditation system led the NAEYC Governing Board to establish a project to reinvent accreditation by developing new program standards, criteria, and assessment procedures, and by taking immediate steps to improve the reliability and accountability of the system while better managing the demand for accreditation. These revisions have established quality levels that can apply to the complex range of program providers in the early childhood care and learning field, from child care centers to family child care providers to family-child interaction learning programs (FCIL).
Why NAEYC Accreditation?
NAEYC Accreditation of programs for young children represents the mark of quality in early childhood education. The goal is to provide an national accreditation system that would raise the quality level of early childhood programs for the benefit of our children.
NAEYC Accreditation programs invest in early childhood education because they believe in the benefits to children and families. Early childhood experiences—from birth to age 8–have an enormous impact on children’s lifelong learning and positively contribute to their health and development. Early childhood education programs with the mark of quality benefit children with greater readiness for and success throughout their career in school.
It is for this reason that parents and families are seeking out NAEYC-accredited programs. Parents choosing an early childhood education program can be overwhelmed by trying to find the highest-quality program for their child. NAEYC Accreditation gives families the chance to make the Right Choice For Kids.
Hawai‘i understands the direct correlation between high-quality early child care and learning, and positive, long-term outcomes in a child's life. We also recognize that every dollar spent on early childhood programs returns $4 to $16 on that investment. For that reason, Hawai‘i passed Act 46 in 2020. This law, with slight modifications, requires programs to achieve a demonstrated level of quality to continue to receive tuition reimbursement for families receiving Child Care Connections or Preschool Open Doors funds. NAEYC accreditation is specifically identifed as one of the national accreditation programs providers can use to demonstrate quality.
Act 46 also provides help. Subsequent laws extended the time programs have to achieve accreditation to 2034. In addition to monitoring programs' current accreditation levels, the Hawai‘i Department of Human Services (DHS) will also support providers.
Up to 50% of accreditation fees can be reimbursed to the provider.
Technical assistance can also be reimbursed to the provider.
A currently undetermined amount of additional expenses relating to repairs and the purchasing of materials and equipment to acheive accreditation are also part of the legislation.
It will take some time to get this together, so keep checking back here for updates. Want to have a voice in subsequent legislation? Go to the Public Policy tab at the top of this page, or click the button below.
HECAP
The Hawaii Early Childhood Accreditation Project (HECAP) provides technical assistance to early childhood care and learning providers across the State of Hawai‘i that are interesting in engaging in the NAEYC accreditation process. Trained HECAP facilitators are county-based to provide higher levels of responsiveness and connections to enrolled providers, and a more relevant and intimate connection to the unique operational issues within each county. HECAP is a fee-for-service program, meaning there is a charge for services to keep the program sustainable. However, there is a stipend currently available to help you with your fees.
Act 46
Back in 2020, the state legislature passed Act 2020 to both raise the quality level of early childhood care and education in Hawai‘i, and increase the access to that care for all families. Under Act 46, every family receiving Preschool Open Doors reimbursement for child care must have their child enrolled in a nationally accredited preschool. This means that center-based child care providers, family child care providers, and others providing early childhood care and education who have families receiving Preschool Open Doors, need to be accredited or seeking accreditation by 2029. Those seeking accreditation need to achieve accreditation by 2034. Please remember that it takes more than a year to get accredited for the first time.
NAEYC was the first to set a national quality standard for early child care in the 1980's. It establishes 10 standards, including indoor and outdoor environments, curriculum, teaching practices, and teacher competencies, in addition to relationships with children, their families, and the larger community, and the quality of the provider's leadership and management of their program. NAEYC accreditation sets the quality standards.
Act 46 recognizes the cost burden that puts on early child care providers, and so it provides money to child care providers seeking and maintaining accreditation through stipends. The stipends can be used for multiple purposes, including paying for up to half the accreditation fees. It can also be used for technical assistance to help your program through the accreditation process. HECAP provides the technical assistance for NAEYC accreditation. The DHS stipend program isn't up and running yet, so they are not yet able to provide the stipends to pay all or part of the cost of accreditation. HECAP has a Kaiāulu grant to help fill in the gap while DHS designs their system.
Kaiāulu
HIAEYC has received a generous Kaiāulu grant from Kamehameha School to support programs seeking accreditation. Eligible programs can receive reimbursement of up to 50% of the NAEYC accreditation fees, and the full amount of technical assistance fees at the appropriate flat rate. You do not need to apply for the grant separately. We will use the information on the HECAP enrollment form to help us assess eligibility.
How to Apply
the HECAP project coordinator is available to answer any questions (free of charge) and can be reached by the email below or will return phone calls if a voice mail is left on the HIAEYC mainline. HECAP will offer regular information sessions and will provide timely updates to the NAEYC accreditation process. Click the application button below to get a form-fillable application. You can fill out the form and save it as a PDF, then attach it to an email to us. If you would rather go old-school, you can print out the form and mail it to us.
Our email is accreditation@hawaiiaeyc.org
Our phone: (808) 942-4708
Our address: 2700 S King Street,
#2831551806
Honolulu, HI 96826