Accreditation is a voluntary process that provides family child care homes, centers and school-age programs the opportunity to examine their services based on recognized standards of high quality.

Becoming accredited involves a self-study done by the providers, a validation visit from the accrediting body, and a final decision made by a commission that reviews the information from applicants and validators. There are several accreditation programs available to you to complete this process:

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

The purpose of the National Academy of Early Childhood (a division of NAEYC) is to improve the quality of care and education provided for young children in all types of preschools, kindergartens, child care centers, and school-age child care programs.
For more information about NAEYC, visit www.naeyc.org or call (800) 424-2460.

National Accreditation Commission (NAC)

The National Accreditation Commission for Early Care and Education Programs is a national accreditation program that was developed for early care and educational programs, and is used to promote professionalism and quality of child care.
For more information about NAC, visit NAC or call (800) 537-1118.

National Early Childhood Program Accreditation (NECPA)

The National Early Childhood Program Accreditation was established to encourage quality and recognize excellence in early childhood programs throughout the United States.
For more information, visit www.necpa.net or call 800-505-9878.

National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC)

The National Association for Family Child Care has designed an accreditation system to help family child care providers set and reach quality improvement goals and to help parents and policymakers identify high quality care in a home setting.
For more information, visit www.nafcc.org or call (801) 886-2322.