Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Ms. Nette’s Child Care Gains Accreditation

  Owner/operator Annette Bishop announces that Ms. Nette’s Child Care, a licensed home child care for the past fifteen years, has been granted accreditation through the NAFCC. 

  Bishop has been awarded a three-star rating over the past six years, since the Star-Quality Program was made mandatory by the State of Tennessee. While attending conferences, Bishop was offered the opportunity through the Tennessee Family Child Care Alliance to mentor home child care providers across the southeast Tennessee region through a program called Project T.O.P.S.T.A.R. The TFCCA is an affiliate of the National Association for Family Child Care.

  Soon afterwards, Bishop was encouraged to work toward accreditation. This process includes an application fee which is provided by the Early Childhood Training Alliance from Middle Tennessee State University and Project T.O.P.S.T.A.R. Then begins the self-study phase, followed by submittal of a request for observation. During this phase the observer evaluates:  relationships, environment, developmental learning activities, safety and health, and professional and business practices. The accreditation observation takes between four and six hours to complete and is followed by an interview.

  Once the observation is complete, the observer’s documents, parent surveys, and self-certified affidavits are mailed to NAFCC Accreditation Staff and a review of the candidates qualifications commences.

  Bishop announced last week that, after much hard work and dedication to quality child care, she received her accreditation certificate on May 7.

  Annette encourages other child care workers to continue to grow professionally, saying, “I received so much encouragement from family, parents, and child care organizations while going through the accreditation process. It was a very rewarding experience.”