A child care service is accredited for three years. However, it needs to maintain its accredited status and pay a fee on an annual basis. The fee is is based on the number of licensed child care spaces or number of contracted family child care providers multiplied by two added to $300. The child care service does not go through the whole accreditation process again.

When a child care service is accredited every third year, it will receive a Re-accreditation Review package. The child care service will need to use its previous QEP as a reference to ensure it is demonstrating "continuous" quality improvement. This time the child care service will have six months to work through the package prior to a site visit.

Yes, there is another site visit within six months of applying to be re-accredited.

The Lead Validator and child care service Director will work together to set up interviews with parents. The Validator will randomly select 2-3 parents from the list that is provided to our office. Only those parents that have consented for interviews will be asked for an interview. The validators may ask parents if they are willing to be interviewed as they are picking up or dropping off their child. If they haven't already done so, they will need to sign a consent form before being interviewed. The Validators may interview parents by telephone if necessary.

The sample Portfolio Report is an example of what a program could include in their Portfolio Report as evidence to meeting standards. You might have some of these items, but not all and there may be many other things that your program is doing to meet a standard that are not provided in this sample.

Yes, both the Facilities and Practices and Interactions and Daily Experiences checklists need to be completed in every room in the centre. One Interactions and Daily Experiences checklist for EACH room will be sent in when you apply for a site visit. However, the results of the Facilities and Practices Checklist will be combined on one checklist. Be sure to note which room the Comments or "To Do" item applies to.

Yes, this is considered a separate room and should be included in the Facilities and Practices Observation Checklist.

You need to make a comment of some kind in the "To Do" column of the checklists. If the item or interaction is observed or is currently being done, then it should state that. Some examples of comments might be: "Has been done" "Is continually observed" "Is in place" "Working on this for consistent practice"

The use of fire extinguishers is addressed in the Facilities and Practices Observation Checklist for child care centres. It states, "At least one person who knows how to use the program's fire extinguisher is present in the room whenever children are present." There is no training course; however, technicians from fire extinguisher distributors are willing to train your team on the use of the fire extinguisher. Be sure to record the visit in your portfolio as evidence.

The expectation is that a minimum of 20% response rate of registered families. Most centre-based programs have found that having a table set up near the entrance and having parents complete the survey on the spot results in a high response rate. A Field Coordinator will inform a child care service if it has very few surveys coming in. The child care service can decide if it would like to re-do the survey if it has a low return-rate or just extend its survey deadline and remind parents to get the surveys in. A 20-30% return-rate is considered typical in most surveys.

Download the AELCS Appeals Process document (PDF) for complete information on how to appeal a decision.