Guiding Parents to Quality

Finding and choosing child care can be a worrying experience for parents. They naturally want the best for their children as to safe environments, caring professionals and appropriate developmental experiences.  Accreditation gives parents an essential tool in evaluating and selecting the high quality early learning and care services they want for their children.

Accreditation informs parents that a child care service is providing quality care. It doesso voluntarily through extensive self-examination of its programs, personnel and operations, and an onsite validation of its findings by independent child careprofessionals. Accreditation requires that a service commit itself to quality enhancements. Parents can be confident that organizations providing accredited services have shown themselves to offer quality child care and have committed themselves to continually strive to improve.

Accreditation helps parents select appropriate services.  It defines quality child careservices, differentiates them from other services, and certifies the quality of child careservices.  It identifies and recognizes high quality early learning and care services.

Knowing that a service is accredited is valuable information for parents.  It tells them that the service has shown that it provides the staff, stimulating programs and settings in which children may learn and grow toward their optimal development.  It tells them that the staff of the service has the tools they need to support and maintain high quality care.  Accreditation increases the professional recognition of people working in early learning and cares services and heightens their awareness of the important service they provide.

Alberta’s child care standards are to promote excellence within its child care services.  They challenge services to show expected outcomes for the children in their care, their families, the staff of the services, and the communities in which they operate. An accredited service has to identify and correct its weaknesses and build upon its successes to meet Alberta’s standards of care. Accreditation informs parents that a child care service meets or exceeds Alberta standards.

Accreditation is also based upon how well a child care service is managed.  Parents can expect that accredited services have clear policies on their administration and development of their staffs. In particular, parents can expect an accredited service to regularly communicate with and involve them in decisions on the operation of the service and the care of their children.

A child care service that becomes accredited has shown its willingness to be accountable to parents, their communities, the child care profession and government.  It has confirmed that its philosophy, goals, programs and services, facilities and financial stability are consistent with standards and practices of quality early learning and care of children.  It has shown that it invests its funds in quality programming.

In short, the accreditation of child care services benefits children, parents and service providers by aiding the development of high quality services.  By voluntarily obtaining accreditation, a service has an incentive to continue to develop and improve.  Of major importance, accreditation helps parents by certifying the quality of a service based on province-wide standards. The ultimate goal of the Alberta Association for the Accreditation of Early Learning and Care Services is the accreditation of all child care services to enhance services to children and families across Alberta.