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School Age Program renewed national accreditation

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Ashley Thrash
  • 17th Training Wing Public Affairs

The School Age Program and the Child Development Center renewed accreditation from a national level private accreditation organization this year.

Receiving this accreditation was a yearlong process that occurs once every four years. It involves in-person inspections and yearly reports to prove that a care program is abiding by certain rules.

The School Age Program provides before and after school care for children ages 5-12 along with summer camps including field trips, outings, and demonstrations with Goodfellow.

The accreditation process includes sending multiple annual reports regarding opportunities and challenges that the program goes through and works towards improving. The private accrediting organization looks at human resources, administration, curriculum, and how the staff interacts with the children as well as with each other.

“It gives us a standard to reach for,” said Alicia Jones, child youth program assistant. “So we know exactly what we need to be doing with our kids. We need to make sure they’re involved culturally and academically in arts and not just STEM work.”

Receiving an accreditation in the School Age Program gives the program an extra set of eyes on them and ensures it is high quality program and offering a challenging but safe environment to help progress the children’s knowledge and development.

“We realize and know, that our military kids go through a lot,” said Terry Killgore, youth director at the School Age Program. “We want to be that extended family that helps that kids through those times when mom is deployed and dad is suddenly a single parent or our dual military families. Those kids need us to be there as something continuous. High quality is so important for us. We have to meet that higher standard, those parents need to feel comfortable going to work knowing they’ve got it because we’ve got their kids.”