t the end of September, the Swarthmore Presbyterian Nursery Day School (SPNDS) got a visit from a NAEYC Accreditation Accessor. She spent two days in classrooms and looking at materials put together for her to view. On October 16th, the school could view the Accreditation Report that our program earned NAEYC accreditation for another five years.  

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is the world’s largest organization working on behalf of young children. NAEYC Accreditation Process is a rigorous process that includes a transformative quality-improvement system based on a set of 10 research-based standards. The NAEYC organization collaborates with early education programs to recognize and drive quality-improvement in high-quality early learning environments. “We are proud to have earned the mark of quality again from the NAEYC, and to be recognized for our commitment to reaching the highest professional standards,” said Director Deb Hansen. This marks the sixth time the school has been through the accreditation process marking 25 years of being continuously accredited. 

To earn NAEYC Accreditation, the teachers and staff went through an extensive self-study and quality-improvement process, followed by an on-site visit by NAEYC Assessors to verify and ensure that the program met each of the ten program standards, and hundreds of corresponding individual criteria. NAEYC-accredited programs are always prepared for unannounced quality-assurance visits during their accreditation term, which lasts for five years.