| DSS Licensing | NAEYC Accreditation | NCATE Accreditation | Reports |
DSS Licensing
ECDC is state licensed by the Department of Social Services, license #17626. Our license is renewed bi-annually in September. Information about how South Carolina licenses and monitors programs providing child care can be found at The licensing process includes monitoring of health and safety by the Department of Health and Environmental Control.
NAEYC Accreditation
A number of research reports conclude that high quality early childhood experiences have long-term positive developmental and economic effects. ECDC was initially accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) in 2005. Our program ID# is 279292 and our current accreditation expires December 30, 2010.
NAEYC is a voluntary accreditation process driven by ten program standards that include over 400 quality indicators, accomplished through evidence-driven reporting, an on-site visit, and evaluation of program materials by the Academy in Washington, DC. Accreditation is a multi-step process, which gives the program time to:
- reflect on the standards
- involve all program stakeholders in self-study
- document qualifications of staff
- prepare portfolio narratives and supporting evidence for each classroom and the program as a whole.
The NAEYC process is rigorous; while there are over 8000 accredited programs world-wide, only a handful of programs in the greater Charleston area are currently accredited. Once a program becomes accredited, status is maintained by review of annual reports, and the program begins the five year re-accreditation cycle again. To maintain our timeline for re-accreditation, ECDC will be preparing program and classroom folios during the 2009-2010 academic year. We will be formally re-applying for accreditation during the summer of 2010; pending completion of candidacy requirement by September 2010, we anticipate our site visit sometime between October 2010 and March 2011.
We believe our mission as a demonstration/laboratory preschool demands we provide a program of the highest possible quality; engaging in the NAEYC accreditation provides us the opportunity to regularly examine our practices in the context of current research on how to best support families and the early childhood learning process.
Comprehensive information about the NAEYC accreditation process can be found at: http://www.naeyc.org/academy/.
NCATE Accreditation
As part of the School of Education, Health, and Human Performance (EHHP), ECDC functions as a partner in many ways, and provides supporting evidence for the EHHP accreditation through the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).
Our director teaches the EDEE 613 Curriculum and Development in Early Childhood Education course in the graduate Early Childhood Master of Arts program. Several hundred students from the EHHP visit, observe, or do practicum activities and experiences at ECDC each year. Our lead teachers are trained in the ADEPT teacher evaluation and supervision system. Among our staff of student employees are five graduate assistants and 18-20 education majors.
See the program poster (pdf) describing ECDC that was part of the evidence prepared for the 2004 NCATE evaluation team site visit.