Why we care about Quality

The field of after school care and education is growing in leaps and bounds and receiving an enourmous amount of public attention and scrutiny that is unprecedented. Along with this growth, there is an emerging body of compelling research about what works and what doesn't work.

What we do know is that quality matters if programs are to achieve positive outcomes for children and youth.

Explore the links above for information on training opportunities, the after school quality workgroup, evaluation and tools you can use.

The CT After School Network is an affiliate of the National AfterSchool Association

NAA ACCREDITATION

Program Improvement and Accreditation
In 1998, the National AfterSchool Association launched a nationally recognized system of Program Improvement and Accreditation-based on the organization's Standards-that promotes quality in afterschool programs serving children and youth, 5 to 14 years. The Accreditation system provides an objective standard of evaluation and has been accepted by state agencies establishing tiered reimbursement for quality programs. To date, more than 550 programs around the world have received and maintain NAA Accreditation. For an overview of the NAA Accreditation process, see "Steps and Pricing" in the Accreditation section of the organization's website, naaweb.org.

The Accreditation System Refined
NAA has taken several steps within the last year to streamline the organization's Accreditation system. These steps include building an infrastructure of office-based administrative support and field-based experts who are responsible for moving programs through the Accreditation system, from reviewing Program Applications to making recommendations to either accredit or defer.

There are four primary field-based positions within the NAA Accreditation function: Application Reviewer, Regional Point Affiliate (RPA)/Endorsement Visit Scheduler, Endorser, and Endorsement Visit Reviewer.

For additional information
www.naaweb.org/accreditation.htm

 

National After School Association Accreditation Fees

The Connecticut Charts-A-Course Accreditation Facilitation Project is seeking requests for funding support from programs who want to pursue NAA Accreditation.    Click here for application and guidelines.  Deadline for submissions is April 15, 2007.