High Quality Program Standards

If Community Care Licensing provides the floor, what does high quality look like? 

We have a few different standards we can look to for quality standards:

  • National Association for the Education of Young Children Accreditation Program Standards Links to an external site.. This accreditation is voluntary and is a mark of the highest quality. There are two programs in the Coachella Valley that are accredited by NAEYC, Bermuda Dunes Learning Center and College of the Desert's McCarthy Family Child Development and Training Center. 

By providing a framework to help programs understand their strengths and challenges, the 10 NAEYC Early Learning Program Standards and Criteria  Links to an external site.aim to ensure the quality of children's daily experiences in early childhood programs and to promote positive child outcomes. Program standards and accreditation criteria are based on evidence of what makes quality programs and are aligned with the profession’s collective knowledge of best practices. Our expert staff, comprehensive standards, and established processes will help your program meet the goal we all share: the highest-quality early learning experiences for every child.  

Head Start Programs are widely acknowledged to be among the highest quality programs in the country. 

Head Start Program Performance Standards were first published in 1975 and are in place to ensure that all programs provide high quality of services. Revised standards were called for in the 2007 Head Start Act and were released as a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in the summer of 2015. NHSA submitted comments informed by extensive conversations with the Head Start community and the input of the Performance Standards Working Group Links to an external site. - which offered recommendations in 2014 for how the Administration should rethink and reframe the Standards. The Final Rule was released on September 1st, 2016.

There are many child care and development programs in California. These programs are for children from birth to age twelve. They offer early learning and after-school services to babies, toddlers, children in preschool, and children in kindergarten through sixth grade. Some programs assist children with disabilities and children of migrant farm workers. Many of the programs were set up to help parents with child care while they work.

Child care and development programs can provide care, education, and food for children. They are paid for with state and federal tax money, and in some cases, parent fees.

The California Department of Education helps manage several child care and development programs in California.

In order to ensure that programs are meeting high quality standards, the state has implemented a Quality Rating and Improvement System.  Links to an external site.Programs are required to complete child assessments twice a year, classroom assessments, program assessments and parent assessments. Data are combined and each program sets goals for the following year based upon the results.