Steps and Requirements to achieve NAEYC Accreditation

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Site Visit

Provided that a program successfully meets Candidacy Requirements, NAEYC Assessors will conduct a site visit within six months of a program’s Candidacy Due Date.  Programs should continue to refine the work completed during Self Assessment while they wait to be contacted within their six month visit timeframe.  Once the assessor contacts the program to set up a scheduling window in which the visit will occur, the program will provide the assessor with exclusion days in which the program is not available for a visit.  Programs receive two exclusion days for each month of the scheduling window provided. Any major religious holidays the program observes should be conveyed to the assessor, but will not count as exclusion days.  Visits will not be scheduled on Federal holidays.

Purpose:
To provide an independent assessment that the program fully meets NAEYC’s Early Childhood Program Standards.

Tasks for Programs

During the site visit by NAEYC Assessors, the program must:

• Meet all required criteria.
• Meet each of the 10 NAEYC Early Childhood Program Standards. This is demonstrated by:
• Satisfactory performance on at least 80 percent of each standard’s associated Accreditation Criteria upon which the program is assessed, and
• No classroom falls below 70 percent of each standard’s associated Accreditation Criteria upon which the program is assessed.
• Each classroom observed during the on-site visit must demonstrate satisfactory performance on at least 70 percent of each standard’s associated Accreditation Criteria upon which the program is assessed.

Site Visit Protocol

In order to ensure transparency about the site visit and the assessor’s role, the NAEYC Academy for Early Childhood Program Accreditation is providing details regarding assessor protocols. The following documents are part of NAEYC’s Assessor Protocol Manual and are used by the assessor during the site visit. Program Administrators should review these materials as preparation for their site visit.