LO will be born in March. I've already been looking at options and found out that the only NAEYC accredited center in my area has a long wait list (48 infants currently on the list- with a wait time of 6 months to a year).
Did you feel like a NAEYC center was a must for your LO or not so much? Why?
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
Yes and no. It was unless I had a personal recommendation I knew I could trust. The one we went with, a close family member worked there. She's since retired, she waited till our DD was in her class to retire! Anyway, that's the only reason why we went with a non accredited center. They actually just got their accreditation this year.
P.S. The changes I have seen in the past three year while they've made changes to get accredited affirmed for me why the accreditation exists. A lot of the issues we had with the daycare in the first year or two were recitfied naturally due to the accreditation process.
eggplant / 11824 posts
Yes, it was very important to us.
Side benefit: the highest accreditation level made the center qualify for the highest “star” rating given by our state for licensed daycares and if you send your kid to the highest star level, you get an extra (small) tax credit from the state.
nectarine / 2173 posts
Our last daycare was accredited and our current one is not. I like the newer one better. Sometimes they just haven't gone through the hoops. And some of the things that they need to have to be accredited for don't matter that much to me. So the individual features of the daycare matter to me. With that said, our state also has a system of ratings and reports any violations online and we certainly looked at that.
grapefruit / 4455 posts
@winter_wonder: it's a plus but I really think the tour and asking questions and just seeing that they meet my priorities/checklist is the most important. I absolutely wanted to see the teachers in action. (Eta and we are only doing part time preschool not daycare but it would be the same.)
wonderful kiwi / 23653 posts
There is only 2 close to us that's accredited, and both right now don't suit our needs, but they will def be our top contenders once LO is older.
pineapple / 12053 posts
hadn't heard about it except through HB. not a consideration for me when i was choosing a PT preschool for DD.
grapefruit / 4418 posts
Wasn't important to me at all. The two accredited centers o toured were not at all impressive compared to the mom accredited one we chose.
cantaloupe / 6869 posts
Very important to me. As an educator myself, I value the guidelines that the NAEYC sets forth in order for a center to be accredited.
pomelo / 5258 posts
Never heard of it. I looked and the closest accredited centers to me are 10 miles away (30min+ at commute time).
pear / 1547 posts
Very important. Really only considered centers that were. I think I would have also valued personal recommendations but we're new to the area. Also, part of the benefit of daycare is the oversight and I feel like this accreditation is a major part of that.
cantaloupe / 6669 posts
I would have liked it but because the NAEYC accredited centers in our area were so limited, I knew I couldn't only look at those. We also were looking for someplace that fit our need for a flexible schedule so that narrowed it down even more.
The standards we cared about where that there were no negative reports on their state record and that they had a 3-star rating from the state.
honeydew / 7235 posts
I've never heard of this before, so, not important for us I guess!
persimmon / 1479 posts
@Yoursilverlining: That tax credit is pretty cool! I wasn't aware of that additional perk, nice!
@2littlepumpkins: Yes, I can't wait to see the teachers in action when we tour places. I'm hoping I'll just "know" when something feels right.
@mrskoala: We're in the same boat 
fellow educator over here too! I'm in higher ed, but always talk about the importance of quality early childhood education with my students! I always thought I would choose a NAEYC place, but there is literally just one that's kind of in our area (30 minutes from home, 2 minutes from Dh's work, but 1 hour from my work...boo).
@menageriemama: agreed! I find this to be sooo important (especially since we don't have any other personal recs for other places).
Thanks everyone for weighing in, I appreciate it!
wonderful grape / 20453 posts
Not at all for infants
Now that E is starting preschool, very important! There was a huge discrepancy between licensed places and the accredited place we chose
persimmon / 1436 posts
There are only 4 within a 50-mile radius of my work so, if wasn't a consideration for us. Our state has a 5-star rating system for child care and DD's preschool has all 5-stars. I'm guessing they didn't want to jump through hoops for a national accreditation.
I was much more concerned with reading all of the state child care licensing reports online to read about issues with centers we were considering.
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