Child Care Center Celebrates National Accreditation; is Tops for Tiny Tots!
Who: United Way of Southeast Louisiana and its Women’s Leadership Council; Pearlie Harris, owner Royal Castle Child Development Center, a United Way partner agency; parents, students and other community partners involved in high quality child care.
What: Celebrate Royal Castle’s distinct honor of National Accreditation. It is bestowed upon only superior child care centers that provide extraordinary care to young children certified through the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Royal Castle is now only the second child care center in Louisiana to have both National Accreditation and top rated 5 Stars under the State Quality Start Child Care Rating System.
Why: Children are our focus and our future. In hard-hit Hollygrove, kids are getting a better start in life. Royal Castle, a United Way partner agency, has provided childcare for almost 2,000 children over the past 15 years. Approximately 70% of young children in Louisiana spend a significant time in child care because they have both parents, or their only available parent, in the workforce.
Royal Castle’s success proves, once again, that an investment in early education will yield the highest return on that investment. What happens to a child between birth through age 4 can have a profound impact on his or her performance in school and in life. These early years are the most rapid period of brain development, and set the foundation for all future learning, health and success.
Research of high-quality, early childhood education programs for low-income children confirm lasting positive effects such as greater school success, higher graduation rates, lower juvenile crime, decreased need for special education services later, and lower adolescent pregnancy rates.
The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accreditation system sets professional standards for early childhood education programs across the country and helps families identify high-quality programs for their children that assure equal opportunity regardless of race, class or income.
Quality Start is a voluntary program for licensed child care centers, designed to recognize, support, and increase the quality of child care throughout Louisiana. Participating centers can earn up to five stars.