Programs in two types of centers may be eligible for accreditation: (l) those which are in centers licensed or commissioned by the State or private centers which are not eligible for licensing by the State, and (2) those operated by public school systems. Programs of either type may be eligible for accreditation as Accredited, Pre-kindergarten Educational Programs.

Organization

The following standards apply to pre-kindergarten programs for children of all ages. Documents verifying compliance with the standards must be provided to the consultant.

1. There is a minimum of two teachers or caregivers present when children are at the center.
2. At least one teacher or caregiver (or the educational director) who has successfully completed a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training program and a first-aid program focusing on emergency care for infants or children within the past two years is present when children are at the center.
3. Records are maintained for each child who has been enrolled in the center for six weeks or more showing the child’s current status in each area addressed in the center’s educational program.  Each child’s current status in all aspects of the educational program criteria of the Georgia Accrediting Commission must be recorded.
4. Whenever the person designated as the principal or headmaster of the school leaves the position, the Executive Director of the Georgia Accrediting Commission must be notified within 3 months.
5. The policies and practices of the center indicate consistent efforts to develop and maintain positive self-concepts for the children attending the center.
6. The policies and practices of the center indicate a strong emphasis on maintaining a psychologically secure and nurturing environment for the children attending the center.
7. Learning center activities are offered at least 60 minutes daily.
8. There is a balance of active and quiet periods for children.
9. Children play outside daily (except in inclement weather) in an adequate and pleasant space with appropriate equipment.
10. The policies and practices of the center reflect a concern for securing feedback from parents.
11. All student records must be kept for a period of not less than seven years. After that time only transcripts must be kept.
12. When students transfer to other schools, the school will assist the receiving school in making the transition to the new school. Such assistance will include, but not be limited to, evaluation of work completed, credits earned, tests completed, attendance, records transfer and other pertinent information. However, the school has the right to withhold records until all obligations, such as financial, have been met.
13. If children of less than four years of age are served by the center the program consists of not less than six hours per week at the center. If children of four or five years of age are served by the center the program consists of not less than nine hours per week at the center.
14. The staffing ratios of the center do not exceed the following:
    • 1 caregiver for each 6 children under the age of one and one-half years with a maximum group size of 12
    • 1 caregiver for each 8 children under the age of two who are walking with a maximum group size of 16
    • 1 caregiver for each 10 children who are two years old with a maximum group size of 20
    • 1 caregiver for each 15 children who are three years old with a maximum group size of 30
    • 1 caregiver for each 18 children who are four years old with a maximum group size of 36
    • 1 caregiver for each 20 children who are five years old with a maximum group size of 40

Personnel

The following standards apply to pre-kindergarten programs for children of all ages.

1. The educational director of the center:
   • holds a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, child development, or closely related fields or
   • holds a high school diploma and has completed a minimum of nine quarter hours of academic coursework or 60 clock hours of instruction in early childhood education or child development. The training must have been sponsored by an institution, agency, organization, or provided by an individual approved by the Georgia Department of Human Resources or by an individual with at least a master’s degree in the area in which the training focuses.
2. The educational director and all teachers and caregivers have completed four clock hours of instruction in child care practices related to health and safety and two clock hours of instruction related to identifying, caring for, and reporting abused, neglected, or deprived children within the first six months of initial employment in a pre-kindergarten center. The training must have been sponsored by an institution, agency, organization, or provided by an individual approved by the Georgia Department of Human Resources or by an organization or individual with specialized training in the area such as Red Cross officials, law enforcement officers, and employees of the Department of Family and Children Services.
3. The educational director and all teachers and caregivers have completed 20 clock hours of instruction in developmentally appropriate educational practices within the past 18 months. The training must have been sponsored by an institution, agency, organization or provided by an individual approved by the Georgia Department of Human Resources or by an individual with at least a master’s degree in the area in which the training focuses. A major portion of the activities must focus on developmentally appropriate educational practices. An exception to this standard is granted for individuals holding a current professional teaching certificate issued by the state of Georgia in the area of early childhood education or home economics. Those holding current professional certificates in early childhood education or home economics must have 10 clock hours of instruction in developmentally appropriate educational practices each 12 months.
4. All teachers or caregivers with sole responsibility for children are 18 years old or older.
5. The educational director of the center publishes policies that will assure the observance of professional ethics by all concerned and will promote the professional development of competent personnel.

Educational Program

Please note that these standards include skills that might be labeled pre-reading and pre-writing skills. Generally, children at this age are not developmentally ready to read or write and centers should reject external pressures to teach specific reading or writing skills.

Children develop at different rates and all should not be expected to be at the same developmental stage at the same age. The following standards are to be interpreted as being appropriate for individual children and specific groups of children only when they are appropriate for the particular developmental stages of the children – not when the children reach a particular age. However, the individual standards may be considered to be “Not Applicable” only when they are developmentally inappropriate for all children in the center.

1. The center has implemented planned activities to facilitate children’s development of self-esteem.
   1. Children are comforted when they are sad, lonely, frightened, or hurt.
   2. The negative behaviors of children are dealt with in a positive, firm, and supportive way.
   3. Children’s efforts and contributions are acknowledged and praised.
   4. The writings and other creations of children are respected and valued.
2. The center has implemented planned activities for children to develop self-awareness by learning to recognize parts of their bodies including, but not limited to, the following:
   1. face
   2. arms
   3. legs
   4. hands
   5. feet
   6. mouth
   7. nose
   8. eyes
   9. fingers
   10. toes
3. The center has implemented a variety of planned activities for children to develop socially including, but not limited to, engaging in solitary (individual) play, parallel (playing beside another child) play, and cooperative (playing with other children) play.
4. The center has implemented planned activities to facilitate children’s abilities to act independently.
   1. Children are encouraged and assisted in developing specific self-help skills including, but not limited to the following:
   1. feeding themselves
   2. washing their hands
   3. taking off and putting on clothing
   4. manipulating fasteners (buttons, zippers, snaps, etc.)
   5. appropriate toilet activities
   2. Children are encouraged to make decisions.  For example, children are allowed to choose activities in which they participate.
5. The center has implemented planned activities to facilitate the development of gross motor skills of children. These activities include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. shaking a rattle
2. clapping their hands
3. waving (as in bye-bye)
4. feeding finger foods to themselves
5. pushing and pulling toys
6. stacking blocks
7. working puzzles with large pieces
8. standing while holding on to a support
9. bending over while they are sitting
10. turning around while they are crawling
11. walking while holding on to a support
12. crawling up and down steps
13. walking sideways and backwards
14. standing on one foot
15. jumping
16. running
17. rolling, throwing, kicking, and catching a large, soft, ball

6. The center has implemented planned activities to facilitate the development of coordination and fine motor skills of children. These activities include, but are not limited to the following:
   1. tracing and drawing various shapes and figures such as circles and squares
   2. cutting paper with scissors
   3. turning the pages of a book
7. The center has implemented planned activities to facilitate children’s language development.

1. Children are sung to or encouraged to sing each day.
2. Teachers and caregivers find numerous opportunities to have conversations with children.
3. Children are encouraged to retell stories they have been told or read, tell about a picture, and to tell about events in their lives.
4. Children are encouraged to converse with each other.
5. Unit theme activities, songs, finger plays and literature that are read to children are used to expand children’s vocabulary.

8. The center has implemented planned activities to facilitate children’s interest in books.

1. Children are read to individually or in small groups daily.
2. Books are available to children for independent use.

9. The center has implemented planned activities to facilitate children’s ability to create and compose.

1. Children are encouraged to put their thoughts on paper with paintbrushes, crayons, and pencils and by using scissors, glue, and tape
2. Children are encouraged to be creative at learning centers such as a manipulative center, woodworking center, cooking center, invention center, block center, dramatic play center, etc.
3. Children are encouraged to create or respond to the medium of music by responding to rhythms with body movements, singing simple songs and composing tunes or verses.

10. The center has implemented planned activities to facilitate children learning to mark from left to right and from top to bottom on a sheet of paper.
11. The center has implemented planned activities to facilitate children learning the concept of permanence including, but not limited to, the following:

1. playing “peek-a-boo”
2. “finding” partially hidden objects
3. “finding” objects they have seen hidden

12. The center has implemented planned activities to facilitate children learning the following time concepts:

1. before
2. after
3. yesterday
4. tomorrow
5. morning
6. afternoon
7. night day

13. The center has implemented planned activities to facilitate children learning the following spatial orientation concepts:

1. in
2. out
3. over
4. under
5. behind
6. in front of
7. on top of
8. beside
9. up
10. down
11. through
12. “right side up” 

14. The center has implemented planned activities to facilitate children learning to recognize the colors blue, red, and yellow and to make new colors from combinations of these three colors.
15. The center has implemented planned activities that foster the development of children’s thinking skills.

1. Children have opportunities to solve problems and predict outcomes.  For example – deciding which blocks will be the right length to complete a bridge.
2. Children have opportunities to classify objects, shapes, or ideas.
3. Children have opportunities to create patterns.
4. Children have opportunities to compare weights and dimensions of solids and liquids.

16. The center has implemented planned activities for children to listen and follow directions, including following one-, two-, and three-step instructions.
17. The center has implemented planned activities to facilitate children learning mathematical concepts including, but not limited to, the following:

1. identifying all of a set of objects
2. identifying some of a set of objects
3. identifying sets of objects that are equal in number
4. identifying a set of objects that contains more than another set of objects
5. identifying a set of objects that contains less than another set of objects
6. counting up to 10 objects
7. identification of place in sequences such as first, second, third, etc.

18. The center has implemented planned activities to facilitate children’s understanding of the world around them.

1. Daily activities are organized around unit themes for the group as a whole or around the special interests and developmental needs of each child. This means that if daily group activities are not organized around unit themes for the group then special daily activities are organized for each child based on his or her special interests and developmental needs.
2. Learning centers include props that assist in stimulating children to play out unit themes.
3. The learning environment is extended beyond the classroom through field trips or through special activities designed to bring outside events or activities into the classroom.

19. The center has implemented planned activities that demonstrate a respect for each child’s cultural background.

1. Parents are invited to share their cultural heritages with the children.
2. Some unit themes, stories, and activities are chosen because they relate to the children’s life styles and cultural backgrounds.
3. Demonstrations of life styles and cultural backgrounds that appear in children’s language, paintings, and other creations are respected and valued.

20. The center has referred parents or guardians of children with severe developmental problems to the CHILDFIND official in the local public school system(s).

Physical Plant

Programs in centers must meet all of the standards in this section to be eligible for Provisional, Accredited or Accredited With Quality status.

1. The location and construction of the building, the lighting, heating and ventilation of the rooms, the nature of the lavatories, corridors, water supply, furniture, and apparatus assure a safe physical environment for children and adults in the center.
2. Twenty-five square feet of instructional floor space is provided for each student enrolled for each instructional area.
3. Sanitary practices and conditions exist in the center.
4. All buildings have a Certificate of Occupancy issued by the State Fire Marshall. Those buildings not eligible to be issued a Certificate of Occupancy have an acceptable inspection report by an appropriate local, state or federal fire official on file.
5. Monthly fire drills are conducted.
6. A safety preparedness plan has been developed for the center.

Accredited With Quality

In addition to meeting all standards for Accredited status, a pre-kindergarten program may be Accredited With Quality by meeting each of the following standards.

1. Each caregiver who has been employed for one calendar year or longer has received at least 60 clock hours of instruction in developmentally appropriate education practices. The training must have been sponsored by an institution, agency, organization, or provided by an individual approved by the Georgia Department of Human Resources or by an individual with at least a master’s degree in the area that the training focused.
2. The caregiver/child ratios of the center do not exceed the following:

• 1 caregiver for each 5 children under the age of one and one-half years with a maximum group size of 10.
• 1 caregiver for each 7 children under the age of two who are walking with a maximum group size of 14.
• 1 caregiver for each 8 children who are two years old with a maximum group size of 16.
• 1 caregiver for each 12 children who are three years old with a maximum group size of 24.
• 1 caregiver for each 13 children who are four years old with a maximum group size of 26.
• 1 caregiver for each 14 children who are five years old with a maximum group size of 28.

3. Thirty square feet of instructional floor space is provided for each student enrolled for each instructional area.

(Accredited programs may be upgraded to Accredited With Quality without site visits when certification is provided to the Executive Director that each of these standards has been met.)

The plan must be forwarded to the consultant and to the Executive Director of GAC prior to the consultant’s visit. School leaders are encouraged to make the plans as concise as practical with additional documentation made available to the consultant during the on-site accreditation review.