In order to begin the NECPA accreditation process, early childhood programs should review NECPA's standards. These standards are based on a combination of recommendations from the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Public Health Association. The standards focus on adult and child interaction, staff utilization, health and safety, environment, parent and community relationships and administration.
NECPA's standards must be reviewed by pre-schools prior to beginning the accreditation process. This allows the program's administrators and staff to identify areas in which the program is not up to standard. The NECPA Standards publication can be purchased directly from the NECPA website.
After the program administrators and staff review the standards and recognize areas that need to be addressed, the program is ready to be enrolled in the accreditation process. Initial enrollment costs between $350 and $500, depending on the size of the applying program.
Once a program formally enrolls, it is assigned a site number and receives the NECPA Self-Assessment Instrument and surveys for the parents, staff and children. Next, a compliance plan is drafted by the program administrators and staff in order to bring all aspects of the program up to NECPA's standards. If necessary, program administrators request an NECPA mentor to aid in this process.
Once the compliance plan has been enacted and completed, surveys then must be distributed and returned. In order to complete the first phase of the accreditation process, 50 percent of surveys distributed to families and 70 percent of surveys distributed to staff must be completed and returned.
After the surveys are completed and collected, the program administrator must apply for the second phase of accreditation: the verification process. There is an additional verification fee of between $1,000 and $1,350, depending on the size of the program. NECPA then sends one or more verifiers to assess the program and determine whether it meets NECPA's standards. The findings of the verifiers are then reviewed by NECPA and a decision is made.
The first phase of the accreditation process is self-paced and programs can take as much time as necessary to complete the self-assessment and compliance plan process. Once verification is requested and the fee is paid, it can take up to 120 days for the site visit to be scheduled. The verification visit usually lasts one day, but this can fluctuate depending on the size of the program. After the verification visit, programs are usually notified within four weeks of a decision. Accreditation lasts for three years.