In the beginning.

Goodness, is there ever a lot to take into consideration.
 In the beginning of opening a center it is really insane, you really need to know what you are doing.
I do not know if I will ever be able to handle quite that much work.
 To open a center you need to have a location, and you must have that location completely ready and operational when you open your doors. Being ready entails a lot more than just having all of the correct age appropriate furniture and toys, you need a mission statement and a center philosophy, not to mention a complete staff of qualified individuals to help you operate the center, kitchen staff, janitorial personel, the teaching staff, and all other vital team members, and they must all meet minimum Department of Early Learning standards for readiness in their job description, meaning everything from food handler's cards and TB tests, to finger prints and background checks, all personel must meet these minimum requirements in order to begin working. You will also need a curriculum in place as well as assessment systems, these are used to help you evaluate your program effectiveness as well as the center staff and the students individual and group development.
 There are also things to consider such as funding in the initial start up phase, will you have a center where all of your staff work essentially free or at a reduced rate for the first month while you wait for payments? Most people won't go for that. So you are left either paying everyone out of your life savings (unlikely), or taking out a loan or loans to cover all of those initial start up costs...which are considerable, everything from licensing to paper napkins and crayons. The money must come from somewhere, and the majority must apply for loans to cover those costs.
 That is more or less the jist of it as I see it, there are of course a few things  I did not go over in this reflection, such as advertising and enrolling classes, but I feel this addresses a large chunk of the work that must be put into opening a center.

An ECE Director's View

  I have come to the conclusion, after reviewing information and personal experiences, that it would be extremely difficult to operate a center on DSHS funding alone, there are a number of very challenging obstacles when trying to balance a budget on purely DSHS funding.

  Some of these challenges include things such as late payments, a late payment will place undue financial stress on the center, negatively impacting everyone in the center from the teachers to the students, and these payments may sometimes even be two months late. Then, there are over-payments, these can happen when say a DSHS official calculates and makes payments according to an incorrect operating schedule, a large percent of early childhood education and care centers operate on federal holidays and sometimes weekends, but there are those who operate only on week days for instance, or an official might misreferences the submitted attendance forms. When overpayment occurs, the center is responsible for repaying the over-payment out of the centers current operating budget, see the difficulties there?  And that is not even covering parents/guardians who being human might forget to submit their re-evaluation paperwork, leading to discontinued subsidy payments which of course leads once again to financial difficulty, leaving our center directors in a bit of a lurch, left to choose between scheduling a breaker and keeping the lights on. Also it is worth noting that those payments that are missed, are not reimbursed through DSHS, it is up to the center directors to persue payment from their patrons.

  All in all though, the DSHS childcare subsidy programs can be and are very helpful, I do believe however that it would be a nearly insurmountable challenge to operate a center on %100 DSHS funding, you know, unless you just happen to have a wealthy benefactor filling in all the blanks through generous donations...but really, who has that?

The Road to NAEYC Accreditation

 The road to accreditation is a fairly lengthy one, but it is designed to help you develop your program and bring it into alignment with the 10 NAEYC standards and their criteria. The phase of self study is the time when you initially ( if you haven't already ) start practicing a more intentional approach to teaching and caring for young children, working to align your program with the NAEYC standards. During this time you are also collecting your own data, assessing your progress through the collected data, and you will also select a sample of this data as evidence of your readiness to begin the application and assessment process for NAEYC accreditation.
  In order to prove that they are indeed ready to move forward with the assessment, toward the ultimate goal of accreditation, the program must submit their sample data as a part of their application in order to even be considered for candidacy, to include all documented evidence of the entire teaching staff's education and qualifications, diplomas, stars training, CDA's, CPR, etc..., failure to provide these documents would result in you being unable to be assessed for further assessment. Once a program has entered into the assessment phase, they must prepare for a site visit at any time during a six month window, also ensuring to providing an additional sample set of data, as a part of the hard copy evidence for the NAEYC assessor at the time of their assessment.
  Those programs that do become accredited are accredited for a five year term, however, they must be careful to maintain their level of program quality, and maintain their alignment with the NAEYC standards, or else if they fall beneath a certain level of alignment, they risk losing their accredited status.
  The road to accreditation usually takes around two years, and it is very worth it. If and when you do bring your program into alignment with the NAEYC standards, and you attain your accreditation, then you know that you and your program have truly have progressed in how you assist young children in their learning and development.
  I feel it is worth mentioning that there are those programs who enroll in the self study process, simply to begin the self study process itself and they do not necessarily intend to move into the application phase within the usual time frame, if ever.

 I believe that the NAEYC standards and accreditation process are extremely beneficial to those programs who enroll in and utilize it.

I have included a link to the NAEYC accreditation webinar, detailing the steps of applying for NAEYC accreditation as well as NAEYC own resources to better facilitate the application process.

http://www.naeyc.org/files/academy/file/webinar/4steps/player.html

Our Communities Family Resources

Well, I found a lot of really useful resources for those families that are interested in the early childhood education field. Whether they just want to start from the ground up and learn as they go with things like STARS classes, or jump in and start working on their degree or certificates in college, there are an abundance of resources, free book programs within the local library systems, and early achievers for those diving straight into the early education centers, these programs will help them to develop their competence and effectiveness, whether they are new to the field or not. Then there are resources such as DSHS, and Washington Connection for those who choose to attend college, some might need to take a reduction in hours or even need to leave their job in order to go to school, those families have need of some different resources, in addition to those resources there to help you to become a more effective teacher.
 I found a variety of training programs, and free resource programs for early learning center directors and teachers, the kind of resources that would make starting out as a new teacher a little less stressful.
 I would offer all of these resources to those families who are interested in the early education field.


https://www.psesd.org/careers/

https://www.psesd.org/services/learning-and-teaching/arts-impact/

https://www.psesd.org/services/learning-and-teaching/early-learning/

https://www.piercecountylibrary.org/kids-teens/parents-caregivers/child-care-providers/stars-trainings.htm

http://wa.childcareaware.org/

The page shown below was copied from http://wa.childcareaware.org/, I found Childcare aware to  have a number of very useful resource links for families here in Washington.

Family Resources

Community Resources 

Child Care Aware of Washington Regional Offices

Washington Connection- local resources in every county statewide

Apple Health - free or low cost medical insurance program for children

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

Women, Infants and Children Nutrition Program (WIC)

211- statewide database of community resources

Child Development

Parent Help 123- Information on local resources, pregnancy, child development and programs for families.

Kindergarten Readiness- Learn if your child is ready to start kindergarten

Vroom- Ideas for turning everyday moments into brain-building opportunities for your infant, toddler, or preschooler

Institute of Learning and Brain Sciences- I-LABS at the University of Washington is building an online library of resources for parents. Modules use videos and pictures to share research. The modules also explain why each topic is important to child development.

Zero to Three- a national, nonprofit organization that provides parents, professionals and policymakers the knowledge and know-how to nurture early development.

Our Family Center Newsletters- Articles and information about child development

http://www.tacoma.k12.wa.us/Careers/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.wsac.wa.gov/state-work-study

https://www.dshs.wa.gov/food-cash-medical

http://www.basicfoodet.org/

http://www.del.wa.gov/care/qris/

http://www.del.wa.gov/providers-educators/

http://www.del.wa.gov/Professional/merit.aspx

http://www.del.wa.gov/requirements/info/background.aspx

http://www.earlychildhoodteacher.org/teacher-tools/

http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200707/ClusterResources.pdf