Overview of the Organization

The realization that many of Waco's children are spending much of their waking hours in a child care system characterized by minimal regulations, poorly trained staff substandard wages, and high turnover, resulted in the organization of the Association. Smart Start Child Care Association is a 501(c)(3) voluntary membership organization comprised of 38 child care centers licensed by the State of Texas.

Since research shows that the quality of early childhood programs is directly related to what children experience, goals were tailored to ensure the opportunity for the highest quality child care possible. The beginning objectives were to provide formal college training to enhance the skills of the directors and staff provide developmentally appropriate materials for the trained caregiver to use with the children, assess each member child care center with a nationally recognized assessment tool that provides a quantitative score, increase the number of early childhood programs that are working to be nationally accredited and heighten public understanding of the importance of early childhood education.

The Association began granting educational scholarships in the fall of 1997 and providing educational materials in the spring of 1998. To date, 289 staff members of the Association have completed or are currently enrolled in college courses in early childhood education. Fifty of these staff members have completed their CDA certificate (Child Development Associates credential). Seven staff members are presently enrolled in McLennan Community College and will complete the necessary CDA course work by the end of the summer. The Association has provided $2000-3000 dollars of educational materials to each member center in the following areas of development: Cognitive, Manipulative, Sensory, Blocks, Gross Motor, Dramatic Play and Science.

In order to establish that the child care centers that serve our young children are providing safety and involvement in developmentally appropriate activities, documentation of program quality and effectiveness is mandatory. Two early childhood specialists using two globally recognized quantitative assessment instruments (Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale [ECERS] and Infant/Toddler Environmental Rating Scale [ITER]) evaluate each center annually. These assessments scores provide confirmation of improvement on a yearly basis and enable the Association and the directors to use the data as a benchmark for improvement and progress toward higher quality.

In 2001, Smart Start developed an outreach, support, and resource program for child care centers in the area. A childcare resource specialist provides one-on-one technical assistant to child care centers committed to improving the quality of their program. The Smart Start Success Program was developed to customize training and consultation, provide practical educational materials to support early childhood developmental "best practices" and to assure consistent and comprehensive on-site technical assistance. Child care centers participating in this program are committed to increase over-all quality; the level of the state rating for designated vendors and/or become nationally accredited.

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