The Post, October 4, 2004
Children, Inc. Covington center's excellence is rewarded with accreditation from national association
By Peggy Kreimer, Post staff reporter

Four-year-old Zain Mosley takes a deliciously long whiff of a vanilla scented candle and proclaims: "This smells like cake."

He places the pale yellow votive next to another yellow candle. "This," he announces, "is lemon."

The game of matching colors with different scents is one of Zain's favorites at the Cathedral Child Development Center in Covington, where every activity is designed to stimulate brain growth and fortify children with skills they will need to succeed in school and life.

The center is run by Children Inc., which just set a regional record for the number of child-care programs to receive the  accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Two Children Inc. centers -- Park Hills Center and the Montessori program on Fifth Street in Covington -- received their accreditation this summer, bringing the number of Children Inc. centers with NAEYC accreditation to eight.

"This is a big deal," said Sallie Westheimer, executive director of 4-C child-care referral and resource agency, which provides child-care training, resources and referral for Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties in Northern Kentucky and Butler, Clermont, Clinton, Hamilton and Warren counties in southwestern Ohio.

"Across the country, in communities like ours, between 4 and 15 percent of all early childhood programs are accredited," she said.

In Greater Cincinnati, the number is about 9.4 percent. Each accreditation is hard won and celebrated, Westheimer said.

"It's a pretty rigorous process, and it takes a big commitment," she said.

The accreditation requires low student-to-staff ratios and high education and training levels for staff. The accreditation team looks at programming, environment, parent involvement and documentation that includes individual assessments of children's behavior and skills.

It's fairly expensive, more than $2,000 for centers up to 60 children and more than $2,500 for centers up to 120 children. But the fees are only the start.

"For some organizations, increasing the number of teaching staff, training of teachers and other quality elements are likely to be the real cost," Westheimer said.

The payoff is an overall boost in quality care for young children in the area and an increased awareness of quality issues by the public.

The counties in the 4-C region have 823 licensed early childhood programs and 78 of them have the NAEYC accreditation. Accredited centers are a long way from the norm, but the numbers are growing each year, Westheimer said.

She credits some of that growth to the United Way, which in 1992 announced that as of 1998, it would require child-care centers to be accredited before receiving United Way funds.

"We're saying high quality child care is more than a safe environment and basic custodial care," said United Way spokeswoman Carol Aquino. "We're looking at making sure kids are prepared for kindergarten."

The accreditation requirement predated the United Way's Success by 6 initiative launched two years ago to assure all children enter kindergarten ready to learn. Quality early childhood programs are a cornerstone of that effort.

Westheimer said about 25 centers were accredited in 1992. That number has more than tripled today.

"We have more accredited early childhood programs in Greater Cincinnati than any other community in the Midwest," she said. "I really believe that United Way decision helped drive quality in Greater Cincinnati."

But many accredited centers get no United Way funding. The rise in centers striving to meet accreditation standards and participating in the Kentucky state "Stars" rating system for child-care centers are indications of a growing awareness of the importance of those crucial early years in a child's life, said Rick Hulefeld, director of Children Inc. and a nationally-recognized early childhood education advocate. Hulefeld's agency co-sponsors an annual conference on early brain research that shows children's brain development can be changed dramatically by everything a child experiences in those early years.

"We're the first people in history to know what we know about the brain research," said Hulefeld. "The concept that kids can wait around until they go to school to learn is over. We have to see the early years as an opportunity."

Hulefeld said half of all children who drop out of high school began kindergarten far behind the typical kindergarten level.

"It's like getting to bat, and the umpire just yelled strike two," Hulefeld said.

The brain research makes it clear that it is not a matter of catching up. Many of the brain's connections are already developed by the time the children get to kindergarten or first grade, he said.

"Those early years really matter. We can't pretend anymore. Brain research has made it crystal clear, you can't wait until 6 or 7 to start learning."

That doesn't mean moving kindergarten and first-grade lessons to an earlier age, said Children Inc. Associate Director Crystal Dahlmeier.

"Children under 6 are very different from children 6 and up," Dahlmeier said. "There really is a major shift in development. Younger children are very concrete. They need to move to learn.

"They need things they can touch and hear and smell."

Children learn through play, she said. Stringing beads and putting pegs in holes can develop the hand and finger dexterity it will take to later hold a pencil correctly. Games where children distinguish sounds will help develop language and reading skills.

Tom Lottman, another associate director at Children Inc., said games like "Simon Says" and "Red Light, Green Light" help develop something called "effortful control."

"It's the ability to control an impulse when you are primed to do it," he said. "That part of the brain gets wired between ages 2 and 7."

Lottman said at Children Inc., teachers assess each child constantly.

"Most people think of assessments as problem oriented -- looking for fighting, kicking. We look at internal behavior -- the little girl sitting back in the corner, shy. We look for the little boy saying 'Do you want to play with me?'"

Children Inc. has nine centers, and the only one not accredited is too small to qualify -- a five-child center for teen mothers at Campbell County High School.

Other child-care agencies with multiple accredited programs are Cincinnati Early Learning Centers and the YMCA, each with five accredited centers, and Children's World and The Goddard School, each with four accredited centers.

Besides the national accreditation, states are developing voluntary rating systems to help parents evaluate child-care programs.

Kentucky launched its rigorous stars program in 2002 and coupled the goals of increased training and education for staff with scholarships to encourage workers to augment their skills.

"Ohio will implement a similar rating system -- Step Up to Quality -- in the next month," said Westheimer.

"In both states, accreditation is comparable with the top level of the rating system," she said.

Financial help is available to parents, too, said Hulefeld.

"People think the best child-care programs are the most expensive ones," he said. "But there are a lot of openings for low-income families."

His own centers have sliding fee scales.

"We have money out there that no one is claiming," he said.

"With the brain research, we know what no one else has known," Hulefeld said. "That's what's pushing us. We can't ask schools to make up for 4 or 5 years.

"Those years hold opportunities that we can't afford to miss."

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