Center Quality Improvement & Accreditation
A center’s environment and practices greatly impact childhood learning.
LEARN MOREA growing body of evidence shows that the first years of a child’s life are critically important to determining his or her long-term outcomes. Many children spend a significant portion of those years in childcare centers.
The Orfalea Fund — in partnership with First 5 of Santa Barbara County — committed significant time, energy, and financial resources to help early childhood education center directors and teachers develop cutting-edge, evidence-based skills and competencies. Sharing our vision of a “whole child” approach to early childhood education, in which play and social/emotional development are fully integrated into academic programming, Santa Barbara County preschools achieved national accreditation at eight times the California average as of January 2015.
