Center accredited

A two-year effort by staff, teachers and parents of children enrolled in the Associated Students, Inc. Children's Center has resulted in accreditation for the center from the nation's oldest and largest child-care accrediting academy.

"Accreditation really validated our work as early childhood professionals, and gives us a seal of approval for the work we're doing here," said Jennifer Fogerty Gibson, a head teacher of pre-schoolers at the center.

The accreditation from the National Academy of Early Childhood Programs in Washington, D.C., makes the Children's Center one of only five child- care facilities in San Francisco so recognized, said the center's director, Sarah Johnson.

Progress has also been made toward moving to a long-awaited new facility, and plans to offer a major in children's studies at SF State are in the works, she said.

Just inside the center's entrance, a certificate from the academy, which has accredited 4,500 programs in the U.S. and 16 other countries, is now prominently displayed on Assistant Director Carol Rector's desk.

According to Johnson, accreditation means that parents can rest assured that, in addition to the state licensing requirements that all child-care facilities are required to meet, criteria. including health and safety, nutrition and food service, curriculum and the screening and training of staff have been reviewed by an outside agency.

The academy's recognition could also help attract grant money to develop training programs, Johnson said.

If details for financing the planned construction of an expanded child care center are ironed out, and if the plans to develop a children's study major are realized, it will not only become easier for students with children to obtain affordable, on-campus child care, but opportunities for students interested in pursuing careers in early childhood development will be expanded.

Holly Berger, a teaching assistant at the children's center, said that as it stands now, childhood development is lumped in with dietetics, interior design and family relations in the Consumer and Family Studies/Dietetics department.

"It's absolutely terrible," said Berger, who plans to apply for a head teacher position at the children's center when she obtains her degree. "It makes me feel like a home-ec major."

Every term, Berger said, childhood development classes have been cut and there is no childhood development professor or advisor.

"I learn a lot of practical, hands-on things that I don't learn in a classroom or a textbook," Berger said of working at the children's center.

A children's studies task force is being formed to develop a core program that will provide a career path for students interested in childhood studies, said Amy Hittner, acting associate dean of the College of Health and Human Services.

The task force will be selected next week by Vice President for Academic Affairs Marilyn Boxer, who will try to include as many colleges as possible in what will be an interdisciplinary major, said Gail Whitaker, Associate Vice President for Academic Program Development.

Any students wishing to serve on the task force should be available to start in January, Whitaker said.

"They're talking about developing curricula, and that means making tenure-track hires," a process which begins in March, she said. Boxer is leaving her position in July.

"This round of tenure-track hires is crucial," in making rapid progress toward establishing a child studies major, Whitaker said. Renovation of the Diagnostic Center on the northwest corner of campus will also begin in March, with the Children's Center relocating there in June for one year while the old facility next to Mary Park Hall is razed and a new center built on the site, Johnson said.

How that project will be financed is still unknown. Students have approved two referendums raising fees to pay for the new center, but financing for the project fell through when bond underwriters discovered that they could be left in the lurch if students voted to abolish Student Body Association Fees.

Vice President of Business and Finance Don Scoble said discussions between the bond underwriters and several campus auxiliaries are taking place now, and that the project has high priority.

"The financing has not been put together yet," he said, but added he expects more news by the time classes resume in January.

[ Golden Gater Online December 14, 1995 ]

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