Child Care: Program Accreditations

Child care program accreditation by fiscal year (July 1 – June 30)

Latest data: FY2022 (July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022)

Source of definition: Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (INCCRRA)

The data include accreditation information related to these accrediting organizations for licensed child care centers:

• National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
• National Early Childhood Program Accreditation (NECPA)
• Association for Early Learning Leaders (AELL) (formerly the National Association for Child Care Professionals)(NACCP)
• National Afterschool Association (NAA) — The NAA’s accreditation process has been transitioned to the Council on Accreditation (COA)
• Council on Accreditation (COA) 
• American Montessori Society (AMS)
• AdvancedED/Cognia (formerly AdvancED)

The data include accreditation information related to these accrediting organizations for license-exempt child care centers:

• National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
• American Montessori Society (AMS)
• Association for Early Learning Leaders  (formerly the National Association for Child Care Professionals)(NACCP)
• National Accreditation Commission (NAC) (an associated service of AELL)

 The data include accreditation information related to these accrediting organizations for licensed family child care homes:

• National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC)
• National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

Number of centers or homes with one accreditation or multiple accreditations

The number of centers with one accreditation or multiple accreditations in a geographic area for licensed and license-exempt child care centers. The number of homes with one accreditation (from NAFCC) for licensed family child care homes.

Source of data: Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (INCCRRA)

Geographic region: These data are available by state, county, township, state House district, state Senate district, congressional district, unit and elementary school district, township, municipality, ZCTA, and Chicago Community Area.

Note on Individual accrediting agencies: IECAM presents data on the number of sites that have one accreditation or multiple accreditations by geographic area. For detailed data on the number of sites with accreditations from individual accrediting agencies by geographic regions, see the Child Care Accreditation by Organization and Region spreadsheets on this page (below).

For past years, there are some differences in the data definition/description, compared with the most recent year. These are indicated here.

Geographic region: Data by some regions are not available for earlier years.

• Data are not available by Chicago Community Area for 2011 and earlier.
• Data are not available by ZCTA for 2009 and earlier.
• Data are not available by school districts for 2008 and earlier.
• Data are not available by municipality for 2007 and earlier.