Sanford Health

Out of School Time (OST)

Today, many parents need to find someone to care for their school-age children for an hour or two before school starts, or anywhere from two to four hours after the school day ends. Not to mention finding care on holidays, early dismissals and during summer vacation. When you add it up, that’s a lot of time out of a school-age child’s life – time that can be spent in activities which help him or her develop physical, mental, social, and emotional skills.

School-age children do not need someone just to watch them; they require skilled caregivers that provide supervision and a safe place to be while their parents work. These caregivers need to assist children in finding their interests and talents and encourage them to practice and apply new concepts they may have learned at school.

 

Trainings:

  • Training opportunities for licensed or registered childcare providers.
     
  • Class instructors strive to help caregivers obtain information and confidence in one's ability to provide quality care for children.

Technical Assistance:

  • CHILD Staff are available to do an on site observation.  This observation provides the means to develop an action plan to assist child care programs with program improvement efforts.

 

Articles:

To access services contact us at (605) 333-0698 email us at childsrv@sanfordhealth.org

 

 

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Accreditation

NAA Accreditation is a way to recognize quality in school-age care programs. Accreditation means that a program has demonstrated substantial compliance with the NAA Standards by:

  • Completing an application which documents the program’s self-study process
  • An on-site visit by NAA Endorsers who rate the program on the NAA Standards
  • Annual reports to the NAA office between Endorsement visits

Working towards accreditation is a self-study internal process which programs work through improvement and action plans at their own pace. During this process, the Out-of-School Time Specialist is to provide “quality advising” to the planning team and director; to determine financial incentive needs, based on an observation and the planning team’s request. Accreditation is accomplished only by persistence, and the ongoing dedication of staff, parents and the school, along with special on-site technical assistance and support which is provided by regional the OST Specialists.

To request more information on Accreditation, call (605) 333-0698 or email childsrv@sanfordhealth.org

7/31/2008

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