Agency Details:

The vision of Idaho AEYC is to inspire and lead those who touch the lives of Idaho’s young children. We encourage commitment to the ideal that every Idaho child deserves to live a satisfying childhood that allows them to develop to full potential.

The mission is to improve the quality of life for Idaho’s young children and their families by:

• Improving professional practice in early care and education
• Building public understanding and support
• Building and maintaining a strong, diverse and inclusive organization

Description:
Idaho AEYC is a professional member organization with five local affiliates across the state. One of our primary projects is IdahoSTARS, the voluntary professional development system which provides scholarships, mentoring and training for child care providers. IdahoSTARS also operates 7 regional child care Resource and Referral offices throughout the state that supports child care programs to be eligible to provide services for low income parents who access the child care subsidy.

Our primary work is to encourage voluntary participation in the IdahoSTARS Registry, connect child care providers with scholarships to college degree programs across the state; encourage training; offer reliable assessments for child care facilities to evaluate the strengths and areas for improvement in their child care programs; provide resources such as mentoring and program improvement grants to improve the areas for improvement; and developing the infrastructure for a Quality Rating System called Reaching the STARS that gives child care facilities a STAR rating which will assist parents in choosing high quality programs for their children.

High Quality child care is extremely important to children's success in school and life based on current brain research and longitudinal studies that have followed children over time from high quality programs compared to a control group. The children who were enrolled in high quality child care settings were more likely to graduate from high school and go on to college. Those same children were less likely to be incarcerated or require remedial education classes, and more likely to have higher paying jobs with more return to the community that the control group. This is an important issue for our state, our economy, and our families.



History:
Idaho AEYC was incorporated in 1986 and has operated through grants and contracts to increase the quality of child care through scholarships to individual child care providers to attend college in child development. Local affiliates also work to increase awareness and training through local conferences each year. The IdahoSTARS project began in 2003 in partnership with the Department of Health and Welfare and the University of Idaho Center on Disabilities and Human Development to create and implement a statewide professional development system.


Contact people:


Jane Zornik, Administrative Assistant, (phone), (email) Karen Mason, Executive Director, (phone), (email)


Office fax number: (208) 345-6569

Address:


1471 Shoreline Dr. Suite 202 Boise, ID 83702 (See a map)


Web Site: http://www.idahoaeyc.org

Directions:

In downtown Boise, from Americana Street, turn onto Shoreline Drive going south, we are on the river side (west) of the street between 13th and 15th streets behind the Pantry Restaurant.   Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: NA   Nearest Bus Stop: Bus #5, 13th St between River St and Shoreline Dr (at the post office), 5 minute walk

Last updated on October 29, 2009