Dr. Denise Wessels

Accreditation Committee

Hello. I was recently appointed to chair the CAAEYC Accreditation Committee, so let me introduce myself. I am Dr. Denise Wessels and I live in Sacramento. I am currently teaching fulltime at Sacramento State University in the Child and Adolescent Development Department of the College of Education. I previously helped re-establish the Central Coast AEYC and served as the President of the Golden Hills Affiliate. My experience with Accreditation goes all the way back to the early 1980s when I earned Accreditation for my small preschool in Santa Cruz. Over the years I have ushered many programs through the accreditation process in my work with Child Development Inc. and became interested in serving as a Validator (as we were called in those days). As a Validator I had the pleasure of visiting many wonderful programs in Northern California and eventually conducted international visits as well. The Armed Services have Children’s Programs on their bases around the world and are keen to ensure high quality for the children of our armed forces. These visits were amazing experiences for me.

My most recent program to take through the Accreditation process was the ASI Children’s Center at Sacramento State University. I was hired as Director in 2005 and their Accreditation visit was eminent! The Accreditation system in place at that time was updated from the original, but not as intense and complex as the current process. We achieved Accreditation and then earned re-accreditation two more times. It was challenging to adjust to the new criteria and portfolios for each classroom. We found the process quite repetitive in some areas and finding “proof” of meeting each and every criterion in each and every classroom was challenging.

Given all this experience, I do still feel as though the NAEYC Accreditation system is valuable and helps to set the standard for high-quality programs throughout our country. I know some programs have felt the pinch to their budgets as Accreditation fees have increased. Some have wondered if it is worth the cost in money as well as in the staff time required to prepare for the Assessment visit. In these unprecedented times we are living through, many programs are closed or operating at reduced enrollment. The NAEYC Academy has suspended Assessment visits for now, and programs with pending expiration dates have been allowed a pause on their re-accreditation visits. Even the Annual Reports have been simplified for this time of COVID.

My goal, as your chair, is to support and assist programs who need my help. As we come out of this pandemic and some version of normality returns, I hope to meet with you and provide any needed support to achieve your goal of National Accreditation!
Contact Denise about Accreditation: accreditation@caeyc.org