As you are aware, on September 1, 2008 the Council on Accreditation (COA) successfully launched its After School initiative and is now accepting applications. To assist you in familiarizing yourself with COA After School standards, processes and the three available after school program recognition opportunities, please visit our After School specific website at www.COAafterschool.org.

The COA After School standards were developed in partnership with the National AfterSchool Association (NAA) through the participation of an NAA Accreditation Transition Team of experts from the field. This process resulted in a blending of the NAA and COA standards into a comprehensive, yet program specific, set of quality standards for After School program recognition and Accreditation. 
 
These standards and After School program recognition opportunities support quality in areas such as programming, continuous quality improvement, developing and maintaining healthy relationships, training and professional development, and staff supervision and support, to name just a few.
 

The website also contains links to After School specific trainings that were developed to assist you and your staff in learning about COA and our standards. In addition, it will help you evaluate which opportunity is the best fit for your program. You can access these trainings by following the "Tools Index" link. 
 
In our continuing efforts to facilitate communication regarding our After School initiative, we will be hosting a series of informational conference calls and webinars.  You and your colleagues are invited to participate in these complimentary offerings. Please visit https://coanet.ilinc.com/public/register/jmurphy to find a current schedule of these offerings as well as to register for one of these informational sessions.

If you'd like to update your contact information with the Council on Accreditation, click here.

Thank you and we look forward to working in partnership with you to ensure that children and youth throughout America have access to quality after school programs.
 
With warmest regards,

Jim Murphy, After School Initiative Program Manager