Welcome to Southeastern Pennsylvania School-Age Child Care Project. Since 1986, we have worked to improve the quality, quantity and capacity of school-age programs in southeastern Pennsylvania. SEPA SACC strives to provide the necessary tools, systems and resources to school-age programs and practitioners seeking to engage in continuous quality improvement. SEPA SACC collaborates with the Office of Child Development and Early Learning and the Southeast Regional Key to support school-age and early learning practitioners through professional development, technical assistance and the provision of resources. 

SEPA SACC has established itself as a leader in the development of school-age child care services by encouraging the development and expansion of high quality before- and after-school programs for children 5 to 14 years old; by providing consistent field tested technical assistance; by providing innovative professional development opportunities; and overall, by building partnerships with people, programs, community organizations, policy makers, faith communities, school districts, local government agencies and business leaders to address the needs of school-age children and their families for care during out-of-school times.

For the past 30 years, the Southeastern Pennsylvania School Age Child Care Project has worked directly with over 1,500 organizations in Southeastern Pennsylvania embedding best practices through technical assistance and professional development. The Project’s Resource Lending Library contains nearly 3,000 resource specifically related to school-age care and after-school programs. The Project has conducted professional development for over 15,000 school-age care attendees. Since its inception, the Project has awarded over 4.38 million dollars in start-up, expansion and quality enrichment funding for over 500 programs. Over 20,000 children have participated in school-age child care programs funded by Southeastern Pennsylvania School Age Child Care Project. 

Vision:

Southeastern Pennsylvania School Age Child Care Project will become the premier organization for improving the quality of school-age care programs in southeastern Pennsylvania.

In 1986, the Day Care Association of Montgomery County established the Southeastern Pennsylvania School Age Child Care Project (SEPA SACC) as a result of a competitive bid process sponsored by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Public Welfare. The Project was one of four regional school-age projects in the Commonwealth. Originally designed as a three-year demonstration project, SEPA SACC continues to receive support from the Department of Public Welfare.

Southeastern Pennsylvania School-Age Child Care Project is the professional development and technical assistance division of the Day Care Association of Montgomery County, Inc., which began doing business as Montgomery Early Learning Centers in 1996.  Montgomery Early Learning Centers was founded in 1963 to address the unmet needs for child care locally, especially those of low-income and “working poor” families. The agency has grown to be a multi-site organization whose programs now extend to 24 sites in Montgomery and Delaware Counties and Philadelphia. 

Notable Accomplishments:

1986

• As part of the Governor’s “Latchkey Initiative,” the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare establishes the Pennsylvania School-Age Child Care Projects. Montgomery Early Learning Centers receives the contract for the southeast region. Steve Peoples hired as first Project Director.

1987

• The Project publishes School-Age Child Care Quality Services Assessment Tool (QSA) a program evaluation tool designed to identify program strengths and weaknesses and make specific recommendations to improve program quality.

1988

• Addressing a crisis, the Project sponsored, organized and brought together national experts in school-age child care and focused attention on the need, solutions and models for school-age child care.

1990

• Conducts regional summer conference for school-age child care programs featuring nationally recognized authorities in School-Age Care.
• Conducted the first School-Age Child Care Leadership Institute in Pennsylvania with support from McNeill Pharmaceutical and Johnson and Johnson. Ellen Gannett and Tracey Ballas from Wellesley    College, Center for Research on Women conducted the session.
• SACC Partners newsletter begins publication featuring articles addressing school-age issues, and training, local, state and national School-age Care development.

1991

• Publication of School-Age Child Care Quality Services Assessment Tool (QSA). The QSA served as a resource for other national program improvement initiatives including those from Project Home Safe and Wellesley College’s Assessing School-Age Child Care Quality (ASQ).
• Leslie Roesler, Project Director, invited to participate as a member of the national review panel for Wellesley College, Center for Research on Women, School-Age Child Care Project self assessment tool—Assessing School-Age Child Care Quality (ASQ).

1992

• The “Artists in Residency” program is provided to twenty programs and provided a week long training and educational program presented by five professional artists for school-age child care staff and children.
• The Project develops in collaboration with Fairmount Capital Advisors, a resource guide, Negotiating the System: Understanding and Complying with Local Code Requirements in response to increasing interests in establishing new school-age child care programs. 
• Project receives two year grant from Pew Charitable Trusts and establishes the School-Age Child Care Institute for Professional Development. 

1993

•      Project sponsors Pennsylvania School-Age Child Care Leadership Institute in coordination with the other Pennsylvania School-Age Child Care Projects.
•      Project staff help establish a growing statewide alliance of school-age child care professionals in Pennsylvania called Pennsylvania School-Age Child Care Alliance. Diane Barber, Assistant Project Director, elected a first chair of alliance.
•      Working with Wellesley College, Center for Research on Women, the Project published the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Papers.
•      Pennsylvania selected to host 1994 National School-Age Care Alliance (NSACA) Conference in Philadelphia, PA

1994

• Project helps to organize the 1994 NSACA Conference for over 1,200 participants from 40 states.
• Project continues to receive support from the Pew Charitable Trust Fund. The grant is used to introduce the national School-Age Care Alliance’s Standards for Quality School-Age Care. 

1995

• Diane Barber, Assistant Project Director, elected to the National School-Age Care Alliance Board of Directors and serves as Treasurer.
• Project hosts focus groups to comment on the new National School-Age Car Alliance Standards for Quality School-Age Programs.

1996

• Project goes on-line with its web-page at www.voicenet.com~sepasacc.
• Diane Barber assumes role of Project Director
• Project again awards start-up funding for the creation of new school-age child care services.

1998

• Project begins its yearly series of Administrative Roundtables on the National School-Age Care Alliance’s Standards for Quality School-Age Care Programs. Using a roundtable and topic oriented focus to stimulate discussion; participants have an opportunity to dialogue with their peers around issues surrounding school-age program operations.
• Sponsored by the Project, Fairmount Capitol Advisors translates the 1994 Finding Money Manual into a three part training and technical assistance program designed to assist programs in developing resource development plans and strategies and conducts the series in both 1998/1999 and 1999/2000.

1999

• Project expands training services to recreation and educationally based after school initiatives sponsored by the Philadelphia Recreation Department and the Philadelphia National School and Community Corp.

2000

• In response to increasing numbers of requests from school-age programs for information and training around children with special needs the Project began an on-site technical assistance and training program based on the work of Dale Fink in Including Children with Special Needs in School-Age Care Programs.
• Working with Roberta L. Newman, co-author of Caring for Children in School-Age Programs, the Project will target working with children with ADD/ADHD in after school settings through the development of a training curriculum, and training trainers to conduct on-site workshops for programs serving children with ADD/ADHD.
• Project staff work with other members of the Pennsylvania School-Age Child Care Alliance to host the 2000 NSACA Conference in Pittsburgh, PA
• Diane Barber and Selma Goore, NJ, co-chairs of the NSACA Journal, School-Age Review, and Karen vanderVen, University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work, present a workshop at the 2000 NSACA Conference in Pittsburgh, "Getting Yourself in Print".
• Working with Wellesley College, Center for Research on Women, National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) the Project conducts TeamsWork! On the Road to Accreditation.
• Working with Older Children in after-school programs provided summer school-age programs with training, on-site technical assistance, and resource materials.
• The Project launches a multi-year, multi-level training and technical assistance initiative, Keys to Quality After-School Programs. Grounded in the National School-Age Care Alliance's, Standards for Quality School-Age Care, this initiative will provide a comprehensive program of staff training, training of trainers, technical assistance, and curriculum development designed to support after-school programs moving through program improvement process.
• The Project works with representatives from a wide variety of Philadelphia youth-related organizations to formulate The Core Standards for Philadelphia's Youth Programs. The Core Standards are based on the work of a number of national youth advocacy organizations such as the National School-Age Care Alliance, Baltimore Safe and Sound, the U.S. Department of Labor’s regulations on the provision of the Workforce Investment Act, and the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare child care licensing regulations. Project is engage to format and write the introduction the Core Standards.
• Project is engage by the City of Philadelphia to develop The Core Standards for Philadelphia's Youth Programs Implementation Guide. The Project engages Roberta L. Newman to write the guide.

2001

• The Project moves into new space expanding from 450 square feet to 4,500 square feet adjacent to MELC's Narberth Child Care Center and MELC Central Office. The new space centralizes the resource lending library and includes on-site space for training.
• 15th Anniversary celebration features keynote speaker Ellen Clippinger, former President of NSACA and director of At-Your-School Services (AYS), Indianapolis, IN.
• The Department of Public Welfare strengthens the ties between the Pennsylvania School Age Projects and the Regional Child Care Resource Developers (CCRD). While the Projects no longer award funding, applicants for school-age capacity funding through the CCRD's are assessed by the Projects and provided technical assistance to improve the quality of their Programs.
• The School Age Project establishes both a training division and a technical assistance division, growing from a staff of four to eight.
• Working with Roberta L. Newman the Project offers are series of administrative workshops "The Business of Running School-Age Care Programs".
• Four Project staff members are trained as Endorsers for the NSACA Program Improvement and Accreditation System, bring the total NSACA Endorser on staff to five.
• In collaboration with the New Jersey School-Age Child Care Coalition, five Project staff members are trained in a two day session by Thelma Harms in the School-Age Care Environment Rating Scale (SACERS).

2002

• During the second year of its Keys to Quality After-School Programs, fifteen programs are using the NSACA standards to undergo program improvement. Six programs are committed to seeking NSACA Accreditation.
• Project publishes Working with Children with ADD in School-Age Care Settings written by Roberta L. Newman.

2004

• The Project receives an award to provide Technical Assistance service to School-Age and Early Learning Programs engaged in the Keystone STARS Quality Initiative.
• The Project staff become certified by the Pennsylvania Quality Assurance System as Professional Development Instructors

2005

• The state creates the Office of Child Development and Early Learning, creating the Pennsylvania Key and six regional keys. The vision of the state is to ensure that all Pennsylvania families will have access to high quality care and education for their children, fostering successful futures in school and in life. The Project continues its contract to provide professional development and technical assistance services to school-age practitioners in southeastern Pennsylvania.

2006

• Carmen Gatti assumes role of Project Director

2007

• The Project collaborates with the Pennsylvania Key to provide National Institute of Out of School Time, Links to Leaning Professional Development Instructor Institute. 
• The Project receives a grant to provide technical assistance services to early learning programs in southeastern Pennsylvania through United Way and the Success By Six®.