The goal of Little Pros Academy is to be the best Early Childhood Program available. Therefore, meeting high standards to ensure a quality program is of great importance. All LPA facilities will focus on achieving and maintaining high standards, ensuring that each receives the highest rating possible.

How the 5 Star rating affects parents

In an effort to provide the information parents need to make the best possible child care choices, The North Carolina Division of Child Development records a variety of information on regulated facilities and assigns a Star rated license to each facility to enable parents to make educated choices when choosing child care. They base their rating on the following standards:

1. Program Standards:
   • Increasing the number of activity areas in classrooms:

     Each Little Pros facility has center-based classrooms for Waddlers and older. These classrooms include areas for:

     • Dramatic play
     • Sand and Water
     • Science
     • Math/Manipulatives
     • Language/Writing
     • Music
     • Books
     • Reading
     • Art
     • Computers (for twos and older)
   • Higher square footage per classroom:

     LPA provides 35 square feet of space per child indoors, allowing more space than the basic required amount.

   • Reducing staff child ratios:

     LPA ratios are:

     Infants	1:4 max group size of 8
     Toddlers	1:5 max of 10
     Waddlers (Two year olds)	1:8 max of 15
     Preschoolers (3 year olds)	1:9 with a max of 18
     Pre K (Four Year Olds)	1:12 with a max of 24

   • Scores from an environment rating scale assessment:

     Visit our facilities to learn more.

2. Compliance History:

   Compliance history is calculated by reviewing the number of violations that have been cited during the last three years. More serious violations, such as violations of staff/child ratio, supervision or discipline, have a more significant impact on a programs score. Programs with fewer violations score higher points in this component.

3. Educational Standards:

   The number of points earned in education standards is based on the education level of all of LPA staff. The Division's staff evaluates transcripts to determine the number of semester hours that can be counted towards the higher levels in this component.

   To earn more points, the following components are required:

   • The administrator and all lead teachers must have completed their credential requirements.
   • A certain percentage of staff must have extra semester hours and/or child care experience.
   • LPA lead teachers have either a 2 or 4 year degree with 2 years of experience in working with children in a preschool setting. Assistant teachers must have a Child Care Credential, 2 years of experience and 6 semester hours in childhood education from an accredited college. Our floaters are required to hold a Child Care Credential.