HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. -- The Airman and Family Services Flight staff strives to make sure the children of base personnel are in good hands by encouraging child care providers to pursue continuing education and accreditation. As a result of their emphasis, a family child care provider has just received accreditation from the National Association for Family Child Care.

After a laborious two year process, Leonor Ayala received word in December 2010 that she had received accreditation from NAFCC.

"She is only the fourth provider at Hanscom to ever receive this honor, so this is big," said Courtney Cann, Family Child Care coordinator, who, along with Laurel Wironen, FCC training and curriculum specialist, helped Ms. Ayala throughout the process.

NAFCC sponsors the only nationally recognized accreditation system designed specifically for family child care providers, according to their website at www.nafcc.net. The system was designed by hundreds of providers, parents and early care and education experts in an effort to create a quality indicator for family child care programs across the country.

Accreditation reflects a high level of quality through a process that examines all aspects of the family child care program, such as relationships, the environment, developmental learning activities, safety and health and professional and business practices, states the website.

"NAFCC accreditation is an indicator that family child care offers safe, inviting spaces and warm, nurturing care complete with educational activities designed to meet the needs and interests of all children while promoting individual development," Ms. Cann said.

There are only 2,100 NAFCC accredited providers throughout the United States and in other locations worldwide where military family child care professionals operate.

Ms. Ayala's journey in becoming accredited actually began several years ago when she decided to become a stay-at-home mother after having her first child in 2003. Before that, she was a music teacher.

In 2006 she decided to begin working as a family child care provider for the Air Force.

After becoming a licensed provider, Ms. Ayala began working on all of the educational requirements and two years later, she was ready for the next step.

"For me, achieving accreditation was a goal," she said. "It's the highest level you can obtain in this field."

Although the accreditation process was long and required a lot of paper work, Ms. Ayala said the process was not difficult.

"I was already doing most of the requirements because the Air Force already had a lot of the same guidelines and regulations in place," she said. "For me, the reward to receive accreditation was worth it."

Ms. Cann and Ms. Wironen said the effort was a learning experience for them, as well.

"The NAFCC implemented a new accreditation process, so not only was this new for Leonor, but for us, too," Ms. Cann explained. "We worked together on this and learned a lot."

Both Ms. Cann and Ms. Ayala described the process as a journey. Just after going through her final observation, Ms. Ayala had her fifth child and moved to a new house on base.

"Those times were very stressful, but it was worth it because afterwards I felt of sense of relief and happiness," said Ms. Ayala. "I could finally say 'I did it!'"

After taking some time off for maternity leave, Ms. Ayala is now ready to help others with family child care.

"Leonor is so good with helping other people," said Ms. Wironen. "She has been someone we have counted on to mentor new providers. Now, as other providers begin the accreditation process, we know Leonor will be there to help guide them on their journey."

For Ms. Ayala, she knows that achieving accreditation will not only benefit Airman and Family Services and other providers, but, most importantly, she also knows it will benefit the children and parents.

"I can share with the parents all the effort that went into this process," she said. "They can feel safe and happy that their children are in good hands."