Our Mission is Caring

Army Child, Youth and School Services programs exist to support military readiness by reducing the conflict between a soldiers mission requirements and his or her parental responsibilities.

To support this mission we offer full day, part day, hourly care, and a Pre K program which provides children a rich, stimulating environment where children can develop motor, cognitive, social and emotional skills through a balance of exploration and planned curriculum. Learning activities are designed to support the natural development of children and include individual, small group and large group exercises.

Staff

All of our staff must complete national and local background checks. Staff must also complete required training in First Aid, CPR, Child Abuse Prevention, and the Army Child Development Training Modules to reach their target level pay grade. Once that the target level has been completed, 24 annual training credits are required. Each center has a full time Training and Curriculum Specialist assigned to them to train staff and assist them in the professional development.

Program

All of our child Development Centers are accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. We provide developmentally age appropriate activities for children 6 weeks to 5 years old. As part of our program children are provided breakfast, lunch and dinner with the menus being approved by a Registered Dietician.

Our Curriculum

The best way to describe Army Curriculum is a combination of Developmentally Appropriate Practices and Creative Curriculum. Developmentally Appropriate Practices is a child centered, Child-initiated and teacher supported program. The Creative Curriculum program allows for meaningful and long lasting learning involving active thinking and experimenting to find out how things work. This is best accomplished through purposeful play facilitated by highly intentional teaching practices. Both practices require each child to have a primary caregiver, who observes and document the child's interests, strengths and abilities and builds the curriculum around that. Observations allow us to offer and individualized program that will support school readiness for ch8ildren by expanding their play intro learning experiences.

Part Day Pre-School

Part Day preschool is run by CDC III at our School Age Services location on 1900 Reece Rd. It is available for children 3 and 4 years old and classes are held from 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Contact Parent Central Services to enroll in this program.

Pre-K Program

The Army's Strong Beginnings Pre-K is a program designed to prepare children tot be successful to enter kindergarten. Curriculum focuses on the social, emotional, and physical development of your child; equips them with basic academic (language, reading, math, and social studies) and "Kindergarten Classroom Etiquette" skills to enhance "school readiness". The program is offered at all to the CDCs and to register, contact Parent Central Services.

Hourly Care

CDC I offers hourly care for children six week to five years old. Patrons are limited to 25 hours per week and must be registered with Parent Central Services to participate in the program. Reservations can be made up to two weeks in advance; to make a reservation call 301-677-3407 or online using your webtrac account.

Army Family Covenant

The Army Family Covenant is the Army's commitment to recognize the strength of our service members comes from the strength of their families. The Fort Meade Child, Youth and School Services is committed to providing families of service members quality care. You must be registered with Parent Central Services to participate in this program.