HOW DO WE PREPARE OUR PROGRAM?

Congratulations on making the decision to become COA certified! We've learned a lot over 30 years of working with you, our partners, and we'd like to share the best of what we've learned about how to prepare your program for certification.

To assist you in preparing for the self-study documents it may be helpful to consider the following:

• Identify a primary contact person who will be the responsible for overseeing the certification process. This person will be a critical link to both COA and to program staff. In determining who the best person is to fill this role, consider identifying someone with strong administrative and organizational skills as well as a good understanding of your program, its activities and unique characteristics.
• Create a timeline for completion of tasks. Break down larger assignments or complex sections into smaller sections. Set up milestones and dates to complete each of these tasks.
• Identify which staff member or stakeholder will be responsible for each section. You may wish to assign one person to be responsible for one or several of the core areas: operational, program and quality improvement, human resources, safety, health and nutrition, financial and administrative policies.
• Review all licenses and operating certificates to ensure that they are up to date and have not expired.
• Conduct training for staff and stakeholders on how to use the standards to assess current practice. Training should include: the structure of the standards and related content within each section (notes, related standards, NA's).
• Use COA tips, tools, self paced trainings, webinars and other training opportunities to help guide you through your own self-assessment. Note: The tools should be used in conjunction with the standards and should not replace reviewing the details of each standard and assessing current operations with regards to the standards.
• Develop improvement/action plans for standards identified as "not implemented." Feedback from programs suggests that formalizing action plans, including the assignment of a responsible individual with timeframes and clear expectations of the work to be done, can help ensure the certification timeline is met.
• Re-evaluate. At some point after the development and implementation of the action plans, go back and have your assigned individuals or teams re-evaluate evidence of implementation of the standards. See if the areas identified as challenges have been addressed.
• Start pulling it all together. All of the required documentation from the tables of evidence must be organized and prepared for electronic submission. Ensure that each section is clearly labeled and tabbed and fully responds to the information requested.