Media Credit: Peter Franklin Marisol Cedillo reads with her students at the UT Child Development Center Tuesday afternoon. Cedillo herself is a student, and hopes to later teach kindergarten. The center cares for children of UT staff, faculty and students, and has recently been accredited.

The National Accreditation Commission for Early Care and Education Programs accredited the Comal Street location of the UT Child Development Center on Tuesday as epitomizing superiority in child care.

The Comal location of the center was built two years ago and provides child care to 190 children of UT students, faculty and staff, said the center's director, Sandy Briley.

"We provide full day care year around; education as well as nurturing, hot lunches, snacks and lots of play," Briley said.

To receive the accreditation the center initially went through a fairly strenuous self-study process, which involved feedback and observations from parents, directors and staff, Briley said. After improvements were made and the center felt their programs were right, representatives from the national organization conducted their own validations, she said.

Being part of the University gives the center a tremendous number of advantages, Briley said. There is an extremely diverse group of children and staff and energetic, smart and excited student workers who are assistant teachers, she said.

The center is given subsidies from student services in order to reduce the tuition and provide a special rate for student families. Tuition for faculty and staff is dependent on their salary.

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