Texas Tech’s Center for Early Head Start marks a year of rigorous reviews, continuing its mission to strengthen families and the greater Lubbock community
Inside the Texas Tech Center for Early Head Start, what looks like play is really the foundation of a much bigger mission: strengthening families and building a healthier Lubbock community, one child at a time.
That mission was put to the test this year, as the center underwent two major external reviews within a single week of each other. The first, a review of their Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) by the Texas Department of Agriculture, examined every layer of the center’s food program, from paperwork to the meals served to children each day.
“We received glowing praise in our review with no flaws in any of our processes or documents,” said Sherry Aleyari, the center’s fiscal and eligibility, recruitment, selection, enrollment, and attendance (ERSEA) manager.
The CACFP review is required of every program operating a federally funded food service at least once every three years, and passing it matters well beyond a compliance checkbox.
“It means that we can continue to receive funding for our food service program, which helps pay for the breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack that we feed the children every day, as well as the salary of our cook, among other things,” Aleyari said.
To maintain its federal grant funding, the center also completed a review conducted by the Office of Head Start, covering everything from the financial administration of the center’s grant to the health and safety of every classroom and space in the facility.
“We had a wonderful experience in that review,” reflected Aleyari. “It was a long preparation, and then three full days of reviewers being on site reviewing documents and performing observations and interviews with different staff members, as well as program stakeholders.”
Also on the horizon for the center is its next accreditation review through the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), a voluntary process that sets a higher bar than state licensing requires.
“It’s a very prestigious thing,” Aleyari said. “In the city of Lubbock, there are only four different centers that have accreditation, and we are the only income-based center that has that designation.”
Maintaining that standard presents a unique challenge for a center that serves income-eligible families: quality improvements can’t be funded solely by raising tuition.
“When we want to raise our quality, we cannot just raise our tuition prices,” Aleyari said. “Instead, we have to make really great decisions about the money that we already have in order to raise our quality capital.”
More Than Child Care
Behind the compliance reports and accreditation standards is a program staff and families describe as transformative—not just for children, but for entire families.
“The first few years of life are really when everything important is happening,” said Leslie Kacal, the center’s program director. “Emotional health, physical development—that foundation with young children is so important. I think one of the things that is so wonderful about the work we do here is that we invest not only in the child, but in the family as a whole.”
That investment includes parenting classes, home visits, and partnerships designed to help parents advocate for their children, which have a ripple effect on the broader community.
“We’re helping parents be the best advocates for their children,” Kacal said. “Which helps strengthen families and empowers them, whether they’re going back to school or maintaining employment. Those things come together and help strengthen our community.”
Some of that family support happens entirely outside the center’s walls. Meagan Cawlfield, a home visitor with the program, carries a roster of about a dozen families she visits in their own homes, working alongside them on a family partnership agreement that sets shared goals for their children’s development.
“We help them learn how to teach and parent with their kids in a way that really supports their development,” Cawlfield said. “It’s a phenomenal program. So many families are really passionate about the relationships that we build.”
The center also serves as a training ground for the university’s own students. Human Development and Family Sciences students in a course on infant and toddler learning experiences split their time between campus lectures and hands-on classroom experience.
“What’s unique about our program is that they’re getting a different demographic of families,” noted Kacal. “They’re learning about adverse childhood experiences and how to fight poverty by educating children and strengthening families, which is a unique experience for students.”
That mentorship extends to the center’s own teaching staff.
“They’re not just childcare providers working with infants and toddlers. They’re also mentoring the next generation of teachers, which is so important for the children, for the families, and for our students,” Kacel said.
A Foundation Built to Last
For a program that touches some of the youngest and most vulnerable members of the Lubbock community, this year’s back-to-back reviews offered outside confirmation of what families and staff already believed: that the Center for Early Head Start is exceeding the standards set for it, all while keeping its doors open to the families who need it most.
With its CACFP and federal Head Start reviews now behind it and its NAEYC reaccreditation on the horizon, the center continues to hold itself to the same measure that has always guided its work—not just caring for children, but building stronger families and a stronger community around them.
Discover more about how the Center for Early Head Start supports childcare and family relationships in this video.