Smoky Mountain Children’s Home Receives Reaccreditation
Dr. Walt Mauldin, Executive Director of Smoky Mountain Children’s Home, recently announced SMCH received official notification of reaccreditation from the Council on Accreditation through May 31, 2021.
This type of national recognition serves as a major milestone for SMCH. Many institutions must go through accreditation every ten years. However, due to ever-changing childcare continuum, SMCH must go through accreditation every four years. The Council on Accreditation is the accrediting body providing endorsement to childcare entities, which even includes the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services.
Mauldin stated, “Our institutional assessment was led by Linda Loyd, forty-one year veteran and Director of Accreditation. Every employee, as well as numerous children and young people, were involved in the process and did an exceptional job providing an in-depth review of all we do here at SMCH. Staff presented literally thousands of pages documenting the excellence in our residential, foster care and adoption programs. We are thrilled to hear our reaccreditation was a huge success.”
Linda Loyd also shared, “This could not have been accomplished without exceptional teamwork. Everyone did their part in completing assignments and closing the loop regarding standard expectations.”
Over the past eighteen months, SMCH has been totally immersed in the intense self-study. Every department was reviewed and all compared favorably with national benchmarks. This formal process evaluated our programs against currently accepted best practice standards. Several days of evaluation by an onsite team of experts occurred in February of this year. Subsequent reviews and a final decision completed the procedures. Each COA standard must be met or exceeded in order for the institution to pass COA’s rigorous accrediting requirements.
