Northeast Pennsylvania Regional Key

Community Services for Children serves as the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Key. Regional Keys coordinate and administer the Keystone STARS program, which is intended to improve the quality of early learning and school-age care and education. By meeting standards of practice and professionalism set by the state, child care facilities move through designations to the highest known as a STAR 4 facility. For more information, link to http://www.pakeys.org.

CSC’s Regional Key is responsible for 15 counties. They include Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Northampton, Pike, Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming. STARS managers coordinate training and technical assistance for early child professionals and the businesses they operate in these counties.

A variety of resources are available, including

• grants and awards to assist program enhancements;
• low-cost professional development courses designed to help early learning and school-age education professionals move upward through a career lattice;
• The Northeast Key Connection newsletter published monthly providing information related to enhancing program quality and meeting Keystone STAR standards;
  * Simply SACC newsletter published four times a year providing tips and advice to programs serving the school-age child; 
  * The Donley Family Library located on the Allentown campus of Community Services for Children providing references, assistive devices, educational games and toys, books, tapes, and much more for professionals, parents, and children.
• College courses to assist practitioners meet credentials.