NAEYC at 100: A Century of Excellence, A Future of Promise
Who We Are
Founded: February 1926 in Washington, D.C. (as National Association for Nursery Education)
Founders: Patty Smith Hill convened 25 researchers and educators — including Lois Meek Stolz (first president), Arnold Gesell, and Abigail Eliot — to address the need for quality standards in the growing nursery school movement
Mission: NAEYC promotes high-quality early learning for all children, birth through age 8, by connecting practice, policy, and research. We advance a diverse, dynamic early childhood profession and support all who care for, educate, and work on behalf of young children.
NAEYC Today
- 50 affiliates in nearly every state
- 5600+ accredited early learning programs across the country
- Nearly 180 accredited higher education programs in 35 states
- More than half a million children served through NAEYC-accredited programs
- Nation’s largest early childhood education association
- Hundreds of thousands of early learning professionals served and supported through NAEYC’s work and mission
A Century of Milestones
| Year | Milestone |
| 1926 | Founded as National Association for Nursery Education (NANE) |
| 1929 | Published Minimum Essentials for Nursery Education — the field's first professional standards |
| 1930s-40s | Helped shape WPA nursery schools and Lanham Act child care programs (the only period of near-universal federal child care in U.S. history) |
| 1945 | Launched flagship journal (now Young Children) — published continuously for 80+ years |
| 1964 | Renamed NAEYC to reflect expanded focus on children birth through age 8 |
| 1965 | Head Start launched; NAEYC involved from the start and continues partnership today |
| 1971 | Building on successful events in California and Chicago, took Week of the Young Child national — making it one of the longest-running awareness campaigns focused on early childhood education |
| 1970s | Helped develop CDA credential — the first national credential for early childhood educators, now held by more than 1 million professionals |
| 1985 | Launched accreditation — first voluntary national quality system for early learning programs |
| 1987 | Published first Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) — responding to growing concerns about inappropriate academic pressure on young children by establishing research-based guidelines that have shaped practice worldwide |
| 1989 | Adopted Code of Ethical Conduct — first professional code of ethics for the ECE field |
| 2006 | Launched higher education accreditation |
| 2017 | Convened Power to the Profession — 15 national organizations, 11,000+ educators defining the profession |
| 2019 | Published Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education position statement — a foundational commitment to confronting bias and ensuring equitable learning opportunities |
| 2020 | Published the Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators--- defining for the first time what all early childhood educators should know and be able to do, regardless of state or setting. |
| 2026 | Centennial celebration — 100 years of championing early childhood education |
#NAEYC100 | NAEYC.org/centennial
Contact: Will Bohlen at [email protected]