Professional Practices
CAREStandards: CORE Certification for Residential Excellence
CAREStandards are the first industry standards for the field of residential education. CAREStandards are consultative in nature, and are intended to improve the quality of programs’ living and learning environments.
Focused on the needs and abilities of the children themselves, CAREStandards ensure that residential education programs provide for the safety, well-being, and development of the youth in their care. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring that youth have a specific set of rights, live in a safe environment, are medically cared for, and that there are guidelines in place for staff hiring and training. CAREStandards look to ensure that family traditions such as birthdays and holidays are honored, that living environments are caring and nurturing, and that families remain connected when at all possible. Lastly, CAREStandards look at how a program fosters positive values in youth, strengthens education, empowers youth, and builds life skills.
CAREStandards promote quality practices that can be measured and replicated. Designed from the vantage point of the youth and their needs and abilities, CAREStandards complement state licensing requirements, which tend to place emphasis on procedure and liability issues. Programs use CAREStandards and the objectives within them to self-evaluate. If a program chooses, a team of peer reviewers conducts a site visit, providing helpful feedback and recommending CAREStandards certification when standards and objectives are met.
CAREStandards also serve as an excellent programmatic blueprint for newly developing programs or when a program is adding another service component.
For more information or to purchase manuals for your program, contact the CORE office at (301) 656-6101 or COREInfo [at] residentialeducation [dot] org.
Research
- Comprehensive Survey of Residential Education Programs in the U.S.:
Recognizing the importance of knowing more about the effectiveness of residential education, Overview of Residential Education Programs in the U.S. created the first mapping of programs, including who they serve, residential and funding models used, and program offerings. Updated every five years, survey findings provide critical information on the field and serve as a base for continued research. - Outcomes Measurement:
CORE is currently gathering data on outcomes for the field, and assisting members in obtaining outcomes for their own guidance and needs. - Queries:
CORE frequently conducts queries of its members on specific aspects of residential education, such as residential staffing models, program policies, and specific job roles. Queries are conducted as a way to gather information for advocacy and public awareness purposes, enhance research in the field, and are used as a tool to help strengthen CORE members.