Waukegan Community Unit School District # 60’s preschool program was recently recognized with a Gold Circle of Quality for achievement and commitment to quality in early learning from ExceleRate Illinois and the Illinois State Board of Education.

The Gold Circle of Quality is awarded to programs which have demonstrated excellence in all 15 ExceleRate Illinois standards, as validated by a state approved assessor. It is the highest accreditation distinction a preschool program can achieve. 

As a Gold Circle recipient, Waukegan’s EPIC program has been recognized as a program meeting or exceeding specific quality benchmarks on learning environment, instructional quality, program administrative standards, enrollment inclusion, and more. A full list of standards with descriptions can be found here. 

ExceleRate Illinois is the quality recognition and improvement system recognized by the Illinois State Board of Education for early learning and development programs. ExceleRate unifies all of the state’s early learning programs under a common set of standards across multiple settings to provide families with important information about quality early learning programs in their community.