GREENFIELD, NH – Wonderworks Learning Center on the campus of Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center in Greenfield has recently been recognized by the state's Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) as a Licensed Plus facility. Licensed Plus is a quality rating system that recognizes and rewards child care programs and agencies who make the effort to improve quality of care beyond the basic licensing requirements through specialized staff training and education.

"At Wonderworks, we are always working to maintain a safe, healthy and educational environment for all children," said Lynn Queen, Director of Wonderworks Learning Center. "We focus our child care around the individual, recognizing that everyone is different. We are extremely proud to achieve Licensed Plus status. I have worked with my staff over the past two years encouraging education and training to continuously improve their performance and to meet the high standards of quality child care."

Wonderworks' incentive award is for $1600.00, which is 5% of child care payments for children who received child care subsidized by the state during the previous calendar year. Licensed Plus was proposed by DHHS, and approved by the New Hampshire Legislature as part of the last budget as an incentive program for child care providers. Wonderworks' is one of only 63 child care centers in the state who have achieved this distinction, and only one of four facilities in the eastern Monadnock Region.

Wonderworks' Licensed Plus certification is effective until December 2009.

"Part of the reason Wonderworks was chosen for Licensed Plus status is due to the fact that our 17 member staff has been credentialed through the Early Childhood Professional Development System. Funded by DHHS, it is a voluntary program that recognizes experience, self-study and education through a set of "career lattices" of which child care professionals can continuously move up in level. DHHS issues a credential to child care professionals who meet or exceed criteria set forth in the child care licensing regulations," added Queen.

Wonderworks Learning Center provides quality care for children of the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire, ages six weeks to 12 years. In the early 1980s, Crotched Mountain became one of the first employers in the region to offer on-site child care. Wonderworks serves the children of Crotched Mountain employees as well as those from local communities, and currently has 66 children enrolled. For more information, please call Wonderworks Director Lynn Queen at 603-547-3311 ext. 310 or
e-mail: wonderworks@crotchedmountain.org.

Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center is a charitable organization employing more than 900 people and provides specialized education, rehabilitation, community and residential support services for more than 2,000 consumers, including individuals with disabilities and the elderly, living in New England and New York. For more information about Crotched Mountain please visit their web site: www.crotchedmountain.org.