Children's Administration has made a commitment to achieve accreditation through the Council on Accreditation (COA). Children's Administration must demonstrate that it meets over 700 best practice standards in the administration and practice of child protection/child welfare services.

Standards to Achieve Accreditation

In order to meet the quality standards for accreditation, Children's Administration has adopted a comprehensive set of quality standards for headquarters and all field offices to achieve and maintain.

In 2000, the Vancouver office became the first state child welfare agency on the West Coast to achieve accreditation from COA.

Once all Children’s Administration field offices have been confirmed as meeting COA standards, the DSHS Children's Administration will be accredited. As of February 2008, Headquarters and 43 field offices have met the COA standards. The remaining offices have each completed their COA Site Visit and are in the process of responding to COA’s written report. We anticipate achieving statewide Accreditation during calendar year 2008.