CDC ensures mission readiness, peace of mind

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Brittany A. Chase
  • 35th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan --  From hourly to daily care, Misawa Air Base’s Yoiko Child Development Center supports a wide variety of childcare programs to meet every family’s needs.

The CDC is a developmental school with programs to encourage children to think and reason, promote language and literacy, build physical development and skills, enhance social skills and much more.

The services provided by the CDC ensure every Airman with a family has the proper care for their children, enabling them to stay mission ready.

“We provide full-time child care as our primary function,” said Deborah Barron, the 35th Force Support Squadron Yoiko Child Development Center director. “We provide quality care that ensures military members are able to work while knowing their child is being properly taken care of.”

Barron added they also have a program where children can come in for half the day or hourly to help parents if they have appointments or errands they need to run.

“We care for children aged six weeks up to the age of five,” said Barron. “The classrooms are broken up into four age groups with a four children to one caregiver ratio, pre-toddlers have a 5-to-1 ratio, the toddlers have a 10-to-1 ratio and the pre-school is a 12-to-1 ratio.”

The caregivers go through more than 40 hours of rigorous training and meet annual requirements to ensure each child has the best care.

“We have two in-house trainers who train the staff and review lesson plans,” Barron said. “This is important because they follow the creative curriculum plan, ensuring the daily activities are thought out and have an intention behind them.”

She stated these lesson plans make sure the caregivers develop the children's gross motor skills, enhance their social skills, build their self-help skills and other important tasks for a child to learn as they grow.

“Overall, we provide peace of mind to each and every parent,” said Barron. “The CDC provides a well-rounded classroom environment by keeping the best interest of the child in mind.”

For the caregivers, it’s about making sure the parents feel safe leaving their child in their care.

“I want the parents to feel their child is safe and have no worries when they drop them off,” said Brittany Tillman, a 35th FSS CDC caregiver. “Ultimately, my job is to take great care of these children.”