This study examined the NAEYC accreditation criteria for evidence based strategies to address challenging behavior. Document analysis was used to identify evidence based strategies from the Teaching Pyramid within the NAEYC accreditation criteria. A second component of this study examined the behavior guidance policies of NAEYC accredited early care and education programs for evidence of the Teaching Pyramid strategies found in the NAEYC accreditation criteria. The results of this study indicated that the NAEYC accreditation criteria and the NAEYC accredited program’s behavior guidance policies incorporated all of the evidence based strategies from the Teaching Pyramid. However, the number of criteria that cover each strategy varies widely and all of the identified accreditation criteria were spread out over seven of the ten standards for accreditation.
