The 2018 Army Higher Headquarters Inspection did an unannounced inspection in early April at Pine Bluff Arsenal's Child and Youth Services. The Arsenal's team scored an unprecedented 100 percent for the overarching program, and a 99 percent for total programs. This inspection occurs annually to review over 701 components for high-quality child care. The PBA CYS program is Nationally Accredited and DoD certified.

"There are four major inspections a year. Our commander calls three of the unannounced inspections and then one is done by AHHI," said Debbi Johnson, CYS Coordinator. "They send an email saying that they will be coming, then a teleconference is scheduled within two hours of the email receipt, and then they tell you what reports they want to review and those are sent within a two hour period."

Usually it is a two to three person team, but Johnson said that because we are smaller it is only one person on the ground from AHHI during the inspection.

"Our Child Development Center scored 97 percent and the School Age and Youth Program scored a 100 percent," said Johnson. "They are pretty meticulous when looking at our files. The inspector was here for three days, and she did give us a few suggestions. There is also a follow-up call after the inspection."

Johnson said that it is important to note that the inspector who was here was also here when CYS was in two buildings three years ago.

"The inspector was very impressed about our consolidation back from the CDC building back to the CYS building," she said. "We didn't close one day during that transition. All the environments were set up and ready to go. She didn't know how we were able to do that and thought we had gone through a renovation."

Missy Brodnax, director of Family Morale, Welfare and Recreation, said she was very proud of the CYS team.

"They work hard to ensure we have only the highest level of care for our children and youth," she said. "The AHHI team takes a comprehensive look at child and youth programming and measures our success against 1200 plus standards that cover general management, programming and facilities, health, safety and risk management."

Johnson said in addition to the AHHI inspection, the playground was also being inspected during that week. "It was a busy week and there was a lot going on," she said.