• SACERS: School Age Environment Rating Scale
• SAM: Statewide Accreditation Mentoring
• School-Age and Youth Development (SAYD) Credential: A voluntary credential awarded at multiple levels that identifies what individuals working directly with school-age and youth, ages 5 through 16, should know and be able to demonstrate at various levels of training, education, and experience.
• School-age child care: Any program offered to school-age children, ages 5-12, before or after school, during vacations, or during summer break.
• SDA: Service Delivery Area used by state’s Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies
• SEIU: Service Employees International Union
• Semester Credit: Unit of measure of academic credit based on length of instructional term, generally consisting of 2 terms at least fifteen weeks per year (plus a summer program).
• Stability: The tenure and turnover of teaching staff in an early childhood program. Centers with high turnover and/or staff who have not worked at the program for a long period of time have low staff stability.
• Standards: A set of knowledge and abilities on which an individual or group of individuals can be measured; a mechanism to compare educational results.
• STARNET (Illinois Support and Technical Assistance Regional Network): Provides training, consultation and resources to the early childhood community. Assists ISBE in meeting local needs by providing services to professionals and parents of young children with special needs throughout Illinois.
• Subsidized child care: Child care programs that receive funding to cover the costs of care or parent fees. In Illinois, IDHS provides subsidies to low-income families needing child care to work or attend school.