Rainforest Kids Child Development Center (RFK) was built by the General Services Administration (GSA) in 2002, mainly to serve the needs of federal employees. It is located in Hato Rey, within the Federal Office Building premises. More than just a child development center, RFK is a valuable experience treasured by children and parents that provides "Peace of Mind for Developing Minds". Although it mainly serves federal employees, it welcome community families.

We firmly believe in creating an environment in which children are safe, feel emotionally secure, and have a sense of belonging. We believe that the children learn best through “hands on” experiences, exploring, and participating in appropriate activities according to the child’s age and level of development. Every experience provided by the teachers have a purpose and helps children build brain connections. We consider that each child’s development is individualized, therefore, we use a curriculum based on the children interests and needs that provides them with opportunities to practice new skills.

RFK believes in working with families as partners in the care of their children. Developing meaningful partnerships with the families is an essential part of the experiences RFK provides for the children. These partnerships support children’s development and learning by forming close, trusting relationships with the important adults in their lives.

“Be the lighthouse that creates a culture of leadership in early childhood to inspire and transform our society”.

Our mission is to stimulate the development of each child to his/her maximum potential, shape the child's life with values that promote good ethical behavior, and makes him/her secure of himself so that each child can become a future leader of our society through a holistic approach guided by professionals specialized in early childhood education.

Our goal is to provide a high quality service by ensuring: children optimum development, partnerships with families, and fostering team work. To reach this goal our objectives are:

That each child performs at his/her maximum potential

• Developing social emotional skills by providing responsive care giving that meets children’s individual needs

• Maintaining an enriching safe and healthy environment

• Using play as a means to learning with developmentally appropriate learning experiences and challenges

• Setting limits and guiding learning in ways that reflect realistic expectations for children’s behavior

• Assessing children’s development and learning by observing, analyzing, evaluating and planning based on child’s interest and needs

• Developing leadership skills

Build Partnerships with Families

• Maintaining open communication with parents

• Integrating the family into the system

• Sharing information related to child development/ assessment

• Supporting the families

Encourage dedication and team work in personnel

• Participating in the decision making

• Training and evaluating all personnel

• Making a commitment to the integrity of the team by building trust, collaboration an inclusion

• Developing leadership skills

RFK provides a comprehensive developmentally appropriate curriculum and assessment tools to monitor and promote the child's development to the maximum potential. Our trained and licensed professionals work actively on developing your child's intellect, creativity, social-emotional skills, constructive play, and problem solving skills.

To support our philosophy, Rainforest Kids uses the comprehensive developmentally appropriate Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers & Twos and the Creative Curriculum for Preschoolers, the Second Step - A Violent Prevention Curriculum, and The Leader in Me Program.

The Creative Curriculum includes objectives for children’s development and learning. It also provides the teachers the knowledge, and identify the skills that children are expected to develop in literacy, math, science, social studies, the arts, and technology. The content is based on standards in each subject area, and correlates well with elementary school curriculum and state early learning standards. It guides the interactions the teachers have with children and their families, and lead teachers through the processes of planning and offering excellent care and education.

The Second Step Curriculum promotes violence prevention strategies with children. The weekly lessons help children develop learning and listening skills, through rules that set the stage for future academic success and later lessons on identifying feelings, managing strong emotions, solving problems and getting along with others.

The Leader in Me Program is a leadership program that assists the children to build self confidence, reduce discipline problems and increase academic achievements.

These curriculum and program supports us in helping families to provide the children with the tools needed to manage our changing society.