Our mission – to provide high quality early care and education for young children of working parents – has remained virtually unchanged for more than a century. In fact, our mission has become all the more vital to the community we serve as the need for quality early care and education grows. Founded in 1912, LBDN was one of the first licensed child care programs in California, the first licensed program in Long Beach and the first to meet the high standards required for accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). LBDN has graduated thousands of young children who, upon entering kindergarten, were better prepared to take full advantage of their school experience. LBDN’s history is deeply rooted in the community. We are so much more than just a child care center, but rather an iconic Long Beach institution that continuously pushes the envelope of what it means to be a high-quality early childhood education program.