Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) are systems to rate daycare quality that many states have started within the last decade. QRISs are like daycare search engines that provide parents with in-depth information about the quality of child care programs, daycares, and preschools in their state.
Most QRIS go beyond the requirements in the child care licensing system. Some even encourage programs to improve the quality of their care by offering financial awards for high quality. Programs that work to meet the higher standards in the QRIS are also typically awarded a higher rating that is available to the public.
Many child care programs use their QRIS rating as a marketing tool to attract families to their programs. Since QRIS act as child care search engines they are one of the main ways that families find high-quality daycare. The information QRISs provide about child care programs may include things like how the program rates in helping children with academic achievement and how supportive the staff are of children’s emotional needs. It may also provide information about engagement with parents, the curriculum used, and hours of operation. Some QRIS also have a component that focuses on improving teacher training and education.
Below are some of the areas of quality that are typically included in QRIS but not in daycare licensing. Three of these areas include classroom organization, emotional support, and academic support.
An Organized Room
The first key component of high-quality daycare is a room that is well-organized and orderly. The CLASS Assessment Scoring System – a common test of preschool and daycare quality — refers to this as ‘Classroom Organization’. Classroom organization refers to the scheduling, transitions, and orderliness of a preschool classroom.
You may be thinking, are there classrooms full of toddlers that ARE orderly? Well, this may be a surprise but yes there are! And orderliness in a classroom is an extremely important factor that sets the stage for the emotional and academic development that young children need.
How can you tell if a daycare classroom is well-organized? One easy clue is the level of noise. Now, all child care classrooms are going to get extremely loud from time to time. However, the teachers in these classrooms should be able to calm and quiet the children when it is called for. And if they can’t? Disorganized and loud classrooms can lead to higher cortisol levels in children which raises their overall stress levels.
So, when you’re touring child care programs, pay attention to the teacher’s ability to bring calm to the children in their classroom. The ability to do that means that they have the basic skills necessary to provide more advanced care to your kids that builds their emotional fortitude and potential for academic achievement.
Emotional Support
The second key component of quality child care programs is the emotional and developmentally age-appropriate support they provide to children. Emotional support can be challenging for parents to assess. It’s the sort of thing you know when you see but it’s hard to put your figure on what is in the ‘secret sauce.’
At its most basic level, emotional support includes a warm and open rapport, an absence of harsh criticism and yelling, and calm redirection when misbehavior occurs. For babies, emotional support will include being held and talked to in a calming way. For preschoolers, modeling behavior, promoting decision-making, and providing support during times of trouble.
A high-quality child care program will avoid some red flags that show an absence of emotional support. These include yelling, criticism, ignoring, belittling, and sarcasm. Evidence of any of the behaviors on the part of teachers should be an indication to you that the program does not meet basic standards for caring for children in a supportive and open manner.
Academic Support
The third component of quality for child care programs is the extent to which they foster an environment of learning. Academic support is of particular importance as kids age and near the time when they’ll enter school. But academic support can and should be demonstrated by child care programs in their youngest classrooms as well.
Parents can tell if programs are strong in academic support by understanding the curriculum used, knowing the education of the teachers, and seeing how 3- and 4-year-olds kids are prepared for elementary school.
A good curriculum should be approved by the state’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) if the state has one. Approved curricula will likely include a variety of different approaches to supporting children’s academic development, but all should be developmentally appropriate.
Child care programs with strong academic support will likely have more highly educated teachers. These teachers have specialized training in early childhood development. Sometimes they will have training in the specific approach used in the child care program. Montessori teachers for instance complete certification in that approach.
Finally, child care programs that are strong in academically supporting kids will have an established approach for making sure that their preschool-aged kids are ready for kindergarten. They should be able to tell you what they do to get older kids ready for school. Some child care programs will assess kids to ensure that they are on track to start school. These programs will likely work with parents to address areas of concern to ensure their kids are ready to learn once they start kindergarten.
State QRIS Websites
QRIS act as daycare search engines for many states. That means you can go to the QRIS site for your state and search for child care programs based on a number of criteria. Here are the QRIS sites for every state that has such a system: