National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance

The National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance (NCECQA) supports state and community leaders and their partners in the planning and implementation of rigorous approaches to quality in all early care and education settings for children from birth to school age. The Center's expert staff use collaborative approaches to do the following:

  • Advance strong health and safety standards and licensing regulations that align with the Child Care and Development Fund and Head Start Performance Standards.
  • Support the development and enhancement of state quality initiatives, including quality rating and improvement systems.
  • Enhance quality assurance systems through the use of technology, data analysis, and research that promote continuous quality improvement, efficiency, and innovation.
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Highlighted Tools and Resources
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The National Database of Child Care Licensing Regulations is a tool for finding and searching state child care licensing regulations and licensing agency contact information. It also includes links to other state and national early childhood program standards.

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The Program Standards Crosswalk is a tool designed to help States that are developing and aligning program standards for licensing, quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS), and/or prekindergarten programs, to search and compare the content of several sets of national standards.

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The QRIS Resource Guide provides guidance for States as they explore key issues and consider decision points during the planning and implementation of a quality rating and improvement system (QRIS).

The Provider Cost of Quality Calculator is a tool that calculates the cost of care by levels of quality based on site-level provider data.

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The Licensing Professional Development Series is designed exclusively for state, territory, and Tribal licensing staff to hear from guest speakers who are subject matter experts on key topics.