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National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance

The National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance (ECQA Center) 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.

Contact Us

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Highlighted Tools

Licensing

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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Program Standards Crosswalk

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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QRIS Resource Guide

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).

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Provider Cost of Quality Calculator

The Provider Cost of Quality Calculator (PCQC) is a tool that calculates the cost of care by levels of quality based on site-level provider data. The tool can help state policymakers, child care providers, and other stakeholders understand the costs associated with delivering high-quality child care services.

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State Success Stories

Featured State Highlight: New Improvements to Maine’s Licensing ProgramNew Improvements to Maine’s Licensing Program
During the last year, the lead agency for the federal Child Care and Development Fund, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), increased their commitment to ensuring the health and well-being of children in licensed child care programs. The Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services (DLRS) was supported in launching several major program enhancements. New management staff was hired to do strategic planning, assess risks, focus on quality assurance and program improvement, build staff leadership qualities and improve staff satisfaction. Learn More

Resources and Information

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77 resources found.
Designing Family-Friendly Consumer Education on Child Care

This brief provides research-based information to support state agency staff as they design and implement consumer education websites and other resources, such as quality rating and improvement systems.

Key Competencies for Licensors of Child Care Programs
A technical assistance resource document that outlines the knowledge, skills, abilities, behaviors, and other characteristics that a licensor of child care programs needs in order to perform his or her job duties successfully.
 
Mapping the Early Care and Education Monitoring Landscape

This tool is designed to help state and territory leaders document current early care and education (ECE) monitoring systems as they evaluate opportunities for alignment and integration.

Mapping the Early Care and Education Monitoring Landscape

This tool is designed to help state and territory leaders document current early care and education (ECE) monitoring systems as they evaluate opportunities for alignment and integration.

Staffed Family Child Care Networks: A Research-Informed Strategy for Supporting High-Quality Family Child Care

This brief includes a description of family child care networks and addresses supports a staffed family child care network can provide, particularly to special populations (family, friend, and neighbor care, license-exempt providers, English language learners, and dual language learners); th

Briefs about Health and Safety Topics

The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014 made major changes designed to protect the health and safety of children in early care and education (ECE) settings.

Developing and Revising Child Care Licensing Requirements

Having clearly written, research-based, measurable licensing requirements is the first step in protecting children from health and safety risks and promoting quality care.

Interpretive Guides for Child Care Licensing Regulations

Interpretive guides for their child care licensing regulations generally help child care licensing staff understand the purpose of licensing requirements and the methods they should use to assess facilities’ compliance with the requirements.

Webinar - Resources and Tools for Revising and Aligning Early Childhood Program Standards

The National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance hosted a webinar on January 11, 2017, where participants explored the various tools and resources available to help States and Territories revise their early childhood programs standards, such as licensing regulations and quality ratin

Bringing License-Exempt Family Child Care into the Quality Improvement System

This presentation by the National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance at the 2016 QRIS National Meeting, focused on strategies for including license-exempt family child care in the quality improvement system and an analysis of States’ existing support systems and opportunities for improve

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