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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.

 

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Highlighted Tools and Resources: 
National Database of Child Care Licensing Regulations

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 (PCQC)

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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Resource Search: 
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Webinar - Using Grants and Contracts, Payment Rates, and Financial Incentives to Increase Supply and Improve Quality

This webinar included presentations by states that have used different strategies related to provider payments, grants and contracts, and financial incentives to help build and sustain the supply of high quality care in child care deserts.

This was the fourth webinar in the series—...

QRIS Quality Standards Websites

QRIS quality standards are used to assign ratings to programs that participate in QRIS, providing parents and the public with information about each program’s quality. States often have multiple sets of standards for specific types of early care and education providers, such as child care...

Webinar - State and Local Finance Strategies

This webinar focused on state and local revenue generation strategies that fund quality services for children and other aspects of a QRIS. Highlights included blending and braiding approaches to funding, the San Francisco financing approach, Dayton's income tax strategy, the Louisiana...

Webinar - Identifying, Mapping, and Alleviating Child Care Deserts

What are child care deserts? How do we recognize them and what communities do they impact? Through data-driven analysis, the scope of child care undersupply is coming into focus. Findings from two research organizations that are charting the child care desert landscape on this webinar. It...

Webinar - Building the Supply of High-Quality Child Care: An Overview

This webinar included a facilitated discussion among leaders across the country to introduce a variety of approaches they have used to build the supply of high-quality child care. Presenters explored approaches that have worked well and ones that have not. Strategies offered to the...

Monitoring Cost Estimation Calculator

The Monitoring Cost Estimation Calculator aims to help child care licensing agencies and Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) lead agencies project the annual caseload and cost of monitoring and supporting licensed and license-exempt child care providers. This document includes general...

Guidance on Estimating and Reporting the Costs of Child Care

This guidance aims to support Lead Agencies and their partners as they create cost estimates, prepare detailed reports, and use cost estimates to inform their rate setting. Specifically, this guidance outlines (1) factors that influence the cost of care, (2) sources of information that can...

Webinar - Supports and Systems for Improving Access to and Sustainability of Family Child Care

This webinar introduces two new resources on promising strategies to improve the quality of care, engage family child care (FCC) providers, and sustain provider participation in regulatory systems and quality improvement initiatives.

  • ...
QRIS Compendium Fact Sheet: History of QRIS Growth Over Time

This fact sheet is part of a series fact sheets about the state of QRIS in the United States in 2016. It shows the increase in the number of QRIS operating in the United States and major revisions to QRIS since the late 1990’s.

All of the fact sheets in this series are...

Professional Development for Child Care Licensors

The purpose of this document is to provide a framework that can be used by state, territory and tribal licensing administrators, managers, and trainers in creating professional development opportunities for child care licensing inspectors or licensors. Having a well-designed professional...

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