Oklahoma launched the first Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) in 1998. At that time, the term QRS (Quality Rating System) was the term used to describe these systems, constructed to “assess, improve and communicate about the level of quality in early care and education settings,” according to Anne Mitchell in her QRIS toolkit, Stair Steps to Quality. Recently, the ‘I’ has been added to create the term QRIS, the ‘I’ standing for Improvement. The addition of the ‘I’ has helped to shift the focus away from merely rating early care and education programs – expanding the idea of quality to include continuous quality improvement. It also helps redefine the term “quality” to include such things as serving families in a culturally competent manner, including supports that will allow families, in partnership with early care and education professionals, to facilitate their child’s optimum development and school readiness. During the past ten years, seventeen other states have joined Oklahoma in fully implementing QRIS. All but five of the remaining states are drafting standards, piloting or considering how to implement QRIS. If you are interested in learning more about how this applies to your state, see the reference materials in this document and contact your State Child Care Administrator for additional information specific to your state.

Share What You Know. Research by NAEYC revealed that early childhood educators feel a strong sense of responsibility to help prevent child abuse and neglect, but want to know more about effective strategies.

The Right Tools Are Always Helpful. The Strengthening Families Protective Factor (SF/PF) Framework is a strong support

Primary Prevention

AAA KKKeeeyyy In High Quality Early Care

and Education Settings

Important ways Children’s Trust Funds Can be engaged in states’ Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS)

Getting Started

What is QRIS?

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The Alliance’s

Early Childhood Initiative (ECI)

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Stories from Three ECI States: Embedding the Strengthening Families Protective Factor (SF/PF) Framework Into QRIS

Working Together.

One Goal.

A System of Systems

QRIS is a composite system that unifies multiple sectors of the early childhood education system. Some of the sub-systems represented in states’ QRIS are:

• Child Care Licensing

• Professional Development System

• Early Care and Education Providers – Centers and Family Child Care

• Child Care Resource & Referral

• Early Childhood Mental Health

• Departments of Education

• Higher Education

All of these must agree upon how the basic elements of QRIS should be structured and implemented. Building the five protective factors (parental resilience, social connections, concrete support in times of need, knowledge of parenting and child development and social and emotional development of children) is a priority for each of these systems.

Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect Before it Ever Occurs by Strengthening Families.

Basic Elements of QRIS There are five elements that are common to almost all states’ QRIS:

1. Standards – at least two levels of quality above state’s basic licensing requirements – may align with early learning guidelines.

2. Accountability – Monitoring and assessment of standards

3. Support to ECE Practitioners – technical assistance, training and other supports to help practitioners along the pathway to quality.

4. Financing – tiered reimbursements, grants and other support tied to quality.

5. Parent Education – actually, educating parents to be savvy consumers of high quality early care and education as they see how it will benefit their most precious resource – their children.

Each of these elements can serve as a “door” by which Children’s Trust Funds may seek to enter QRIS. By partnering with early childhood stakeholders to embed the five protective factors into QRIS, Children’s Trust Funds have the opportunity to systemically strengthen families.

Early Care and Education Professionals Children’s Trust Funds

Children’s Trust Funds Early Care and Education Professionals

3

Together,

with the right tools. . .

We can strengthen families.

“Quality Early Care and Education programs are the foundation for a child abuse and neglect prevention agenda.” --- Sharon L. Kagan

Evidence points to the reality that quality early

care and education programs strengthen children and families and ultimately reduce child abuse and neglect.

Children’s Trust Funds have valuable

experience implementing effective community-based family strengthening strategies.

The Strengthening Families Protective

Factor Framework is a tool that Children’s Trust Funds can offer as a resource to help unite the multiple sectors of the early childhood field necessary to build and sustain Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS).

Why should Children’s Trust Funds become involved with

QRIS?

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Strengthening Families Protective Factor Framework

The Alliance’s

Early Childhood Initiative (ECI)

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Stories from Three ECI States: Embedding the Strengthening Families Protective Factor (SF/PF) Framework Into QRIS

In September of 2008, three ECI States (Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Idaho) were chosen to participate in Strengthening Families Through QRIS -- an intensive effort to support their state’s QRIS with the Protective Factors*

Pennsylvania

In 2002, Pennsylvania commissioned the Early Care and Education Quality Study as a part of the Task Force on Early Care and Education. The study indicated a decline in the quality of early childhood settings, both in center‐based and family child care homes.   Keystone STARS, Pennsylvania’s QRIS, was launched in 2002 to address the alarming decline in quality.   The robust voluntary system is a continuous quality improvement program available to all regulated child care providers in Pennsylvania.  Keystone STARS has steadily increased the quality of centers, group homes and family child care homes.  Approximately 1,500 child care providers participated in Keystone STARS in June 2004, serving 72,000 children.   By January 2009 that number had grown to over 5,000 child care providers serving over 180,000 children and their families.   The ECI team in Pennsylvania has embedded language from the SF/PF Framework into their Best Practices Guide and Optional Tools.  These tools assist programs as they seek to move up to higher levels of quality. Another aspect of the ECI team’s work is to create a tool kit for child care providers that will support their use of the SF/PF approach as they reach for higher quality.  As this team studied the common elements of QRIS, they saw their best opportunity or “door” into their state’s QRIS to be that of “supports to ECE practitioners”   (p.2).   

Tennessee

Tennessee’s QRIS actually includes two programs: • Child Care Evaluation & Report Card Program –

required for all licensed and approved child care providers • Star Quality Child Care Program – voluntary program

that recognizes child care providers who meet a higher standard of quality.

QRIS standards in Tennessee require both of the above programs to participate in a program assessment. This is done through a variety of standard assessment tools, such as the Environment Rating Scale. Tennessee has identified alignment between the various ERS tools and the SF/PF Framework. Often child care programs may view the ERS as a list of requirements that they must check off. An awareness of how these requirements serve to strengthen families is a powerful motivation. The ECI team in Tennessee is choosing to embed the SF/PF Framework into their QRIS through the “door” of “standards” and “accountability.” *This work is made possible through funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the A.L. Mailman Foundation

The vibrant network of the ECI Learning Community . . .

represents partnerships between CTFs and early childhood stakeholders in 27 states. Each member of the Learning Community is committed to:

♦ Transformational systemic change to benefit children and families

♦ Attainment and strengthening of the five protective factors among all families and communities

♦ A future where all children live in safe, stable and nurturing families and communities.

The ECI Theory of Change

maps out a plan to accomplish the goals stated above. A key strategy will be to explore ways in which states can embed the Strengthening Families Protective Factor Framework

into their states’ Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS). See www.ctfalliance.org for more information.

Collaboration Requires Concentration

Children’s Trust Funds Early Care and Education Professionals

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 Idaho

Enthusiastic support from child care providers and a disdain for regulations by state policy makers form the backdrop for efforts to increase quality for early care and education settings in Idaho. Yet, since 2003 a unique relationship between the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children (Idaho AEYC) and the University of Idaho (IdahoSTARS state training and registry system) was the basis for a collaboration that eventually included Idaho’s Children’s Trust Fund. Although quality efforts initially focused on voluntary training and education scholarships, mentoring, and environment assessment, by 2006 a broader focus began to include the use of the Strengthening Families approach as an integral component of Idaho’s Child Care Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) and accounts for 20% of the quality standards. QRIS is currently in the design phase and being implemented through a statewide pilot program in over 20 cities. The pilot includes 52 centers and family-based programs, serving nearly 3,000 children and their families. Idaho has been successful at incorporating major components of the Strengthening Families approach (including the self-assessment) into the QRIS standards. They have created a curriculum around the SF/PF Framework that will soon be expanded to programs outside of the QRIS pilot, utilizing the “support to ECE practitioners” door into their QRIS. The most recent work being undertaken by the ECI team is to implement the Community Café and reach out to parents to cultivate their “leadership voice” in order to raise an awareness of the importance of quality child care and create a greater demand for higher quality and a strong statewide voluntary QRIS.        

3 Resources: To learn more about the National Alliance of Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds’ Early Childhood Initiative work with Strengthening Families Through QRIS, see: www.ctfalliance.org/qris To download a copy of the Strengthening Families Self-Assessment, Guidebook for Early Childhood Programs and other materials, see: www.strengtheningfamilies.net The federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, the “Stimulus Package,” offers some opportunities to implement early childhood policy and systems change. To learn more about how this could possibly benefit implementation of QRIS, see: www.buildinitiative.org The National Child Care Information Center has recently updated information about states who are fully implementing QRIS, with links to states’ QRIS websites: http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/pubs/qrs-defsystems.html Advancing Child Abuse and Neglect Protective Factors: The Role of the Early Care and Education Infrastructure by Sharon L. Kagan gives a justification of why high quality early childhood programs are a logical foundation for a child abuse and neglect prevention agenda: http://www.cssp.org/uploadFiles/Kagan.pdf

For further information, contact: Martha Reeder, Program Manager Early Childhood Initiative National Alliance of Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds marthareeder@gmail.com

[Recipient]

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Children’s Trust and Preventions Funds across the United States have embraced the Strengthening Families Protective Factor (SF/PF) Framework as a way to build strong families and communities and to support the optimal development of the very youngest and most vulnerable children.

Early Care and Education Systems have recognized the need for higher quality early care and education settings, and have pursued the development of Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) as a way to meet this need.

High quality early care and education settings that reach out to parents in significant and meaningful partnerships may be one of the best ways to prevent child abuse and neglect. As QRIS are being built and revised, the critical opportunity exists to strengthen families and prevent child abuse before it ever occurs.

Strengthening Families Through QRIS

Primary Prevention: A Key Ingredient in High Quality Early Care and Education

National Alliance of Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds 5712 30th Avenue NE Seattle WA 98105 Phone (206) 526-1221 Fax (206) 526-0220 info@ctfalliance.org www.ctfalliance.org

Safe and Healthy Children Strong and Stable Families Thriving and Prosperous Communities