DC Action for Children, in partnership with public leaders, advocates, parents and child care providers, is dedicated to improving early learning outcomes for all of the District's children. Research demonstrates that high-quality early childhood education has a profound and lasting effect on a young child's ability to learn throughout his or her lifetime.

QRIS: What does it mean for early care and education?

The Quality Rating and Improvement System (known as QRIS) is a voluntary system offering assistance and rewards to providers to increase the quality of care for children in child care centers, school-age programs and family child care homes. Head Start and Early Head Start programs can also participate. QRIS provides a way to measure the quality of participating programs. The current design of the QRIS has five steps, or levels, beginning with licensing and culminating with accreditation.

The District is still exploring the creation of a QRIS framework. The Early Childhood Development Council, housed at the Office of State Superintendent of Education’s Office of Early Childhood Education, is currently seeking input from the community on this effort. DC Action for Children is in the process of creating proposed voluntary QRIS standards. We welcome your input.

Additional Background on QRIS:

• Information on how states are implementing QRIS from the BUILD Initiative
• QRIS Resource Guide from the National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center

Tools to Ensure Quality

What is accreditation? Accreditation is an effort to improve early childhood education through different systems of ratings for programs that are committed to meeting national standards of quality.

Why become accredited? Accreditation allows professionals to raise the quality of programs for all young children from birth through age 14.

What are benchmarks? Benchmarks are clear, specific descriptions of knowledge or skills that can be supported through observation, descriptions and documentation of a child's performance or behavior and by samples of a child's work. Benchmarks are often used as points of reference to show progress in connection with more broadly stated content standards.

What is a core competency? Core competencies are statements describing the skills and qualities needed to be a competent caregiver. They serve as goals and guideposts for professional development and also enable parents to assess and compare the quality of child care their children are receiving.

Additional Resources:

• National Family Child Care Association
• Montessori
• National AfterSchool Association
• The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)