State Examples
- Oct 01, 2012 | Child Care and Early Education Tennessee: Monitoring and Technical Assistance System In Tennessee, safety concerns along with increasing need among low-income, working families for quality child care, prompted the state to revamp its monitoring system and enact other licensing reforms. The state has worked to strengthen its child care licensing rules, as well as implement a policy that increased the frequency of inspections to better monitor providers and required annual evaluations of providers to improve the quality of care. Read Online
- Sep 18, 2012 | Child Care and Early Education Minnesota: R.E.E.T.A.I.N. Bonus Program Minnesota’s Retaining Early Educators Through Attaining Incentives Now (R.E.E.T.A.I.N.) bonus program encourages and rewards well-trained child care professionals who stay in the field by awarding them with a monetary bonus. The R.E.E.T.A.I.N. program recognizes the importance of offering incentives to child care providers as encouragement to stay and advance in the profession. Read Online
- Dec 02, 2011 | Child Care and Early Education Louisiana: Mental Health Consultation (MHC) Program Mental health consultations can help to equip child care providers who serve infants and toddlers with the tools and training needed to implement developmentally appropriate practices that foster healthy child development and support children with special needs. In July 2007, Louisiana’s Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) contracted with the Tulane Institute of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health to launch a Mental Health Consultation (MHC) program for child care centers. Read Online
- Dec 02, 2011 | Child Care and Early Education Louisiana: Quality Start Child Care Rating System Louisiana Quality Start Child Care Rating System is a voluntary quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) for all licensed child care in Louisiana, which includes child care centers, Head Start and Early Head Start programs. design and implementation was a major focus of the state’s early childhood initiative, BrightStart, which in 2009 was designated as the state’s early childhood advisory council. With funding from the Child Care and Development Block Grant, Quality Start was implemented statewide in 2007. Read Online
- Dec 02, 2011 | Child Care and Early Education Pennsylvania: Keystone Babies The Keystone Babies program was created to expand access to high-quality early learning settings for vulnerable infants and toddlers in Pennsylvania. Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the voluntary program offers financial support to center-based providers to create additional slots for low-income infants and toddlers in the state’s child care assistance program, Child Care Works (CCW). Read Online
- Dec 01, 2011 | Child Care and Early Education Massachusetts: Family Child Care System Contracts Family child care (FCC) is a common type of child care for children under the age of three. The Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) contracts with FCC systems to ensure a stable level of access to high-quality family child care throughout the state. Any FCC system in Massachusetts that agrees to provide EEC subsidized early education and care services through its affiliated providers must hold a contract with EEC. FCC systems are significant sources of assistance and support for FCC providers in the state, particularly for those who serve subsidized children. In 2009, more than a quarter (28 percent) of subsidized children in Massachusetts were infants and toddlers, and more than a quarter of subsidized children (28 percent) were cared for in family child care or group child care homes. Read Online
- Oct 05, 2011 | Christine Johnson-Staub Arkansas: Developmental Screening Partnership Children develop along a continuum, with milestones reached at ages that vary within an accepted timeframe. Development that does not happen within the expected timeframe can raise concerns about developmental disorders, health conditions, or other factors contributing negatively to the child’s development. Child care providers are often early witnesses to the signs of developmental problems with the children in their care, but they may not have the capacity or training to identify a problem, discuss concerns with families, and guide families in seeking related services. Read Online
- Sep 23, 2011 | Christine Johnson-Staub Rhode Island: Watch Me Grow Child care providers are often early witnesses to the signs of developmental problems that may impact children in their care, but they often lack the capacity or training to identify a problem, discuss concerns with families, and guide families in seeking related services. In Rhode Island, early childhood stakeholders have created and funded a collaborative initiative that helps build that capacity, and better serve children in participating child care programs. Read Online
- Aug 19, 2010 | Child Care and Early Education A Guide to State Policy Examples from the Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care Project This matrix provides a current list of states for which CLASP has posted policy examples for the Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care project. Download PDF
- Aug 19, 2010 | Child Care and Early Education Indiana: Paths to QUALITY Infant/Toddler Specific Standards The Indiana quality rating and improvement system (QRIS), Paths to QUALITY, is a statewide voluntary system that includes infant and toddler standards and is designed for licensed child care centers, licensed family child care homes, and unlicensed registered faith-based organizations. Statewide rollout of Paths to QUALITY began in January 2008 and was completed in January 2009. A study conducted by Purdue University is currently underway to assess the impact of the QRIS. This state example is part of CLASP's Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care project. Read Online
- Mar 17, 2010 | Child Care and Early Education Tennessee: The Strengthening Families Initiative Tennessee Strengthening Families is an initiative overseen by the Tennessee Children’s Trust Fund (CTF) in the state’s child welfare agency. CTF partners with the state’s Department of Human Services (DHS) to promote and integrate the Strengthening Families framework into state systems. This framework, developed by the Center for the Study of Social Policy, aims to prevent child abuse and neglect by building five protective factors around young children and working with their families. This state example is part of CLASP's Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care project. Read Online
- Jan 22, 2010 | Child Care and Early Education Missouri: The Quality Rating System and Infant/Toddler Responsive Caregiving Checklist The Missouri Quality Rating System (MO QRS) is a voluntary system that seeks to address infants and toddlers both in terms of the design of the system and in the content on which child care quality is measured. The MO QRS was developed in part to align with the state's early learning standards and core competencies for early childhood professionals. Certain specific measures have been included to address infant/toddler care. This state example is part of CLASP's Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care project. Read Online
- Jan 11, 2010 | Child Care and Early Education California: The Comprehensive Approaches to Raising Educational Standards (CARES) Program and CARES Plus The First 5 California Comprehensive Approaches to Raising Educational Standards (CARES) program is a professional development and retention program that aims to build a highly-qualified and culturally and linguistically diverse early childhood workforce. Open to all ends of the spectrum of those caring for children from 0 to 5—from family, friend and neighbor (FFN) caregivers to licensed family child care providers and center-based teachers and directors, the program offers financial incentives and other supports and services to increase the pursuit of training and education and reduce turnover in the early learning field. This state example is part of CLASP's Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care project. Read Online
- Jan 11, 2010 | Child Care and Early Education Educare: Creating Comprehensive Early Care and Education Centers Educare is an initiative that draws on public and private resources to create and sustain comprehensive early care and education centers for low-income families with children from birth to age 5. These centers can serve as a model location, program, and a platform for policy change in the communities and states in which they are developed. Centers are currently open in Chicago (IL), Denver (CO), Miami (FL), Milwaukee (WI), Oklahoma City (OK), Omaha (NE), and Tulsa (OK). Additional centers in Kansas City (MO), Omaha (NE), Phoenix (AZ), Seattle (WA), Tulsa (OK), Waterville (ME), West DuPage (IL), and Yakima (WA) are in development. This state example is part of CLASP's Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care project. Read Online
- Dec 22, 2009 | Child Care & Early Education State CCDBG Plans to Build the Supply of Quality Care The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) is the largest source of federal funding for child care available to states. Every two years, states must lay out their plans for using all CCDBG funds to help low-income families access child care and to improve the quality of child care for all children, including infants and toddlers. The following lists examples of promising child care licensing, subsidy, and quality enhancement policies and initiatives related to building the supply of quality care as reported by states in their FFY 2008-2009 CCDBG plans. Read Online
- Dec 22, 2009 | Child Care & Early Education State CCDBG Plans to Establish Core Competencies The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) is the largest source of federal funding for child care available to states. Every two years, states must lay out their plans for using all CCDBG funds to help low-income families access child care and to improve the quality of child care for all children, including infants and toddlers. The following lists examples of promising child care licensing, subsidy, and quality enhancement policies and initiatives related to establishing core competencies as reported by states in their FFY 2008-2009 CCDBG plans. Read Online
- Dec 22, 2009 | Child Care & Early Education State CCDBG Plans to Expand Monitoring and Technical Assistance The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) is the largest source of federal funding for child care available to states. Every two years, states must lay out their plans for using all CCDBG funds to help low-income families access child care and to improve the quality of child care for all children, including infants and toddlers. The following lists examples of promising child care licensing, subsidy, and quality enhancement policies and initiatives related to expanding monitoring and technical assistance as reported by states in their FFY 2008-2009 CCDBG plans. Read Online
- Dec 22, 2009 | Child Care & Early Education State CCDBG Plans to Promote Access to Comprehensive Services The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) is the largest source of federal funding for child care available to states. Every two years, states must lay out their plans for using all CCDBG funds to help low-income families access child care and to improve the quality of child care for all children, including infants and toddlers. The following lists examples of promising child care licensing, subsidy, and quality enhancement policies and initiatives related to promoting access to comprehensive services as reported by states in their FFY 2008-2009 CCDBG plans. Read Online
- Dec 22, 2009 | Child Care & Early Education State CCDBG Plans to Promote Access to Early, Regular and Comprehensive Screenings The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) is the largest source of federal funding for child care available to states. Every two years, states must lay out their plans for using all CCDBG funds to help low-income families access child care and to improve the quality of child care for all children, including infants and toddlers. The following lists examples of promising child care licensing, subsidy, and quality enhancement policies and initiatives related to promoting access to appropriate screenings as reported by states in their FFY 2008-2009 CCDBG plans. Read Online
- Dec 22, 2009 | Child Care & Early Education State CCDBG Plans to Promote Competitive Compensation and Benefits The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) is the largest source of federal funding for child care available to states. Every two years, states must lay out their plans for using all CCDBG funds to help low-income families access child care and to improve the quality of child care for all children, including infants and toddlers. The following lists examples of promising child care licensing, subsidy, and quality enhancement policies and initiatives related to promoting competitive compensation and benefits as reported by states in their FFY 2008-2009 CCDBG plans. Read Online