Children's Institute's Partnership with QUALITYstarsNY
QUALITYstarsNY is New York State’s voluntary five-star Quality Rating and Improvement System for early childhood programs. It focuses on its evidence-based practices to ensure young children in participating programs have access to excellence, and their families can trust the level of quality in the programs they choose.
A childcare program can choose to join QUALITYstarsNY, which then provides support to the program with individualized guidance from a Quality Improvement Specialist. The QI Specialist has expertise in early childhood education and program management. They also help programs access QUALITYstarsNY resources such as materials to enhance their learning environment, professional development opportunities, and a data-driven assessment.
An observation (or assessment) consists of an observer arranging the on-site visit, a 3-hour observation in a sampling of the early childhood settings or classrooms, and completion of rating report(s) about the learning environment, which are provided by Children’s Institute to be available and viewed by QUALITYstarsNY programs and Quality Improvement Specialists.
Children’s Institute partners with QUALITYstarsNY as the third party that provides the observations throughout the state. CI’s team has conducted over 2700 since the partnership began in 2016.
CI’s observer team has the privilege of visiting thousands of classrooms and childcare environments full of children and the dedicated adults that work in them in every region of New York, from Western New York to the Adirondack mountains, the Capital district, through New York City and Long Island. This work is essential in supporting high-quality environments for the state’s youngest learners.
To learn more about the QUALITYstarsNY program as a childcare provider or as a parent please visit: New York’s Quality Rating & Improvement System - QUALITYstarsNY
