ABCs of QRS

This draft plan presents the recommendations of a citizen’s task force for developing a voluntary quality rating system (QRS) for early care and education and school-age programs in Minnesota. This plan will help parents choose quality programs for their children and help providers improve and maintain quality. The QRS will reward quality providers, provide struggling programs with incentives to improve, and provide parents with ratings. The proposed QRS is a four-level system that contains quality indictors in seven categories: (1) Professional Development/Qualifications/Training; (2) Learning Environments; (3) Family Partnerships and Education; (4) Licensing Compliance; (5) Ratios; (6) Management/Administrative Policies; and (7) Program Evaluation. This plan outlines four primary functions essential to the operation of an effective and efficient system: (1) rating programs; (2) supporting program participation in the QRS; (3) supporting parent use of the ratings; and (4) managing the QRS improvement grants, performance awards, ratings validity, and overall system evaluation. Appendices include: (1) “Family Child Care QRS Rating Criteria/Indicators”; (2) “Center-based QRS Rating Criteria/Indicators”; (3) “Schoolage Program QRS Rating Criteria/Indicators”; (4) “Provider Incentives, Grants and Performance Awards”; (5) “Minnesota’s School Readiness Expectations for Children, Providers and Programs”; (6) “Provider QRS Participation Flow Chart”; (7) “Research Base Supporting the Proposed Quality Indicators”; and (8) “Minnesota QRS Task Force Members and Staff.”