Overview

Diagram illustrating Quality Counts California's major funding streams.

Where did Quality Counts California originate from?

Concerted state and local efforts to improve the quality of early learning and care programs for California’s children have been underway for more than a decade, most recently with help from the federal Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge grant, First 5 California’s IMPACT (Improve and Maximize Programs so All Children Thrive), and the California Department of Education’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) Block Grants. In March 2016, leaders from across the state agreed to consolidate these efforts into Quality Counts California; California’s statewide, locally-driven QRIS. Collectively, these investments provide the opportunity to serve a full spectrum of program types, expand the reach of QRIS, and effectively increase quality throughout the state.

How does Quality Counts California support continuous quality improvement?

Under the banner of Quality Counts California, this state and local quality improvement effort relies on locally tailored and operated quality rating and improvement systems (QRISs). As the name suggests, a QRIS assesses and rates the quality of programs as programs become ready to be rated.

Rated programs receive customized incentives and supports from information derived from the rating (assessment) to continuously improve. Equally important, the ratings are made available to parents and families when deciding what early learning and care programs might be best for their child. However, regardless of whether they have been rated, all participating programs (e.g., centers; family child care homes; family, friends, and neighbors; license-exempt providers) can receive resources and incentives to help them continuously improve.

What does Quality Counts California comprise of?

It is comprised of three layers of California’s current system – local, regional, and state.

Local

Regional

State

State-level systems development and coordination efforts include alignment across the two funding agencies (First 5 California and the California Department of Education, Early Education and Support Division) and partner agencies (e.g., Department of Social Services, Community Care Licensing, Head Start, etc.); the creation of a statewide coaching certification; statewide training and trainer approval process; and uniform data collection practices (e.g., workforce registry, QRIS databases, inter-rater reliability).

Building Adult Capabilities to Improve Child Outcomes: A Theory of Change

How are our policies strengthening communities’ abilities to reduce sources of ‘toxic stress’ [upon young children] and caregivers abilities to provide what kids need? The development of our human capital is our future. The development of our workforce is our future. The development of a healthy population is our future. This kind of future orientation is critical for a healthy society. It’s critical for a thriving business. It’s critical for successful environments and relationships to raise children.