Early Care Providers: Join Quality Matters!
Licensed child care programs throughout Contra Costa County are invited to join Quality Matters, our quality improvement system which supports and incentivizes child care programs to offer the best early learning experiences possible. Currently, 108 licensed child care programs are participating in the system, and we have room for 30 more.
This year, Quality Matters is expanding in two new ways.
First, any licensed child care program located in Contra Costa County may now apply. While priority for participation will still be sites located in lower income communities and those serving infants and toddlers and/or children with special needs, space may be available for other programs to participate.
Find Child Care Quality Ratings
Ratings for the 95 programs participating in our new quality child care rating and improvement system (QRIS) called Quality Matters are now posted. These 95 programs include both center-based care and family child care programs and provide care for about 3,500 children. Most are located in low-income communities.
Quality Matters programs are rated using a scale of one to five on elements including:
- Providing positive, engaging teacher-child interactions
- Providing a safe, healthy and stimulating environment
- Teacher training and qualifications
- Using recommended assessments to check if children are learning new skills and developing on track
- Ratio and class size (Centers only)
Ratings Increase for Child Care Programs
Child care quality is improving in Contra Costa County and we have the ratings to prove it!
Fifty-five licensed child care programs were recently re-rated as participants in Quality Matters, our pilot child care Quality Improvement and Rating System (QRIS), and the results are outstanding:
- 26 sites increased their quality ratings
- 27 sites stayed the same (three of these were already 5’s, the top rating)
- Only two ratings decreased (note that both still meet quality benchmarks)