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About Us |
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Childcare Resource Service was created in Georgia to help parents choice quality childcare for their children by creating the Star System. This Star System has been very successful in many other States. Over the past decade, researchers have examined the quality of child care in the U.S. and the outcomes of child care quality. They found that children who attended higher quality child care centers performed better on measures of both cognitive skills (e.g., math and language abilities) and social skills (e.g., interactions with peers, problem behaviors) in child care and through the transition into school. High quality child care continues to positively predict children’s performance and social skills well into their school years.
These children were rated higher in thinking, higher attention skills and sociability skills. Children who have traditionally been at risk of not doing well in school are affected more by the quality of child care experiences than other children. The quality of child care classroom practices was related to children’s cognitive development, while the closeness of the child care teacher-child relationship influenced children’s social development through the early school years. In summary, quality child care is important for all children, but especially important for children at-risk. What may be more important is that these effects of quality child care are long-term (University of North Carolina, University of Colorado, University of California at Los Angeles, and Yale University, 1999).
Several research studies suggest that parents and researchers sometimes have conflicting views about what aspects of a child care program are associated with quality. Parents seem to pay little attention to the structural indicators of quality such as regulatory status and caregiver training. While parents said they valued the process characteristics measured by the researchers, they consistently overestimated the quality of care their own children received. That is, parents and researchers agreed about what was important in a child care setting, but the two groups saw the same settings differently. Parents perceived care as high in quality while, on average, researchers rated the quality as mediocre. These differences between parent and observer quality scores were greater for aspects of care that parents were unable to observe, such as nap time, or for aspects that they valued more highly.
The inconsistency in ratings of care suggest that parents are not well-informed consumers and do not accurately judge child care quality. These studies findings suggest that it cannot be assumed that parents will purchase high-quality child care simply because they want the best for their children. In addition, high-quality child care costs only a little more than mediocre care, so parents cannot use the cost of care as an indicator of its quality. Even parents who are willing to pay more for child care have no assurance that their extra dollars will purchase higher-quality care.
Georgia’s current licensing system does not offer enough information to parents about the quality of care of child care centers. Child Care Resource Service has moved to the star rated license system. For example, under current system, a center that received an A license is meeting only minimum requirements but parents may believe that this is the highest rating. To minimize confusion and to maximize understanding, a five star licensing system was developed because this type of rating system is typical for many products and services. An additional benefit of the star rated license system is that it recognized providers for the higher quality care that they provide. Lastly, the star rated license acts as a roadmap for providers to follow as they strive to improve the quality of their care. Child Care Resources Service will bridge the gap between child care facilities operating at the minimum level of quality to becoming “Nationally Accredited” by offering direction and information to child care providers in improving the quality of their child care business.
The Child Care Recourse Service Goals
1. Ensure that more Georgia Children are ready for kindergarten.
2. Provide parents with consumer information about program quality.
3. Provide resources so that all parents can assess and afford quality child care programs.
4. Create a system that builds on the foundation of Georgia’s licensing requirements.
5. Build on the strengths of the child care workforce by promoting and providing scholarships for training and education.
6. Provide program improvement grants to help programs move to a higher level of quality.
7. Provide performance bonuses to reward and recognize the higher cost of quality.
Child Care Resource Service help parents by proving information on what constitute quality child care and help parents become better consumers. Child Care Resource Service provides program rating to parents who ask for this information to help them determine which child care provider is best for their child’s development and which child care provider demonstrate quality standards which are linked to positive outcomes for their child. This quality standard is above the minimum requirement, in which most experts agree is inadequate in preparing children for kindergarten, In addition, the rating system and programs offer to providers will improve child care and child outcome, improving children’s school readiness throughout Georgia. |
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