Recently, the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) investigated state child care licensing regulations and how these regulations were being monitored and enforced. You can read the full report here. After evaluating each state on 5 oversight benchmarks and 10 regulation benchmarks, NACCRRA assigned them a score and a ranking. Overall, most states received failing grades with an average score of 83 out of 150 (or an “F”). The Department of Defense earned the top grade of a “B” and the District of Columbia came in second by earning the only “C.”

Wisconsin fared well as it ranked 6th in the nation on child care center regulation standards. The state’s training requirements and health and safety standards helped them achieve a high ranking in this area. In the area of oversight, however, Wisconsin scored in the bottom with a ranking of 41st. In order to ensure high-quality early childhood education, our current regulation standards must be coupled with effective monitoring and enforcement. As NACCRRA points out, “relatively strong regulations but weak oversight renders the regulations meaningless since compliance is unknown.”