A Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) is poised to become a reality in Wisconsin- and it will be going to legislature for approval soon. WECA believes Wisconsin’s QRIS will: improve the overall quality for children in child care, provide a tool for parents to identify and select quality child care, create incentives to improve services to low-income children, link quality to Wisconsin Shares payments, and provide a mechanism to further prevent fraud in the Wisconsin Shares program.
If you are an early childhood educator, your program will be assessed on quality indicators in four key areas: 1) educational qualifications of teaching and administrative staff, 2) the learning environment and curriculum, 3) professional practices, and 4) the health and well-being of all the children you serve.
QRIS is a national trend and one that will likely happen here sooner or later. Assessment of states which already have a QRIS affirm what we already know: Quality matters! The quality of care children receive has a huge and proven impact on their development and school-readiness.
YOU can take a stand for quality by contacting your legislators in support of a QRIS in Wisconsin! This is an opportunity to put the early education profession in its proper light, with the real story of its importance. The field is NOT all about fraud, nor is it about “babysitting” kids for money. Early education professionals are in fact key to effective, high quality programs for Wisconsin’s young children. Please contact members (especially co-chairs Senator Miller and Representative Pocan) of the Joint Finance Committee – the first group of legislators to act on the QRIS proposal – and share the following message:
Take a Stand for Quality Child Care. Support a Quality Rating and Improvement System that:
• puts money into program improvements,
• provides child care providers with higher payments for higher quality, and
• builds on existing programs and services that already help improve quality.
WECA 
Yes, yes yes! I like it!
This is a good step. Recognizing those that are quality programs and combining that with a tool that is helpful for those working towards quality is an improvement over everyone having their own idea of “what is quality” in early childhood programming.
This is long, long overdue! If we all truly believe in putting children first, we should want every early childhood program to be of the highest quality.
I agree that this is long overdue and a great step in the right direction for Wisconsin’s children and for early childhood professionals. I wonder what legislators will say about this. If you get a response back from your legislator will you share it with the rest of us? It might help us know the best way to get them to listen to our message. I just sent an e-mail to the two co-chairs of Joint Finance and I hope I hear back from them.
I think most quality centers want this to happen. Hopefully Gov. Doyle will pass this before he leaves. We truly need it.
This is an important step, for children, providers and families. I hope it gets fully funded. I also hope that the rating model used will be appropriate for each setting, with the goal being meeting the developmental needs of children, supporting good parent-program communication and paying rates that reflect the true cost of quality early care and education. This is an opportunity to pay programs equitibly, based on their rating rather than paying family child care less simply because they are family child care. I will contact my legislators, and those of the children I serve, and urge them to support a fully funded, and fair, QRIS.