Department of Children and Families: Secretary Reggie Bicha announces child care quality rating system

Contact: Erika Monroe-Kane, 608-266-9000

YoungStar to Improve Child Care, Help Parents, and Reduce Fraud

MADISON – Department of Children and Families (DCF) Secretary Reggie Bicha today announced details on a new five-star quality rating and improvement system for child care in Wisconsin. The program, YoungStar, will link child care provider quality to payments from the Wisconsin Shares program and make it easier for parents to choose the best child care for their children.

“YoungStar will change the landscape of child care in Wisconsin, by helping parents in making their decisions, increasing the quality of care received by children across the state and reducing fraud,” stated Bicha. “With YoungStar, more children in Wisconsin will be better prepared for school and life.”

YoungStar sets a five-star rating system for child care providers based on education, learning environment, business practices and the health and well being of children. Through this rating system the state will address several key issues in Wisconsin’s child care system. It will

* Improve the overall quality of child care;

* Create a clear, understandable tool for parents to choose quality child care;

* Create incentives for providers to improve services, particularly for low-income children;

* Link the quality of child care providers to Wisconsin Shares payments; and

* Help prevent fraud in the Wisconsin Shares system.

DCF will also create a website using the new five-star rating system to help parents see how providers score and why. The tool will help parents be more confident when choosing a child care provider.

Payments through the $400 million Wisconsin Shares program will be linked to a provider’s quality with the best providers receiving the most funding. This creates an incentive for providers to improve. Training, technical assistance and micro-grants will be available to help providers improve and ensure every parent and every child has access to quality care.

DCF will submit the final plan for YoungStar to the Joint Finance Committee in the coming weeks. Governor Doyle has proposed a quality rating and improvement system in three different budgets, and it was approved in the last budget.