What is the Qualistar Rating™
The Qualistar Rating™ is a Quality Rating System that measures the quality of child care programs in Colorado on a provisional to 4-Star scale. The Qualistar Rating™ is an important part of Colorado's child care Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS).
Providing high-quality early childhood education isn’t a simple task. Though most programs consistently strive to improve quality, financial realities make it a tough road for even the most dedicated providers. Programs participating in the Qualistar Rating™ have taken an important step in their quality improvement journey. As part of the Qualistar Rating™, programs are given a profile that reflects an objective view of both their strengths and areas for improvement. This profile offers valuable suggestions on how to improve the overall quality of their program.
Qualistar Colorado and the entire early childhood community salute all participating programs for joining this exciting journey and believe that they are truly pioneers, making a BIG difference in the lives of our children.
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Find Qualistar-Rated Child Care Providers
What does the Qualistar Rating™ Measure?
The Qualistar Rating™ is a tool that objectively measures the quality of an early childhood education program. Points earned in each quality component are combined to determine a total rating score, which ranges from a Provisional to 4-Star rating.
- The quality of the learning environment
- The program’s family partnerships
- The training and education of program staff
- The adult-to-child ratio and group size in classrooms
- Whether a program is nationally accredited
How Can I, as a Parent, find out about Qualistar-Rated Programs?
- When searching for child care online or by phone, be sure to look for and ask for programs in your area that have a Qualistar Rating™.
- Download a program’s Quality Rating Report found to the right of the program on your referral list. This is a short summary of the strengths and areas for quality improvement in the child care program. The report outlines the points that programs scored in each of the quality components of the Qualistar Rating™ and provides the overall Star level that a program received.