What is Quality Rated? More and more children in the United States and in Georgia cared for every day in out-of-home early care and education settings. A growing body of research supports the notion that the quality of care children receive in their child care settings dramatically affects their physical, mental, and academic development. Consequently, the emphasis on improving the quality of early care and education services has increased.
Quality Rated is a systemic approach to assess, improve, and communicate the level of quality in early care and education programs. Similar to rating systems for other service-related industries, Quality Rated assigns a quality rating to early care and education programs that meet a set of defined program standards. By participating in Quality Rated, early care and education programs embark on a path of continuous quality improvement. Quality Rated is intended to improve the quality of early care and education programs through aligning and coordinating system-wide initiatives. This improvement will have lasting effects on Georgia’s children, families, and the economy.