Mom alert: Two child care centers shine
Two child care centers in Kootenai County are the first in the five northern counties to earn a star rating through the IdahoSTARS Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS).
The Learning Garden in Post Falls and Christ the King Child Development Center in Coeur d’Alene are rated through the collaborative statewide project launched to improve delivery of child care services and quality of early childhood programs.
“We have 14 other centers in the process,” said Jennifer Ross, the Child Care Resource Center program manager at the Panhandle Health District (PHD). “They’re all the way from Bonners Ferry to Kellogg.”
The system is voluntary. Child care centers and homes that choose to participate conduct a self-study, create an improvement plan and work to implement the plan over time. During the process, they request grants for needed improvements and then earn a one- to five-star rating.
The ratings with details are listed at www.idahostars.org under Family Resources.
IdahoStars is a collaborative effort among the University of Idaho, the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children and the state Department of Health and Welfare, which supplies the funding from the federal Child Care Development Block Grant.
QRIS participation is free for child care centers that participate in the Idaho STARS Professional Development System. The system promotes continuing education and training for child care providers.
There are 148 licensed child care centers in the five northern counties. Sixteen participate in QRIS. Ross is seeing good results with centers in the system. With help from IdahoStars, Christ the King was able to complete a playground with new equipment and pea gravel for safety, add special doorknobs for children with disabilities and purchase dolls to help teach children diversity. Those improvements helped its star rating.
“We’re working to teach parents to ask child care providers if they’re participating,” Ross said. The Child Care Resource Center helps to match families with child care centers based on parent information. “It’s good for center directors to understand that this is something parents want and expect.”
Child care facilities request a STAR rating based on eight different standards: environment, current education of the director and staff, on-going professional development, inclusion of children, programs to strengthen families, ratio, group size and business practices.
To date, six child care centers in the state have star ratings.