Georgia’s Quality Rated System: A Rating System for Childcare

Georgia's Quality Rated is a voluntary rating system assessing and improving childcare programs with ratings, incentives, and technical assistance. It aims to enhance quality and access statewide.

A growing body of research highlighted that the quality of care children received directly impacted their development and school readiness. While some programs were achieving national accreditation, a majority of providers found it difficult to bridge the gap between minimum state licensing standards and the much higher accreditation standards. This created a need to help providers improve quality in a more gradual and step-by-step way. The initiative was also a response to the need for a systemic approach to determine the overall quality of Georgia's childcare programs, including family day care homes and child care learning centers.

The solution provided by Georgia's Quality Rated (QR) initiative is a Tiered Quality Rating and Improvement System (TQRIS) designed to systematically enhance the quality of care and early learning environments across the state. It moves beyond minimum licensing standards by offering a voluntary, measurable, and progressive pathway for childcare providers—including centers and family day care homes—to improve their programs. The system assigns providers a rating of one, two, or three stars based on objective standards in three key areas: Staff Education and Experience, Curriculum and Assessment, and Classroom Environment and Practice. By offering tiered recognition, QR helps parents easily identify and choose higher-quality programs. Crucially, the system provides support and incentives for providers to move up the rating scale, including access to professional development, financial bonuses, and technical assistance from quality improvement specialists. This dual focus on accountability (rating) and capacity building (improvement) ensures that providers have the tools and motivation needed to implement research-based practices that lead to better developmental and academic outcomes for Georgia's young children, thereby bridging the gap between basic care and school readiness.

~5-11 months