Quality Rated is a systemic approach to assess, improve, and communicate the level of quality in early education and school age programs. Similar to rating systems for other service related industries, Quality Rate assigns a quality rating to early education and school –age programs that meet a set of defined program standards. By participating in Georgia’s voluntary Quality Rated, programs are set on a path of continuous quality improvement.
Quality Rated offers several opportunities to help programs
- Identify indicators that enhance children’s development and promote school readiness.
- Increase quality of early care and education services.
- Increase Families understanding and demand for higher quality early care and education.
- Create a cross-sector framework that can link standards, technical assistance, monitoring, and consumer engagement for programs in a range of settings, including Head Start Programs, child care center, and family day care homes.
A growing body of research supports that the quality of care children receive in their child care setting dramatically affects their physical, mental, and academic development.