Mississippi Child Care Quality Step System

The Mississippi Child Care Quality Step System is a pilot quality rating system for licensed child care programs in Mississippi.

The Mississippi Department of Human Services awarded a contract to the MSU Early Childhood Institute to implement the system in the state’s East Central Planning and Development District, which includes the counties of Clarke, Jasper, Kemper, Lauderdale, Leake, Neshoba, Newton, Scott, and Smith. The pilot phase is Oct. 1, 2006 – Sept. 30, 2007. During Year Two, the system will expand to the Golden Triangle, North Central, and Northeast Mississippi Planning and Development Districts.

Quality Step involves targeted technical assistance to help individual child care centers improve key features of their programs. Those features include the learning environment, family involvement, and qualifications of staff.

Quality rating systems for child care are already in some stage of development in 13 states, and 30 states offer higher reimbursement for centers that meet some form of standards in addition to their states’ licensing requirements (National Child Care Information Center, April 2006).

References

National Child Care Information Center. (April 2006). Quality Rating Systems:
     Definition and statewide systems. Accessed Sept. 5, 2006, at
     http://www.nccic.org/pubs/qrs-defsystems.html.

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