Draft of outreach piece – directed to Children’s Trust and Prevention Fund directors and staff. The brochure contains information about basic purposes of QRIS, how to find out about how QRIS is functioning in their own state, reasons why the prevention community needs to be involved, etc.

1. Primary
Prevention
A Key Ingredient
In High Quality Early Care
and Education Settings
Important ways Children’s Trust Funds
Can be engaged in states’ Quality Rating and
Improvement Systems (QRIS)
What is QRIS?
Oklahoma launched the first Quality Rating and Improvement System
(QRIS) in 1998. At that time, the term QRS (Quality Rating System)
was the term used to describe these systems, constructed to “assess,
improve and communicate about the level of quality in early care and
education settings,” according to Anne Mitchell in her QRIS toolkit,
Getting Started
Stair Steps to Quality. Recently, the ‘I’ has been added to create the
term QRIS, the ‘I’ standing for Improvement. The addition of the ‘I’
has helped to shift the focus away from merely rating early care and
The Right Tools Are education programs – expanding the idea of quality to include
Always Helpful. continuous quality improvement. It also helps redefine the term
The Strengthening Families “quality” to include such things as serving families in a culturally
During the past ten years,
Protective Factor (SF/PF)
seventeen other states have
Framework is a strong support for joined Oklahoma in fully
implementing QRIS. All but
quality in early care settings.
Share What You Know. five of the remaining states are
drafting standards, piloting or
Research by NAEYC revealed that
considering how to implement
early childhood educators feel a QRIS. If you are interested in
learning more about how this
strong sense of responsibility to help
applies to your state, see the
prevent child abuse and neglect, but
reference materials in this
want to know more about effective document and contact your
State Child Care Administrator for additional information specific to
strategies.
your state.

2. Early Care and Education Professionals Children’s Trust Funds
The Alliance’s
Stories from Three ECI States:
Early Childhood Initiative
Embedding the Strengthening Families Protective
(ECI)
Factor (SF/PF) Framework Into QRIS
Working Together.
One
Goal.
Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect Before it Ever
Occurs by Strengthening Families.
A System of Systems
social and emotional development of children) is a
QRIS is a composite system that unifies multiple priority for each of these systems.
sectors of the early childhood education system. Some
Basic Elements of QRIS
of the sub­systems represented in states’ QRIS are:
There are five elements that are common to almost all
Child Care Licensing
• states’ QRIS:
Professional Development System
•
1. Standards – at least two levels of quality above
state’s basic licensing requirements – may align
Early Care and Education Providers – Centers
•
with early learning guidelines.
and Family Child Care
2. Accountability – Monitoring and assessment of
Child Care Resource & Referral
•
standards
Early Childhood Mental Health
•
3. Support to ECE Practitioners – technical
Departments of Education
•
assistance, training and other supports to help
Higher Education
• practitioners along the pathway to quality.
All of these must agree upon how the basic elements of
4. Financing – tiered reimbursements, grants and
QRIS should be structured and implemented.
other support tied to quality.
Building the five protective factors (parental resilience,
5. Parent Education – actually, educating
social connections, concrete support in times of need,
knowledge of parenting and child development and parents to be savvy consumers of high quality
early care and education as they see how it will
2 benefit their most precious resource – their

3. Children’s Trust Funds Early Care and Education Professionals
Together,
with the right tools. . .
We can strengthen
families.
Why should “Quality Early Care and
Education programs are the
Children’s Trust foundation for a child abuse
and neglect prevention
Funds become agenda.”
involved with
Strengthening Families Protective Factor
QRIS?
Evidence points to the
1
reality that quality early
care and education programs
strengthen children and
families and ultimately
reduce child abuse and
neglect.
Children’s Trust Funds
2
have valuable
experience implementing
effective community­based
family strengthening
strategies.
3 The Strengthening
Families Protective
Factor Framework is a tool
that Children’s Trust Funds
can offer as a resource to
help unite the multiple
sectors of the early
childhood field necessary to
build and sustain Quality
3

4. The Alliance’s
Stories from Three ECI States:
Early Childhood Initiative
Embedding the Strengthening Families Protective
(ECI)
Factor (SF/PF) Framework Into QRIS
Collaboration
Requires
Concentration
The vibrant network of the ECI
Learning Community . . .
represents partnerships between
CTFs and early childhood
stakeholders in 27 states. Each
member of the Learning Community
is committed to:
Transformational systemic
♦
change to benefit children and
families
Attainment and strengthening of
♦
the five protective factors among
all families and communities
A future where all children live
♦
in safe, stable and nurturing
families and communities.
The ECI Theory of Change
maps out a plan to accomplish the
goals stated above. A key strategy
will be to explore ways in which
states can embed the Strengthening
Families Protective Factor
Framework
www.ctfalliance.org for more
information.
4

5. Children’s Trust Funds Early Care and Education Professionals
Resources:
3 Idaho
To learn more about the National Alliance of
Enthusiastic support from child care providers
Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds’ Early
and a disdain for regulations by state policy
Childhood Initiative work with Strengthening
makers form the backdrop for efforts to
Families Through QRIS, see: www.ctfalliance.org/
increase quality for early care and education
qris
settings in Idaho. Yet, since 2003 a unique
relationship between the Idaho Association for
To download a copy of the Strengthening Families
the Education of Young Children (Idaho
Self­Assessment, Guidebook for Early Childhood
AEYC) and the University of Idaho
Programs and other materials, see:
(IdahoSTARS state training and registry
www.strengtheningfamilies.net
system) was the basis for a collaboration that
eventually included Idaho’s Children’s Trust
The federal American Recovery and
Fund. Although quality efforts initially
Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, the “Stimulus
focused on voluntary training and education
Package,” offers some opportunities to implement
scholarships, mentoring, and environment
early childhood policy and systems change. To
assessment, by 2006 a broader focus began to
learn more about how this could possibly benefit
include the use of the Strengthening Families
implementation of QRIS, see:
approach as an integral component of Idaho’s
www.buildinitiative.org
Child Care Quality Rating and Improvement
System (QRIS) and accounts for 20% of the
The National Child Care Information Center has
quality standards. QRIS is currently in the
recently updated information about states who
design phase and being implemented through
are fully implementing QRIS, with links to
a statewide pilot program in over 20 cities.
states’ QRIS websites:
The pilot includes 52 centers and family­based
http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/pubs/qrs­defsystems.html
programs, serving nearly 3,000 children and
their families. Idaho has been successful at
Advancing Child Abuse and Neglect Protective
incorporating major components of the
Factors: The Role of the Early Care and
Strengthening Families approach (including
Education Infrastructure by Sharon L. Kagan
the self­assessment) into the QRIS standards.
gives a justification of why high quality early
They have created a curriculum around the
childhood programs are a logical foundation for a
SF/PF Framework that will soon be expanded
child abuse and neglect prevention agenda: http://
to programs outside of the QRIS pilot,
www.cssp.org/uploadFiles/Kagan.pdf
utilizing the “support to ECE practitioners”
For further information,
door into their QRIS. The most recent work
strong statewide voluntary QRIS.
contact:
5

6. Strengthening Families
Through QRIS
Children’s Trust and Preventions Funds across the United States have
embraced the Strengthening Families Protective Factor (SF/PF)
Framework as a way to build strong families and communities and to
support the optimal development of the very youngest and most vulnerable
children.
Early Care and Education Systems have recognized the need for higher
quality early care and education settings, and have pursued the
development of Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) as a way
to meet this need.
High quality early care and education settings that reach out to parents in
significant and meaningful partnerships may be one of the best ways to
prevent child abuse and neglect. As QRIS are being built and revised, the
critical opportunity exists to strengthen families and prevent child abuse
Primary Prevention: A Key Ingredient in High Quality Early Care and Education
National Alliance of
Children’s Trust and
Prevention Funds
5712 30th Avenue NE
Seattle WA 98105
[Recipient]
Phone (206) 526­1221
Fax (206) 526­0220
Address Line 1
info@ctfalliance.org
Address Line 2
www.ctfalliance.org
Address Line 3
Address Line 4
Safe and Healthy Children
Strong and Stable Families
Thriving and Prosperous
Communities