Minnesota tests child care ratings
Parents struggling to choose the best preschool or day care for their children soon could get help as Minnesota begins testing a way to rate early education programs.
The first testing takes place in pilot programs targeting needy families in St. Paul, North Minneapolis, Wayzata and Blue Earth County. Child care centers, preschools and home sites in those areas can apply to be evaluated and rated.
Providers convening at the University of Minnesota today will see what the rating system and pilot programs will look like. The first ratings will be available for parents to use early next year.
The Department of Human Services will rate providers on a point system based on a variety of areas, including staff experience and qualifications, family education, adult-child interactions and the progress of children in the program.
Ann McCully, executive director of the Minnesota Child Care Resource and Referral Network, said the organization's staff gives parents information about how to search for quality programs. But staff members don't recommend specific programs.
"Parents have been asking for this kind of information for years," McCully said of the rating system. "Right now, they can find out whether a provider is licensed, but licensing is only the bare minimum. It puts the onus on the parents to figure out the rest, and that can be difficult."
A 2004 survey by Wilder Research Center found that 87 percent of parents would find it helpful if their community had ratings to help them decide on providers.
Studies also have found children enrolled in effective early-learning programs with parental-education components had higher graduation rates, were more likely to have health insurance and were less likely to have criminal records when compared with adults with similar backgrounds.
The four pilot programs aim to get those better results. Each of the four is tailored to the community it serves.
In St. Paul, for example, the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation funneled $15 million to give low-income parents in the city's North End and Frogtown neighborhoods the information and resources they need to get their children into affordable, high-quality child care settings.
The city and Ramsey County Public Health will identify newborns who would benefit from the program. Each family will get a mentor to visit the home and coach them on parenting skills, health and nutrition, and how to pick out the best child care and education programs.
At age 3, children in the pilot programs are eligible for up to $13,000 a year for two years to attend any preschool or child care setting approved by the program.
Duane Benson, executive director for the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation, said one goal is to provide low-income parents and their children the same opportunities and access that middle class families have to quality early-learning programs.
Full text available at the Pioneer Press