Does Connecticut Have a Childcare Quality Rating System? What Directors Need to Know
Connecticut has no star-rated quality rating and improvement system (QRIS).
Its quality system is Elevate, run by the Office of Early Childhood (OEC), and OEC states plainly that with Elevate it does not evaluate or rate providers.
Directors instead work three engagement levels — Member, Member+ and Member Accredited — with the top level resting on NAEYC or NAFCC accreditation or Head Start/Early Head Start approval, and Qualified Workforce Incentives paying teaching staff and administrators in OEC-licensed centers or group homes up to $2,600.
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At a glance
Connecticut has no star-rated QRIS; its quality improvement system is Elevate.
The Connecticut Office of Early Childhood (OEC).
Not established in our research — Elevate serves licensed and license-exempt family child care homes, centers and group homes; ask OEC.
No rating levels — Elevate has three levels of engagement: Member, Member+ and Member Accredited.
None — OEC states that with Elevate it does not evaluate or rate providers.
Qualified Workforce Incentives pay teaching staff and administrators in OEC-licensed centers or group homes up to $2,600 in combined base awards and bonuses; bonuses key on accreditation and other criteria, not on an Elevate level.
What is Connecticut's QRIS called, and is participation required?
Connecticut's quality system is Elevate, run by the Office of Early Childhood (OEC) for licensed and license-exempt family child care homes, centers and group homes.
It is not a rating system: OEC states that with Elevate it does not evaluate or rate providers, so there are no stars to earn.
A director searching for Connecticut's QRIS will find three levels of engagement instead of scored ratings.
Whether participation is required is not established in our research — ask OEC how participation works for your program.
“Elevate is the Office of Early Childhood’s (OEC) quality improvement system.”
What are the rating levels in Connecticut?
Connecticut has no rating levels to climb.
Elevate instead has three levels of engagement: Member, Member+ and Member Accredited.
Member describes programs meeting OEC licensing requirements.
Member+ programs have an approved Elevate Program Plan, which must be updated and approved annually to keep Member+ status.
Member Accredited programs hold NAEYC or NAFCC accreditation or Head Start/Early Head Start approval, and OEC defines high-quality programs as those that meet NAEYC Accreditation+, NAFCC accreditation, or Head Start/Early Head Start approval.
What staff credentials and training count toward a higher rating?
Because OEC states that with Elevate it does not evaluate or rate providers, staff credentials and training do not earn points toward a level: the levels rest on program status, not on staff credentials.
The levels are defined by program status: licensing compliance for Member, an approved Elevate Program Plan for Member+, and accreditation or Head Start/Early Head Start approval for Member Accredited.
At the top, NAEYC Accreditation+ is required for Member Accredited centers and group homes, while family child care homes may use NAEYC or NAFCC accreditation; Head Start/Early Head Start approval is the other qualifier OEC counts toward the level.
Credentials still matter to directors through OEC's licensing requirements, which define Member status, and to staff through the incentives covered below.
Which observation tool does Connecticut use?
None.
OEC states that with Elevate it does not evaluate or rate providers, and there is no observation tool score attached to the levels.
A program reaches Member+ with an approved plan and Member Accredited with accreditation or Head Start/Early Head Start approval, so a director is not scheduled for a rating observation to move between them.
What a Connecticut director maintains for Elevate is a level of engagement, not an observation score.
“With Elevate, we don’t evaluate or rate providers.”
What incentives come with higher ratings — for the center and for staff?
For staff, the named money program is Qualified Workforce Incentives (QWI), funded by Preschool Development Grant money: teaching staff and administrators in OEC-licensed centers or group homes can receive up to $2,600 through a base award between $250 and $2,000 plus up to $600 in bonuses.
QWI bonuses go to staff whose program holds NAEYC accreditation or Head Start approval, is in an area with a Social Vulnerability Index of 0.6 or higher, or who work directly with infants and/or toddlers on a daily scheduled basis of at least 30 hours per week across 40 weeks a year.
Applications go through the OEC Registry, and QWI awards are taxable.
For the program, OEC lists Member+ incentives of scholarships (for a CDA, an associate or bachelor's degree in ECE, and stand-alone courses, applied for through the OEC Registry), free professional development, and display of the Elevate level on the program's 211 Child Care profile; the pages we read tie no staff wage bonus to an Elevate level.
How does a director prepare for a rating in Connecticut?
The director's Elevate work depends on the level the program is pursuing.
Member status rests on meeting OEC licensing requirements.
Member+ adds the recurring deadline: the Elevate Program Plan must be updated and approved annually to keep the status, so the plan is a calendar item rather than a one-time document.
Member Accredited means supporting the program through accreditation or Head Start/Early Head Start approval — NAEYC Accreditation+ for centers and group homes, NAEYC or NAFCC accreditation for family child care homes, with Head Start/Early Head Start approval as OEC's other qualifier for the level.
Alongside the levels, directors can point staff to the OEC Early Childhood Professional Registry, which houses free online trainings in English and Spanish and is the application portal for OEC scholarships and workforce incentives.
Do Elevate levels change subsidy rates in Connecticut?
The Elevate pages we read list incentives for Member+ programs but no subsidy payment rates tied to a level, and our research did not confirm a Connecticut subsidy rate schedule keyed to Elevate status.
What OEC's pages do tie accreditation to is participation elsewhere: NAEYC Accreditation+ is required for Early Start CT and Smart Start centers and group homes.
Directors with subsidy questions should confirm current rules with OEC.
What This Page Does, and Doesn’t, Cover
This page summarizes the Connecticut licensing rules, agency pages and other sources listed below, as read for this state-by-state quality rating system (QRIS) series, current as of October 2026. It is not a substitute for the instructions the Office of Early Childhood (OEC) publishes. For the rest of the picture in Connecticut, see daycare director requirements in Connecticut.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Connecticut have a QRIS?
Not a star-rated one.
The Office of Early Childhood runs Elevate, a quality improvement system with three levels of engagement: Member, Member+ and Member Accredited.
OEC states that with Elevate it does not evaluate or rate providers, so there are no stars and no observation scores attached to the levels.
Connecticut's staff bonuses run through Qualified Workforce Incentives, which key on accreditation and other criteria rather than on a rating.
Is Elevate required for Connecticut childcare programs?
Our research did not confirm whether OEC requires programs to join Elevate.
OEC describes Elevate as its quality improvement system for licensed and license-exempt family child care homes, centers and group homes, with three levels of engagement.
Member status describes programs meeting OEC licensing requirements, and Member+ rests on an approved Elevate Program Plan, updated and approved annually to keep the status.
Ask OEC how participation works before you build a plan around a level.
How much is the Connecticut QWI award for childcare staff?
Qualified Workforce Incentives combine a base award between $250 and $2,000 with bonuses of up to $600 on top, for a maximum of $2,600 for eligible teaching staff and administrators in OEC-licensed centers or group homes.
Bonus eligibility keys on NAEYC accreditation or Head Start approval, a program location in an area with a Social Vulnerability Index of 0.6 or higher, or work directly with infants and/or toddlers on a daily scheduled basis of at least 30 hours per week across 40 weeks a year.
Applications go through the OEC Registry, and awards are taxable.
Does Connecticut require NAEYC accreditation for childcare programs?
Not as a licensing rule: Elevate's Member level is defined as meeting OEC licensing requirements, and our research did not tie accreditation to licensure.
Accreditation becomes required at the top of Elevate, where NAEYC Accreditation+ is required for Member Accredited centers and group homes, while family child care homes may use NAEYC or NAFCC accreditation.
Head Start/Early Head Start approval is the other qualifier OEC counts, and NAEYC Accreditation+ is also required for Early Start CT and Smart Start centers and group homes.
Is Elevate the same as a childcare license in Connecticut?
No. Connecticut child care centers, group child care homes and family child care homes are licensed by the Office of Early Childhood, whose center and group home rules sit in R.C.S.A. 19a-79-1a to 19a-79-13.
Elevate is a separate quality improvement system run by the same agency, and OEC states that with Elevate it does not evaluate or rate providers.
A license is the baseline; Elevate's levels sit on top of it.
More Connecticut Resources
Sources
- Connecticut OEC — Elevate (retrieved 2026-10-05)
- Connecticut OEC — Elevate: About (retrieved 2026-10-05)
- Connecticut OEC — Elevate: Member+ (retrieved 2026-10-05)
- Connecticut OEC — Elevate: Member Accredited (retrieved 2026-10-05)
- Connecticut OEC — Qualified Workforce Incentives (QWI) (retrieved 2026-10-05)
- Connecticut OEC — Professional development (retrieved 2026-10-05)
- Connecticut OEC — Summary of changes to the child care center and group child care home regulations (retrieved 2026-10-05)
Sourced from the documents listed above. Verified October 2026. This is career and employer information, not licensing or legal advice. Confirm current rules with the Office of Early Childhood (OEC).