Florida's Childcare Quality Rating System: What It Means for Directors and Staff

The Gold Seal Quality Care designation is established within the Florida Department of Education and goes to child care facilities and family and large family child care homes accredited by a DOE-approved accrediting association.

The second track is the program assessment Florida requires for School Readiness providers, which measures teacher-child interactions for ages birth to 5 with a minimum composite score for contracting.

Our research found no single, star-rated QRIS covering the state; the quality provisions our research found are these two statutes, not one rating ladder.

Confirm the current landscape with the Florida Department of Education before you plan around either track.

Our research found no star levels, tiers or points ladder in the Florida quality provisions we read.

What the statutes establish is a designation — Gold Seal Quality Care — and, for School Readiness providers, a program assessment with a minimum composite score used for contracting.

Because no agency page confirming the wider landscape was in our sources, treat any level names beyond these two as unconfirmed and check with the Florida Department of Education before you plan around them.

The criteria the statutes name sit at the program level, not the staff-credential level.

Gold Seal keys to accreditation by a DOE-approved accrediting association, plus a violation record: a provider that had a Class I violation in the prior 2 years for which DCF found it the primary cause loses the designation — or cannot get it.

The program assessment keys to measured teacher-child interactions.

Our research did not confirm Florida-set staff credential criteria or training hours that earn standing under either track.

The accreditation Gold Seal keys to comes from a DOE-approved accrediting association, so confirm the association's standards with the association, and the designation's terms with the Florida Department of Education.

For School Readiness providers, the statute requires a program assessment that measures the quality of teacher-child interactions — emotional and behavioral support, engaged support for learning, classroom organization and instructional support — for ages birth to 5.

The statute we read does not name the observation instrument, so this page names none.

Confirm the current instrument with the Florida Department of Education before you schedule staff training around a specific tool.

For the center: Gold Seal facilities in the School Readiness program receive a minimum of a 20 percent rate differential for each enrolled school readiness child, by care level and unit of child care, and Gold Seal facilities qualify as educational institutions for ad valorem property tax exemption.

Separately, the School Readiness statute caps the quality-based differential payment at a total of 15 percent for each care level and unit of child care, and a provider below the minimum program assessment score is ineligible.

The two provisions sit in different statutes, and our research did not reconcile how they interact; confirm a specific center's rate with the Florida Department of Education.

For staff: our research did not confirm a bonus tied to either track.

The workforce support our research did confirm is INCENTIVE$ Florida, a WAGE$-model salary supplement run by the Children's Forum, which also administers T.E.A.C.H.

Early Childhood Florida — its current terms were not confirmed in our research.

Work from the criteria the statutes name.

The Gold Seal designation keys to accreditation by a DOE-approved accrediting association, so the accrediting association's standards are the checklist a director can actually plan against.

The designation is also what carries the money: the minimum 20 percent rate differential goes to Gold Seal facilities in the School Readiness program, per enrolled school readiness child, and Gold Seal facilities qualify as educational institutions for ad valorem property tax exemption.

Keep the violation picture in view: a Class I violation in the prior 2 years for which DCF found the provider the primary cause costs the designation.

For School Readiness providers, the assessment measures teacher-child interactions — emotional and behavioral support, engaged support for learning, classroom organization and instructional support — for ages birth to 5, which is where staff development time points, and the quality-based differential is out of reach for a provider below the minimum composite score.