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

Indiana's quality rating and improvement system is Paths to QUALITY (PTQ), run by the FSSA Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning (OECOSL).

OECOSL is also the agency that licenses Indiana child care centers and homes, so the rating system and licensing sit with the same office — a director goes to one agency for both conversations.

Our research did not confirm a rule that requires every licensed program to hold a PTQ rating, so check with OECOSL how participation applies to your program.

The route FSSA publishes for joining is to complete the Introduction to Paths to QUALITY training on Indiana Learning Paths and send an enrollment packet to FSSA.

Paths to QUALITY has four levels, and FSSA describes each by a theme: Level 1 is health and safety, Level 2 is the learning environment, Level 3 is planned curriculum and Level 4 is national accreditation — the level FSSA's page calls the highest indicator of quality.

The published pages our research reviewed describe the levels by these themes; they do not spell out the documentation a program submits at each level, so ask OECOSL what evidence each level requires before you plan an upgrade.

Level 2's theme is the learning environment and Level 3's is planned curriculum; Level 4 requires accreditation by an approved national body: the Council on Accreditation, NAC or NAEYC.

What the FSSA pages our research reviewed do not publish is a per-level list of the staff credentials, degrees or training hours that earn credit toward each rating, so this page cannot say which credential moves a program from one level to the next — ask OECOSL.

Enrolled programs do get a documented lever for staff qualifications: FSSA says scholarships and professional development opportunities are available to increase staff education and skill levels.

Our research did not confirm an observation or assessment tool for Paths to QUALITY.

The FSSA pages this page is built from describe the four levels by theme and Level 4's accreditation requirement; neither names a classroom observation instrument, and whether an on-site observation is part of earning or keeping a rating was not settled in what we read.

Ask OECOSL what evidence a rating or an upgrade requires before you schedule or pay for any outside observation.

Cash awards are the direct incentive, and they are larger at the top.

Licensed centers receive $1,000 at Level 2, $1,000 at Level 3, $1,500 at Level 4 and $1,000 for maintenance.

Licensed homes receive $300 at Level 2, $300 at Level 3, $500 at Level 4 and $300 for maintenance.

For staff, enrolled programs get access to scholarships and professional development aimed at raising education and skill levels; our research did not confirm a bonus, wage supplement or stipend paid to individual staff because of the program's rating.

The steps FSSA publishes are enrollment steps: complete the Introduction to Paths to QUALITY training on Indiana Learning Paths and send an enrollment packet to FSSA.

From there, the level themes tell a director where the work sits: the learning environment at Level 2 and planned curriculum at Level 3 — and, for Level 4, accreditation from the Council on Accreditation, NAC or NAEYC.

Indiana AEYC's Indiana Accreditation Project helps pay accreditation costs, which is a budget line to know before committing to the top level.

Two gaps to take to OECOSL: the per-level documentation checklists and the observation evidence were not established in our research, so confirm both before you set an upgrade timeline.

Indiana's CCDF voucher reimbursement rates are tiered by Paths to QUALITY level, so a program with a higher rating is paid more for the children it serves with vouchers.

The tiering is what FSSA publishes; the rate amounts were not established in our research, so ask OECOSL for the current CCDF rate schedule before you model what an upgrade is worth to your budget.