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

Maine's quality rating and improvement system is Rising Stars for ME, and it is a mandatory program for all licensed child care programs in the state.

The Maine DHHS Office of Child and Family Services (OCFS) is the state's child care licensing agency — it licenses the child care centers, nursery schools and small child care facilities that Rising Stars covers.

Because the system is mandatory, a licensed program carries a rating from licensure itself: programs start at Star 2.

The pages our research reviewed did not name the office that administers Rising Stars for ME, so route questions about administration, ratings and participation to OCFS.

Licensed child care programs earn a Star 2 rating, and license standing moves it: a program that falls below a Star 2 rating because it holds a conditional license carries Star 2 – Restricted for the duration of that license.

Star 3 is the first earned step above the licensing-based rating, and its standards include meeting higher staff qualifications than licensing requires, supporting staff professional development and annual child assessments.

Star 4 adds evidence-based curriculum and higher staff qualifications.

Star 5 exists in the system's structure, but its requirements were not verified in our research — the standards document behind the stars was not among the sources we read — so treat Star 5 criteria as an open question for OCFS.

The pages our research read name the categories rather than the thresholds.

For Star 3, the staff-side standards include meeting higher staff qualifications than licensing requires and supporting staff professional development; Star 4 adds evidence-based curriculum and higher staff qualifications.

The exact staff credential threshold per star level was not verified in our research: the degree, credential or Registry level that satisfies each star sits in standards material our research did not read, so get the operative per-star list from OCFS.

One staff-side structure is verifiable and worth tracking alongside the stars: salary supplement eligibility requires being registered and active in the Maine Roads to Quality (MRTQ) Registry, and the supplement pays by Registry level — an educator's MRTQ file is the credential record the state's supplement pays on.

Our research did not confirm an observation tool for Rising Stars for ME.

The pages this page is built from describe the system as mandatory for licensed programs and describe what distinguishes Star 3 and Star 4 — staff qualifications, professional development support, annual child assessments and an evidence-based curriculum — but they do not name 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 OCFS which evidence, observations or instruments a rating or an upgrade requires.

The staff-side incentive our research verified in Maine is not paid by star level.

The Early Childhood Educator Workforce Salary Supplement, published by Maine DHHS OCFS, pays monthly stipends through programs by MRTQ Registry level: Tier 1 covers Registry Levels 1–4 at $240 a month, Tier 2 covers Levels 5–6 at $360 and Tier 3 covers Levels 7–8 at $540, as the DHHS page listed when we read it on October 5, 2026.

Eligibility runs on the educator rather than the program: an educator must be registered and active in the MRTQ Registry, must have completed state health and safety training within 90 days of hire and must provide direct care in a licensed facility or family child care, and staff at Registry Level 0 are not eligible.

For the program side, our research did not confirm a tiered subsidy rate, bonus or grant tied to Rising Stars star levels.

Search results and third-party pages carry other tier amounts for the supplement, and the amounts we checked did not match the DHHS page when we read it — treat the DHHS page as the amount of record and check it before you model payroll.

Because participation is mandatory, the rating floor follows the license: a program earns Star 2 through licensure, and a license that goes conditional takes the rating to Star 2 – Restricted for as long as that license lasts.

Above the floor, the standards that distinguish the earned stars are program systems a director owns: staff qualifications above the licensing floor and professional development support at Star 3, annual child assessments at Star 3, and an evidence-based curriculum at Star 4.

Two gaps belong on the list of questions for OCFS: the exact staff credential threshold at each star and the requirements behind Star 5 were not verified in our research.

On the staff side, the records that already matter are MRTQ Registry registration — a supplement-eligibility condition — and the Registry level the supplement pays on; neither depends on the program's stars.