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

Missouri's quality rating system is the Quality Assurance Report (QAR), run by the Office of Childhood at the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).

Participation is voluntary, and the program is open to community-based early learning programs, school-based preschool programs and family child care, so a center director, a preschool administrator and a home provider can all be working in the same system.

Enrollment is capacity-limited: DESE says you will be contacted when space is available in the QAR program.

QAR is not a star-rated system — a participating program works toward one of two quality designations rather than a count of stars.

QAR offers two quality designations rather than numbered or starred levels.

Demonstrating Quality means a program meets any 3 Operational Indicators plus any 3 Responsive Practices Indicators; Exhibiting High Quality asks for any 4 plus any 4.

Both designations also require the Quality Interactions Indicator, which QAR assesses through CLASS observation.

Every two years, all Quality Indicators are reassessed, so a designation reflects the program's current standing, not a one-time review.

What our research confirmed is the structure of the designations: the Quality Interactions Indicator is assessed through CLASS observation, and the Operational and Responsive Practices Indicators carry a program to its designation.

The staff-qualification criteria behind the designations — any named credential, credit total or training hours — were not verified in our research, so this page names none; the QAR program's published materials and DESE's Office of Childhood are the places to confirm what a designation asks of staff.

What is on record is the support side: participants get free professional development, including the Child Development Associate (CDA) Credential, and individualized CLASS-based professional development.

QAR assesses Quality Interactions with CLASS observations.

Observations are scheduled at initial enrollment, once a program's application is accepted, and then every two years for each participating classroom, and a typical observation takes 2–2.5 hours.

For preschool classrooms, the published thresholds are an Emotional Support average of 5.00 or higher, Classroom Organization of 4.50 or higher and an Instructional Support domain score averaging 2.30 or higher across all preschool classrooms combined, with no classroom above 2.00 on Negative Climate.

The participant benefits our research verified are professional-development supports rather than payments: free initial professional development, individualized CLASS-based professional development, the Child Development Associate (CDA) Credential and Practice-Based Coaching.

For staff, that means credential support and coaching while their program participates.

For the center, our research did not confirm a tiered subsidy rate, bonus or other payment tied to a QAR designation, so do not count on a dollar incentive without asking DESE's Office of Childhood what currently applies.

The sequence a QAR participant moves through is published, so a director can see the whole path before it starts.

A program applies; because enrollment is capacity-limited, DESE contacts the program when space is available.

Once the application is accepted, CLASS observations are scheduled at initial enrollment and then every two years for each participating classroom.

The designations are indicator counts — any 3 Operational plus any 3 Responsive Practices Indicators for Demonstrating Quality, any 4 plus 4 for Exhibiting High Quality — on top of the Quality Interactions Indicator, and all indicators are reassessed every two years.

A program that misses the Quality Interactions Indicator gets a two-year coaching cycle before reassessment, and the free CLASS-based professional development and Practice-Based Coaching are available along the way.

Missouri records clock-hour training in DESE's professional development system, keyed to a staff member's Missouri Professional Development Identification (MOPD) ID number.

Our research found nothing in the QAR materials we read about how MOPD records feed a QAR designation, so for the documentation a designation requires, work from the QAR program's published criteria and DESE's Office of Childhood.