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

Step Up To Quality (SUTQ) is Ohio's quality rating and improvement system, written in OAC Chapter 5180:2-17.

The Ohio Department of Children and Youth (DCY) — the agency that also licenses Ohio child care centers (rules in OAC Chapter 5180:2-12) and family child care homes (rules in OAC Chapter 5180:2-13) — administers it, and DCY staff conduct the observations that Silver and Gold ratings require.

The rating chapter sets what a program must do to hold each level; on whether a program must hold one at all, our research did not verify a participation requirement, so ask DCY how the participation rules apply to your program before you plan around a rating.

SUTQ has three rating levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold.

Ratings are continuous — there is no expiration to track — and the rule keeps them current through a verification cycle: a Bronze program receives a full on-site verification visit every other year, and Silver and Gold programs every three years.

The staffing criteria differ by level.

Silver and Gold add observation against Ohio Classroom Observation Tool standards and a required credential for a center's on-site administrator, and Gold alone adds a criterion that applies to centers only: 40% of the classrooms, serving infants through school age, must meet lower ratios and group sizes.

Family child care homes are exempt from that Gold ratio criterion.

In centers, at Bronze, 50% of lead teachers hold a CDA or Career Pathways Level (CPL) 2, or one lead teacher holds an associate degree or CPL 3.

At Silver, 25% of a center's lead teachers hold at least an associate degree, CPL 3 or a school-age (SA) endorsement; at Gold, 50% do.

At Silver and Gold, a center's on-site administrator holds an associate degree in an approved related field, CPL 3, Administrator Credential 2 or — in school-age programs only — the SA Administrator endorsement.

At Bronze, administrators, lead teachers and assistant teachers each complete 10 hours of Ohio Approved training a year; at Silver, administrators and family child care providers need 12 hours, and at Gold, 15.

Lead teacher is a SUTQ role, not a licensing tier (Ohio licensing has none): at least 3.5 hours a day with the group, excluding nap, on more than half of operating days.

Our research confirmed only those Silver and Gold hour totals and only the center education and administrator criteria; ask DCY what lead and assistant teachers need at Silver and Gold, and what applies to family child care homes.

Silver and Gold ratings are observation-based: meeting Ohio Classroom Observation Tool (OCOT) standards is verified through observation by DCY staff.

At Bronze, the requirement the rule names is the annual self-assessment; the DCY observation is named for Silver and Gold.

The rules this research read do not say the DCY observation happens during the verification visit, so treat them as two separate named requirements: a Silver or Gold program owes both the OCOT observation by DCY staff and a full on-site verification visit every three years, while a Bronze program completes the annual self-assessment alongside a full on-site verification visit every other year.

The SUTQ rule chapter states rating standards, not payment amounts.

Our research did not verify tiered subsidy rates or staff bonuses tied to Bronze, Silver or Gold ratings; payment questions belong to DCY's publicly funded child care rate rules, which this research pass did not cover.

Check with DCY for current rate and incentive information before you budget around a rating, and treat any bonus figure you see in an older guide as unconfirmed.

The criteria are specific, so preparation starts in staff records: identify which staff meet the SUTQ lead-teacher definition of at least 3.5 hours a day with the group, excluding nap, on more than half of operating days; map their CDA, Career Pathways Level and degree holdings against the center education shares for the level, and the center on-site administrator's credential where Silver or Gold requires one; confirm administrator Ohio Approved hours stand at the level's total; and, for Gold, work out which 40% of classrooms can staff to the lower ratios.

Career Pathways Levels are recorded in the Ohio Professional Registry and count as an alternate route to meet licensing or SUTQ education requirements.

The calendar is known in advance: Bronze verifies on site every other year, Silver and Gold every three years, with the OCOT observation added at Silver and Gold, and Bronze adds an annual self-assessment to the schedule.

DCY runs SUTQ, so confirm the current standards and verification schedule with the department when you plan the work.

Career Pathways Levels (CPL) — six levels recorded in the Ohio Professional Registry (OPR) — are Ohio's credential rungs for the early childhood field.

A CPL level can be used as an alternate route to meet licensing or SUTQ education requirements, and CPL rungs sit alongside degrees and the CDA in the SUTQ standards.

A revised CPL model took effect July 1, 2026, so a CPL level shown on an older chart may not be the level under the current model.

The rating scale is the change to watch for in older material: current SUTQ rules in OAC Chapter 5180:2-17 award Bronze, Silver and Gold, and a page or posting that still describes five SUTQ star levels is describing the retired scale.

The chapter number can differ between sources: Ohio renumbered its child care rules under the Department of Children and Youth (formerly ODJFS) — the center rules moved from Chapter 5101:2-12 to Chapter 5180:2-12, and current SUTQ rules sit in Chapter 5180:2-17 — and older pages and forms still cite the old numbers, so the same SUTQ rules can surface online under either chapter number.

On the staffing side, the Career Pathways Level model was revised effective July 1, 2026 — worth knowing because CPL levels sit alongside degrees as qualifying credentials in the SUTQ education shares.