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

Vermont's quality rating system is STARS, short for STep Ahead Recognition System.

The adopted rule establishes it as Vermont's Quality Recognition and Improvement System (QRIS), and it covers centers, family child care homes and afterschool programs, so a center director, a home provider and an afterschool coordinator can all be working under the same system.

What our research did not confirm is whether participation is required: nothing in the rule text we read settles a mandate either way, so ask DCF's Child Development Division how the rule applies to your program.

STARS runs on levels: a program achieves a level and can advance to a higher one, and the rule's certificate and incentive provisions are built around exactly that movement.

The rule text does not fix the number of levels, and specific per-level criteria were not verified in our research.

CDD publishes the content areas and the criteria for each level separately from the rule, so the current criteria document — not the rule — is where a director reads what each level demands.

The staff-qualification criteria behind each level were not verified in our research, so this page names no credential, credit total or training hours that earn standing at any STARS level.

What the rule does set out is the machinery: a program self-assesses using state-approved tools and builds a continuous quality improvement (CQI) plan, and it may use certified STARS assessors for observations.

Because CDD publishes the level criteria separately, a director reads what each level demands there rather than in the rule text.

The adopted rule names no specific observation instrument: our research found no requirement to use ERS or CLASS in the rule text.

The rule's own mechanism is self-assessment with state-approved tools, with certified STARS assessors available for observations.

Which tools the state has approved is not named in the rule text, and our research did not cover what an assessor visit involves, so confirm the current assessment approach with CDD before you schedule staff training around a particular instrument.

Two payment mechanisms appear in the rule, both at DCF's discretion and both subject to funding.

When a program initially achieves a level or initially advances to a higher one, DCF may provide a one-time financial incentive payment.

The rule also provides for 'quality factor' payments above the base subsidy rate.

No dollar amount was verified in our research, so treat any figure you have heard as unconfirmed.

For individual staff, our research found no STARS provision paying a named staff bonus; ask CDD what supports reach staff members.

The process the rule describes gives a director a sequence to work through.

A program self-assesses with state-approved tools and writes a continuous quality improvement (CQI) plan, and it may bring in a certified STARS assessor for observations instead of relying only on internal review.

Once issued, a certificate is valid for three years, and in years two and three the program must complete a brief annual update to its CQI plan.

Since the level criteria are published separately, the first concrete step is reading CDD's current criteria document and seeing what it asks of your program.

Vermont tracks early-educator professional development in the Bright Futures Information System (BFIS), where a staff member's Quality and Credential Account records completed training and credentials.

Training recognized there must meet criteria set by Northern Lights at CCV, the Community College of Vermont.

Our research found nothing in the STARS rule saying how BFIS records feed a STARS application, so for the documentation a level requires, use the criteria CDD publishes.