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

Virginia's system is VQB5 — Virginia Quality Birth to Five — the state's uniform measurement and improvement system for birth-to-five programs, operated by the Virginia Department of Education.

Participation is written into the Code of Virginia for publicly funded providers: all publicly funded birth-to-five providers must participate, while other programs may opt in.

VDOE's role runs through the operating details — its guidance sets how observations and curriculum points are collected, and its bulletins have announced the educator incentive.

For a director, the dividing line is funding: a publicly funded program participates as a requirement, and a program without public funding decides whether to opt in.

Under the 2024-2025 VQB5 guidance, a program's annual quality score lands in one of three rating levels: Exceeds Expectations for a score between 700 and 800 points, Meets Expectations for 400-699 points, and Needs Support for 100-399 points.

The score combines two inputs: CLASS interaction points worth up to 700, and 100 points for using a VDOE-approved curriculum in at least one classroom by May 31.

A Needs Support rating is not just a label — programs that receive it are required to participate in improvement planning.

Our research read the 2024-2025 guidance document, and the current bands for the newest program year were not accessible to us, so confirm this year's bands with VDOE before setting targets.

The direct answer from the guidance our research read: staff credentials are not among the inputs that build a VQB5 quality score.

The 2024-2025 guidance builds the score from classroom interaction scores and curriculum use — CLASS points worth up to 700 plus the 100 curriculum points — and our research found no staff-credential or training-hour points in that document.

Staff qualifications are a separate track: Virginia's center licensing standards, 8VAC20-780, set who may serve as a program leader, aide or director, apart from the program's VQB5 score.

What VQB5 does add on the staff side is the improvement path — a program rated Needs Support is required to participate in improvement planning, which is where a low score turns into organized improvement work.

The tool is CLASS.

Under the 2024-2025 guidance, every eligible classroom completes two local CLASS observations each year — one in the fall and one in the spring — with scores entered in LinkB5, and external CLASS observations cover each age level.

Two practical readings follow for a center.

For staff, observer visits are a recurring feature of the year in every eligible room, not a single showcase observation.

For directors, the local observations and the LinkB5 score entry are calendar and data items to assign and track across the whole building.

Who conducts the local observations, and how observers are trained, sits in VDOE's guidance; our research did not capture those operational details.

The staff-side incentive tied to VQB5 has been RecognizeB5, an educator bonus.

For 2024-2025 it paid lead and assistant educators a maximum of $1,500 each, delivered in two $750 payments, for educators who worked at least 30 hours per week directly with birth-to-five children in a publicly funded center or family day home participating in VQB5.

The most recent funding status our research captured is a VDOE memo from July 2024: there were no RecognizeB5 funds in the 2025-2026 state budget, meaning no incentive for 2025-2026.

The program's scale gives the context: RecognizeB5 had been supported with $40+ million per year, primarily from federal COVID recovery funds that ended in September 2024.

On the center side, our research did not confirm a bonus or subsidy rate add-on tied to a VQB5 rating; ask VDOE what supports attach to ratings today and whether any funding has been restored since that memo.

Preparation tracks the three things the score is made of.

First, the observation calendar: every eligible classroom needs two local CLASS observations each year, fall and spring, plus the external observations for each age level, so observer coverage is a whole-building plan rather than a one-room event.

Second, the data flow: local observation scores are entered in LinkB5, and that entry work needs an owner.

Third, curriculum: using a VDOE-approved curriculum in at least one classroom by May 31 is worth 100 points under the 2024-2025 guidance, which makes curriculum approval a dated item on the director's calendar.

The consequence side matters too: programs that receive a Needs Support rating on their annual VQB5 Quality Profile are required to participate in improvement planning.

The scoring rubric itself sits in VDOE's current guidance, so work from this year's document rather than from an old copy.