Does Wyoming Have a Childcare Quality Rating System? What Directors Need to Know

Wyoming does not have a QRIS, so there is nothing to join and no participation rule to meet.

The state's FFY 2025-2027 CCDF State Plan states that Wyoming does not have a QRIS, and says the state identifies professional development, tracked and approved through Wyoming STARS, as a measure for quality.

The Wyoming program to know apart from any rating system is WY Quality Counts at the Department of Workforce Services: an awareness, scholarship and grant program rather than a rating system.

DWS describes the program's mission as raising awareness about why quality child care matters.

It is 100% state-funded, and its resources are subject to the availability of funds.

There are none.

Because Wyoming does not have a QRIS, the state has no rating levels for a center to hold — no stars and no tiers to move up.

The same plan reports no plans to spend quality funds on developing, implementing or enhancing a quality improvement system.

If you come across a page that describes Wyoming star levels or quality tiers, treat it with caution: the state's own plan says there is no QRIS.

Confirm the current landscape with DFS Child Care Licensing.

None, because there is no rating to count toward: Wyoming runs no QRIS, so no staff credential or training hour changes a center's rating.

What the state ties quality to instead is professional development — the CCDF plan identifies professional development as a measure for quality, tracked and approved through Wyoming STARS, and STARS approves all training and trainers for licensed child care providers.

Licensing is a separate track: DFS Child Care Licensing licenses Wyoming's child care facilities, so questions about director qualifications go to DFS rather than to any rating body.

None tied to a rating.

Wyoming does not operate a QRIS, so there is no QRIS observation tool, no rating visit and no QRIS observer scoring classrooms against quality levels.

Licensing is separate: DFS Child Care Licensing administers the licensing rules for Wyoming's facilities.

If a program asks your center to use a specific tool, confirm with DFS Child Care Licensing which process it belongs to.

There are no rating-linked incentives, because there are no ratings.

Wyoming does not pay tiered or differential child care subsidy rates, per its CCDF plan, and the plan reports no plans to spend quality funds on developing, implementing or enhancing a quality improvement system.

What exists sits outside any rating: WY Quality Counts offers educators scholarships of up to $1,500 for college degrees or $2,300 for CDA credential programs, paid directly to the institution, and professional development grants of up to $1,000 per recipient per state fiscal year for conference and training costs.

The program is 100% state-funded, and its resources are subject to the availability of funds.

There is no Wyoming rating to prepare for, so no level checklist applies.

The practical version in Wyoming is training record-keeping: STARS approves all training and trainers for licensed providers and records completed training credits, and the state's CCDF plan names professional development as a measure for quality — so current STARS records are what a Wyoming director can actually keep in order.

Build slack into anything that depends on the registry: as of our October 2026 read, the site carried a notice that STARS was migrating to a new learning management system and was temporarily not processing course requests or credits.

Direct any question about quality expectations to DFS Child Care Licensing, which administers the state's licensing rules.

Wyoming STARS (Statewide Training and Resource System) is the state early childhood registry, funded by the Department of Family Services and administered by Align.

STARS approves all training and trainers for licensed providers and records completed training credits — the professional-development track the state's CCDF plan names as a measure for quality.

As of our October 2026 read, the registry site carried a notice that STARS was migrating to a new learning management system and was temporarily not processing course requests or credits.