Georgia’s Quality Rated program for childcare must and will continue to evolve
I have spent my adult professional life working to protect children and support families. One of my proudest accomplishments was leading Georgia’s efforts to improve early childhood education through the development of Quality Rated.
This landmark initiative brought together the best thinking we could muster at the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning: the experiences of families, childcare providers and advocates; the expertise of leading national authorities on early childhood education; more than a decade of data on early learning environments; and research we commissioned on health and safety conditions in childcare facilities.
To understand Quality Rated, it is important to understand what we knew in 2011. Seminal research was transforming our understanding of early childhood brain development and the influence of children’s earliest experiences on their later success.
DECAL-commissioned studies of infant and toddler classrooms across Georgia also revealed educational environments badly in need of improvement. Georgia had both an opportunity and a responsibility to do better.
What the Quality Rated was intended to reflect
Quality Rated became a central component of Georgia’s successful 2013 application for nearly $52 million in federal Race to the Top–Early Learning Challenge funding. We also raised significant private funding to support improvements in early childhood education quality.
First and foremost, Quality Rated was designed to spur improvements in educational quality. But we also knew that educational quality means little if children are seriously harmed or die while in care.
We intentionally built Quality Rated to require appropriate licensing compliance before a facility could receive a star rating. We incorporated incentives and support to encourage improvements in both safety and educational quality. Georgia also strengthened its licensing and monitoring system through fingerprint-based background checks, expanded emergency enforcement authority and research-informed oversight.
A Quality Rated star was never intended to be a guarantee that a serious incident could not occur. Rather, it reflected an assessment of educational quality within a system that also required attention to licensing compliance. Both dimensions matter, but they are not interchangeable.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s investigation raises important questions about the health, safety, and educational quality of Georgia’s childcare programs in its investigation. Serious injuries deserve careful investigation, accountability, and public scrutiny.
However, as I shared with one of the reporters responsible for the series, a more complete analysis should systematically examine the temporal sequence of serious incidents, licensing and enforcement actions, corrective measures, and subsequent Quality Rated assignments or reassessments.
A serious incident occurring three years before reassessment presents different circumstances from one occurring three weeks before a rating is awarded. Whether violations were substantiated, corrective actions completed and improvements sustained is essential context.
None of this suggests that a serious violation should be disregarded once corrective action is completed. Parents deserve to know about significant safety concerns, how regulators responded and whether the facility demonstrated sustained improvement.
Failure of care
An AJC investigative series about safety gaps in Georgia daycares
Flawed and misleading quality ratings: Children suffered burns and beatings. Georgia calls it quality daycare.
Parents guide: Understanding daycare inspections, ratings and fines
5 takeaways: What the AJC investigation of quality ratings revealed
Your turn: Tell us your experience
Parents should be able to find compliance information easier
Although the AJC examined regulatory records and highlighted individual cases, parents would benefit from a systematic analysis across providers that distinguishes isolated incidents from recurring deficiencies and establishes how representative the highlighted circumstances are.
Equally important is understanding the incidence rate of serious injuries, which the series does not meaningfully address.
Research DECAL commissioned during my tenure, conducted through Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, and published in 2014, found substantially lower estimated rates of injuries requiring medical attention while children were in childcare than among children in the general population. The study, available on DECAL’s website, illustrates why incident counts alone cannot establish the likelihood of serious injury. Although historical, the research demonstrates that understanding risk requires examining injuries relative to the number of children served and their time in care.
I am also disappointed that the reporting risks painting dedicated childcare professionals and DECAL staff with a broad brush, leaving the impression that children’s safety is routinely disregarded. Nothing could be further from my experience. I have witnessed firsthand the commitment of these professionals to protecting children. That dedication deserves recognition, even as we insist upon accountability when serious failures occur.
Going forward, Georgia should continue examining injury incidence rates, the effectiveness of corrective actions and the relationship between serious incidents and quality ratings. Parents can already access licensing and compliance information, but that information should be easier to find, understand, and view alongside Quality Rated star ratings. I believe these issues are receiving serious consideration from DECAL’s leadership.
Parents deserve clear, accessible information about both educational quality and safety. In the best traditions of what has made Georgia a national leader in early childhood education, engagement, research, and expertise must guide the continuing evolution of Quality Rated.
Bobby D. Cagle, MSW, is a former commissioner of the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning and former director of the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services.
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The opinions expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.