National
Some child care programs choose to strive for a higher level of operating standards and seek accreditation.
There are several national professional organizations which promote high quality standards in early childhood education:
National Association of the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
National Early Childhood Program Accreditation (NECPA)
National Accreditation Commission for Early Child Care and Education (NAC)
National Association of Family Child Care Accreditation (NAFCC)
Council of Accreditation (COA)
Cognia Quality Early Learning Standards (QELS)
Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI)
Early Head Start and/or Head Start Programs regulated by CCR (providing wrap-around care)
American Montessori Society (AMS)
Association Montessori International/USA (AMI/USA)
Middle States Association (MSA)
Texas
The Texas Rising Star program is a quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) for child care programs participating in the Texas Workforce Commission’s (TWC) Child Care Services program. Texas Rising Star certification is available to licensed centers and licensed and registered child care home facilities that meet the certification criteria.
The Texas Rising Star certification system offers three levels of quality certification (Two-Star, Three-Star, and Four-Star) to encourage child care and early learning programs to attain progressively higher levels of quality.
A Texas Rising Star provider is a child care program that has an agreement to serve children who receive child care scholarships through TWC’s Child Care Services program and that meets requirements that exceed the State’s Child Care Regulation’s Licensing Minimum Standards.
Across Texas, parents and families enroll their children into child care programs, including center-based and home-based programs. Numerous research studies have shown that at-risk children who attend higher quality child care programs are more prepared for school entry than children who do not attend quality child care programs.
Those child care programs that achieve Texas Rising Star certification, offering quality care that exceeds the State’s Minimum Standards for director and staff qualifications, teacher-child interactions, program administration, indoor/outdoor learning environments, and family involvement and education, are in a better position to contribute to the early development of children. As child care programs progress through the levels of Texas Rising Star certification, they contribute progressively more to the development of the children they serve on a daily basis.