QUALITY ENHANCEMENT PROGRAM

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ll Mississippi's children deserve high-quality child care. Adequate financial support is critical to achieving this goal, especially in centers serving low-income communities. MLICCI advocates for sufficient funding and promotes quality enhancement by offering state-wide training and technical assistance in:

  • preparing for the ECERS & ITERS assessments;
  • parent engagement; and
  • anti-bias work with children and families.

On-site Training and Technical Assistance

MLICCI is a state partner in the Kellogg Foundation-funded Mississippi SPARK (Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids) project spearheaded by the Southern Regional Office of the Children's Defense Fund. SPARK aims to align and improve the early childhood education experiences of children ages three-second grade in five public school districts in Mississippi. SPARK involves parents, child care centers, Head Start programs, public school districts, and other partners locally and state-wide. MLICCI provides training and technical assistance to child care centers located in these five school districts and contributes policy analysis related to child care issues on the SPARK Statewide Committee.

See MLICCI’s table comparing Head Start to child care subsidies.

In addition, MLICCI has worked with 13 child care centers across the state to provide extensive training and technical assistance utilizing "More Is Caught Than Taught" concepts developed by FOCAL (the Federation of Child Care Centers of Alabama). This extensive training experience takes child care centers, parents, and communities through a process of creating a common vision for their children. They then develop an action plan that engages them all to make that vision real.

Read participants' comments about the program.    TOP  »

Curriculum Enhancement Kits

NOTE: possible to add image of classroom paraphernalia?

MLICCI is offering training and special curriculum enhancement kits with books, puppets, and other materials to interested low-income child care centers. The kits will focus on cultural diversity, parent engagement, and gender equity. These kits will be made available at training events where MLICCI will help providers understand how to utilize these materials to enhance early childhood experiences for children in their centers. Contact us for more information.    TOP  »

Prepare for ECERS & ITERS Assessment

Mississippi's new Quality Rating Scale utilizes the ECERS (Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale) and the ITERS (Infant Toddler Environmental Rating Scale) as one measure to ascribe which step—and therefore which reimbursement rate—a center can achieve on the new five-step scale. MLICCI can help centers understand these rating scales and offers resources to prepare for assessments. We have alimited supply of books and DVDs on this topic to give to centers. Contact us to find out more.    TOP  »

Assessing the Impact of Mississippi's
Quality Rating System (QRS)

The Mississippi Department of Human Services (DHS) is piloting a quality rating system (QRS) using tiered reimbursements. In tiered systems, child care providers receive higher ratings and rates of reimbursement for achieving specific quality improvements.

These improvements cost money. States that have successfully implemented tiered systems have made significant investments to help low-income child care centers pay for required improvements. However, DHS is proposing to implement Mississippi's system with no such additional funding. And it plans to target only the most financially vulnerable centers (due to their reliance on the inadequate and insecure child care certificate program).    TOP  »

This proposal threatens to create a segregated child care system in which only centers with the resources to finance quality improvements can afford to participate. Since most child care centers'  funds come from parent fees, centers serving parents who can afford to pay fees will get higher reimbursements, and centers serving parents who cannot afford to pay fees will be left behind.

MLICCI is monitoring the program's impact on child care centers serving low-income families, so that emerging inequities can be identified and addressed before the pilot moves to state-wide implementation. And we plan to support low-income child care centers quality improvement efforts through training, technical assistance, and parental engagement.    TOP  »

All Mississippi's children deserve high-quality child care. Adequate financial support is critical to achieving this goal, especially in centers serving low-income communities.
photo girl playground
Studies show that
while quality early childhood experiences benefit all children, they make the most significantly positive difference in outcomes for poor children.
Quality improvements cost money.
States that have successfully implemented tiered systems have made significant investments to help low-income child care centers
pay for required improvements.

However, DHS is proposing to implement Mississippi's system with no such additional funding. And it plans to target only the most financially vulnerable centers—due to their reliance on the inadequate and insecure child care certificate program.