Five Head Start childcare programs in Athens, Hocking and Perry counties have received the highest possible rating in a new program that rates childcare centers statewide, said Amy Beardmore, childcare services manager for the Corporation for Ohio Appalachian Development.
The new program, called Step Up to Quality, is Ohio's voluntary three-star rating system that is being piloted in select early childhood education programs across Ohio, according to the Web site for the Ohio Childcare Resource and Referral Association, www.occrra.org.
Athens', Nelsonville's, Logan's, Laurelville's and Corning's Head Start programs all received three-star ratings in this system - the highest rating possible, Beardmore said.
The three-star rating means that these Head Start programs are meeting or exceeding criteria outlined in Step Up to Quality's benchmark indicators for the third tier of the program, Beardmore said.
Each early childhood education center that volunteers to participate in the program is rated on things such as child-instructor ratio, group size, staff education and continued training, workplace characteristics and quality of the early childhood education curriculum, she said.
I think the overall point of the program is to give parents something concrete to look to when they're looking to choose a childcare program
said Maureen Boggs, COAD's early care and education division director.
Participating childcare centers become eligible for grants to purchase new day-to-day materials such as art supplies or grants to fund improvements to the actual facility, Beardmore said. And staff-training grants are also available.
Ruby Kilkenny, the center coordinator for Athens Head Start, 507 Richland Ave., said she hopes to use some of the grant money Athens Head Start has received to purchase new playground equipment. The grant money also allowed one of her staff members to participate in a literacy-training program, she said.
Athens Head Start provides childcare for 80 children ages 3 to 5, Kilkenny said.
Beardmore called the incentives to participate in the Step Up to Quality rating program a pretty big carrot for childcare centers in rural communities like Athens. That is because these centers often do not have the kind of resources that big city centers have, such as local or county tax dollars or large corporate sponsors, she said.
COAD is working with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Child Care Resource and Referral Association to administer the program in the three-county consortium of Athens, Hocking and Perry counties, Boggs said.
Muskingum County also recently was invited to join the program, she said.
In order to participate in the Step Up to Quality program, a childcare center must comply with licensure requirements mandated by the state of Ohio and must be located in a county that has been invited to participate in the pilot program, she said. Counties are chosen based on the number of childcare centers in them, she said.
The pilot program will run through June, when a database of the program's findings will be compiled, Beardmore said. 17
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