GREENSBORO – The Department of Human Development and Family Studies at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro has been awarded $5.3 million by the N.C. Division of Child Development to assess the quality of the state’s child care homes and centers.

This latest two-year grant will allow the project’s leaders – Dr. Deborah Cassidy, Dr. Steve Hestenes, Dr. Linda Hestenes and Sharon Mims – to continue to evaluate the state’s day care facilities, work they began in 1999 with a $2.3 million grant.

With that grant, they began the implementation phase of the state’s five-star rated license through conducting assessments using a global scale of facility quality. The scale is designed to evaluate the quality of the state’s child care and to assist parents in choosing child care through the new five-star scale which provides more specific to parents. Before the five-star scale was introduced, day care facilities received A or AA ratings.

UNCG and other state universities rate homes and centers based on staff education levels, history of compliance with state rules, the physical environment, adult-child interactions, learning materials, and health and safety precautions.

The project leaders have summarized the results of assessments from 1999-2002, and some of their findings are alarming. During that span, evaluators assessed 2,050 facilities, 22 percent of all licensed facilities. Care for the youngest children frequently was found to be lacking.

“Especially in infant and toddler classrooms, we’re seeing some really low scores on health and safety items,” Cassidy said. “That should really be a basic level of care.”

The project leaders have made a series of recommendations to improve child care quality. They say the state should:
• help providers learn more about and improve health and safety practices,
• increase incentives for higher ratings,
• make assessments available to more facilities, and
• encourage further teacher education.

(11-3-03)

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