Family House Health Education

Exciting news for the Department of Early Learning and for families in our state: Our state is one of only six in the nation selected for an upcoming “policy academy” with the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices!

So what does this mean? These six states (us, along with Oregon, Kansas, Louisiana, Rhode Island and Vermont) will receive interactive support and guidance from national experts to help us with a key early learning initiative important to our state. For Washington, that means our continued efforts on Seeds to Success, our quality rating and improvement system. The purpose of a QRIS is to help improve quality in child care and give families information about how to determine quality.

This support from the NGA will help us as we create a clear action plan for the next phase of Seeds to Success testing, so that we can create a QRIS that is sustainable, and supports child care providers in ensuring quality child care environments for children. In addition to DEL, the Washington team includes representatives from Thrive by Five Washington, educational service districts, the Department of Social and Health Services, and the University of Washington.

Read the NGA press release announcing the six states that will be part of the Ready States: A Project to Develop Key Components of State Early Childhood Infrastructure policy academy.