Plans for quality and safety ratings for Connecticut day cares ‘on hold’

Several attempts have been made through the years to launch a statewide rating system for day care centers and preschools so parents will know if they are safe and what the quality of the programs are.

This was a goal of the Malloy administration, but with the state’s second failed bid to land federal Race to the Top funding to pay for the initiative, a rating system is “on hold,” according to a report in the website of the Connecticut Health Investigative Team (c-hit.org).

When the state was informed that Washington would not fund the initiative, the governor’s executive director of the Office of Early Childhood was noncommittal on the future of the initiative. “We will have to look and figure that out. Informing parents is a top priority,” Myra Jones Taylor said during an interview.

Twenty-one other states have already launched rating systems for their early child care programs.

This news follows federal auditors’ citing safety concerns in every Connecticut child care facility they inspected. The state Department of Public Health now doesn’t have to license every child care facility.