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Quality for ME

Quality for ME is a voluntary four-step program designed to increase awareness of the basic standards of early care and education, to recognize and support providers who are providing care above and beyond those standards, and to educate the community of the benefits of higher quality care.  Quality for ME has three goals.

• To recognize child care programs that provide quality care
• To encourage providers to increase their level of quality
• To provide parents with identifiable standards of quality

With the Quality for ME pilot now complete, we are moving toward statewide implementation in March 2008. Beginning in March any provider, statewide, may apply to the Quality Rating System by filling out an online application at:

Complete the Online Application

 

What is the background of Quality for ME?
Quality for ME is a system that has been designed in collaboration with many parents, providers and stakeholders in the early care and education (ECE) system. In 2004 a group of key ECE stakeholders in the state of Maine attended a meeting where they began the discussion around the formation of a system to identify quality child care programs based on a certain set of criteria. Over the next two years the Early Childhood Division of DHHS held two series of focus groups to find out how parents and providers define quality in early care and education settings. The Early Childhood Division then took the results from those focus groups along with national research on the indicators of quality and created a tiered system to identify programs based on their level of quality. The Quality for ME system was also created to identify those programs that may need additional resources and /or supports to increase their level of quality as it is measured by the Quality for ME system. 

For more information about the Quality for ME Quality Rating System please email QualityforME@maine.gov or call Carolyn Drugge at 624-7957. You may also call your local RDC, or Allyson Dean at Maine Roads to Quality, 780-5833 for additional information.

Quality for ME Standards
Standards for Child Care Centers - PDF*
Standards for Family Child Care Homes - PDF*
Standards for School-Age Care - PDF*
Standards for Head Start Programs - PDF*

Online Application

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For a free viewer or to request a hard copy

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