YoungStar Overview

The care children receive both at home and away from home couldn’t be more important. Studies show that children who experience engaging, one-on-one activities in safe, healthy, and nurturing learning environments have a better chance at lifelong success. They’re more likely to graduate from high school, less likely to engage in criminal activity, and often earn higher wages throughout their lifetime.

The Department of Children and Families is committed to improving the quality of care for all Wisconsin’s young children. YoungStar, Wisconsin’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), is helping to make it happen by:

• Helping early care and education (ECE) and school-age care providers who want to improve the quality of their care.
• Creating financial incentives that encourage providers to deliver better services to children.
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YoungStar represents the work of many individuals and organizations over several years. From the legislative process used to create YoungStar to the creation of the YoungStar Connect team- the organizations that are now administering YoungStar in Wisconsin– this work is done in partnership with multiple stakeholders who all support high-quality early care and education in Wisconsin.

YoungStar provides an opportunity for your program to improve its overall quality, while also improving the outcomes of the children in your care. YoungStar provides functional guidelines, comprehensive resources, and hands-on support to help your program make sensible changes that lead to improved quality. Since YoungStar Connect believes in provider-driven services, you get to decide which of these resources, supports, and guidelines to access from them, on the topic(s) that are most important to you.

Programs that participate in YoungStar can request free support from a YoungStar Coach who will help you navigate the YoungStar program. Your program can receive ongoing coaching to help you improve the quality of your business and teaching practices. YoungStar Coaches are regionally located throughout the state.

Participating in YoungStar also gives your program a state-recognized star rating that acknowledges your program’s quality teaching and business practices. Your participation also means that your program will be searchable by families looking for child care through the YoungStar Child Care Finder. Financial incentives have also been created to encourage providers to deliver better services to children.