By DAVID CLOUSTON

Salina Journal

On the wall beside the framed copy of her state-issued child care license hangs another certificate that Sherron French is justifiably proud of.

The certificate from the Kansas Quality Rating System certifies that French's Happy Hearts Child Care center has received three out of a possible five stars under a new child care rating system.

Someday soon, parents seeking child care in Saline County should be able to look on a Web site to see how many stars child care providers have earned.

French, who operates the child care center from the basement of her home on South Santa Fe Avenue, is one of the providers participating in the voluntary program.

On a recent day, her brood included her 5-year-old twin sons, who are the oldest of slightly fewer than a dozen children reaching all the way down to 18 months in age.

A few of the children duck merrily in and out of a yellow-and-white striped tent set up in a corner. Others are busy stacking and knocking down building blocks, and playing with dolls. Snack time comes and they sit at a low table, where French serves them cups of juice and individually wrapped sticks of string cheese.

When she was preparing to open her child care center 10 years ago, French said, the child care provider community wasn't a close-knit bunch.

"I had to really reach out to find the networks in order to figure out what 'professionalism' is. This is going to bring professionalism into the parent (arena)," she said, of the quality rating system. "So that parents understand what a professional (provider) does.

"I think it's going to be great for parents because it gives them direction. It gives them choices about quality."

The rating system might be a good idea, but it's an expensive one, and that's one thing holding it back. It's estimated the program will cost $500 a child -- a year. But for the providers who participate, the rewards can be great, including receiving grants as well as access to college scholarships for themselves and their staffs.

Why we need child care

This summer, the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce conducted a survey among employers whose employees represent 53 percent of all eligible workers in the county.

Just more than 61 percent of those employers ranked the availability of child care services as very important or important in recruiting workers, chamber president and chief executive officer Dennis Lauver said.

The Salina-based Kansas Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (KACCRRA), is helping create the rating system.

A pilot effort is in its fourth year.

Saline County was one of the pilot counties, along with the communities of Wichita, Garden City and Kansas City, said KACCRRA Director Leadell Ediger.

KACCRRA doesn't plan to release any of the ratings until the number of providers involved reaches at least 15 to 20 percent of licensed child care providers statewide. It's not there yet, but Ediger hopes the rating service will be available to Kansas parents no later than this June.

"If you release the ratings to families in counties where there might only be two or three providers to choose from, and those folks have no vacancies, it is frustrating," Ediger said.

At one point in the project, the only funding available came from the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. Some communities also used state grant funds from Kansas' share of tobacco lawsuit settlement.

Serious about funding

Now a group of community leaders in Salina has formed the Great Beginnings Partnership. It's mission is to develop a stronger work force and to help stabilize the current work force by fostering high-quality, early childhood education via the Five Star Quality Rating System.

"They said that within five years they wanted to have 70 percent of child care providers in Saline County rated," Ediger said. "They've set a very ambitious goal with an ambitious dollar amount attached."

The group is working with the Greater Salina Community Foundation on funding.

Betsy Wearing, the foundation's executive director, said a fund for the program has been established at the foundation, and it's received a "significant" contribution from the Salina Regional Health Foundation's Community Health Investment Program.

Getting started

The rating process starts when the children care provider requests an application. A ratings specialist visits the provider, observes the learning environment and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the facility and its resources -- right down to the kinds of toys and activities available.

The rating system is eligible to both institutional child care centers and home-based providers, Ediger said. Stars are apportioned based on staff training and qualifications, interactions between children and staff members, class size and staff-to-child ratios, and the learning environment and instructional practices.

When parents seeking child care call one of the state's resource and referral call centers for a listing of providers, that list will include the star rating for each provider. There also will be a link to a Web site and a two-page assessment report to go with the rating.

Very helpful for parents

"For parents, it really is the consumer reports of child care," said Jennifer Hecker, the Kansas Quality Rating System director for KACCRRA. "It really will be the most information they've ever had when they make a child care choice."

The pilot program has uncovered providers with fairly serious health and safety issues.

"It's hard to get to the four-and five-star level. If they're at that level, they have a lot to be proud of," Ediger said.

"I would say that if we could get 10 to 15 percent of providers across the state, we would classify that as a real success," Ediger said.

Not easily achieved

That kind of reach won't be cheap to achieve.

"We're estimating $5,500 per provider, or $500 per child on average per year," she said. "We think that's a great investment. We also know that there are thousands of children in child care across Kansas. Multiplied by that, it's daunting."

A coach works with providers to help them develop a quality improvement plan once they receive their star rating.

Providers who receive 1, 2 or 3 stars must improve their quality by up to 4 points each year, and 4- and 5-star programs must maintain their overall quality level to remain eligible under the program.

Officials are looking at public and private partnerships for funding for the program.

"We've seen that model be successful in other areas," Hecker said.

Part of the helpfulness of the rating system is it identifies for parents the areas that might be most important to them as they look for the best child care providers.

"Part of it is giving the parents what your philosophy is. Are you concentrating on academics, or are you concentrating on family partnerships (having parents more involved in activities) -- they'll be able to see where your strengths are," French said. "A lot of it is a lot parents just don't know what quality is.

"I'm very excited about it," she said.

n Reporter David Clouston can be reached at 822-1403 or by e-mail at dclouston@salina.com.

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