1. Primary
Prevention
A Key Ingredient
In High Quality Early Care
and Education Settings
Important ways Children’s Trust Funds
Can be engaged in states’ Quality Rating and
Improvement Systems (QRIS)
What is QRIS?
Oklahoma launched the first Quality Rating and Improvement
System (QRIS) in 1998. At that time, the term QRS (Quality Rating
System) was the term used to describe these systems, constructed to
“assess, improve and communicate about the level of quality in early
care and education settings,” according to Anne Mitchell in her
QRIS toolkit, Stair Steps to Quality. Recently, the ‘I’ has been added
Getting Started to create the term QRIS, the ‘I’ standing for Improvement. The
addition of the ‘I’ has helped to shift the focus away from merely
rating early care and education programs – expanding the idea of
The Right Tools Are quality to include continuous quality improvement. It also helps
Always Helpful. redefine the term “quality” to include such things as serving families
The Strengthening Families in a culturally competent manner, including supports that will allow
Protective Factor (SF/PF) families, in partnership with early care and education professionals,
During the past ten years,
Framework is a strong support for seventeen other states have
joined Oklahoma in fully
quality in early care settings.
implementing QRIS. All but
Share What You Know. five of the remaining states are
Research by NAEYC revealed that drafting standards, piloting or
early childhood educators feel a considering how to implement
QRIS. If you are interested in
strong sense of responsibility to
learning more about how this
help prevent child abuse and applies to your state, see the
neglect, but want to know more reference materials in this
about effective strategies. document and contact your
State Child Care Administrator for additional information specific to
your state.

2. Early Care and Education Professionals Children’s Trust Funds
The Alliance’s
Stories from Three ECI States:
Early Childhood Initiative
Embedding the Strengthening Families Protective
Factor (SF/PF) Framework Into QRIS (ECI)
Working Together.
One
Goal.
Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect Before it Ever
Occurs by Strengthening Families.
A System of Systems
Basic Elements of QRIS
QRIS is a composite system that unifies multiple There are five elements that are common to almost all
sectors of the early childhood education system. Some states’ QRIS:
of the sub­systems represented in states’ QRIS are:
1. Standards – at least two levels of quality above
• Child Care Licensing
state’s basic licensing requirements – may align
• Professional Development System with early learning guidelines.
• Early Care and Education Providers – Centers 2. Accountability – Monitoring and assessment of
and Family Child Care standards
• Child Care Resource & Referral 3. Support to ECE Practitioners – technical
assistance, training and other supports to help
• Early Childhood Mental Health
practitioners along the pathway to quality.
• Departments of Education
4. Financing – tiered reimbursements, grants and
• Higher Education other support tied to quality.
All of these must agree upon how the basic elements
5. Parent Education – actually, educating
of QRIS should be structured and implemented.
parents to be savvy consumers of high quality
Building the five protective factors (parental
early care and education as they see how it will
resilience, social connections, concrete support in
benefit their most precious resource – their
times of need, knowledge of parenting and child
children.
development and social and emotional development of
children) is a priority for each of these systems. Each of these elements can serve as a “door” by which
Children’s Trust Funds may seek to enter QRIS. By
partnering with early childhood stakeholders to embed the five
2 protective factors into QRIS, Children’s Trust Funds have the

3. Children’s Trust Funds Early Care and Education Professionals
Together,
with the right tools. . .
We can
strengthen
families.
Why should “Quality Early Care and
Education programs are the
Children’s Trust foundation for a child abuse
and neglect prevention
Funds become agenda.”
involved with
QRIS? Strengthening Families Protective Factor Framework
1 Evidence points to the
reality that quality early
care and education programs
strengthen children and
families and ultimately
reduce child abuse and
neglect.
2 Children’s Trust Funds
have valuable
experience implementing
effective community­based
family strengthening
strategies.
3 The Strengthening
Families Protective
Factor Framework is a tool
that Children’s Trust Funds
can offer as a resource to
help unite the multiple
sectors of the early
childhood field necessary to
build and sustain Quality
Rating and Improvement
3

4. The Alliance’s
Stories from Three ECI States:
Early Childhood Initiative
Embedding the Strengthening Families Protective
Factor (SF/PF) Framework Into QRIS (ECI)
Collaboration
Requires
Concentration
The vibrant network of the ECI
Learning Community . . .
represents partnerships between
CTFs and early childhood
stakeholders in 27 states. Each
member of the Learning
Community is committed to:
♦ Transformational systemic
change to benefit children and
families
♦ Attainment and strengthening
of the five protective factors
among all families and
communities
♦ A future where all children live
in safe, stable and nurturing
families and communities.
The ECI Theory of Change
maps out a plan to accomplish the
goals stated above. A key strategy
will be to explore ways in which
states can embed the Strengthening
Families Protective Factor
Framework
into their states’ Quality Rating
and Improvement Systems (QRIS).
See www.ctfalliance.org for more
information.
4

5. Children’s Trust Funds Early Care and Education Professionals
3 Idaho Resources:
To learn more about the National Alliance of
Enthusiastic support from child care providers
Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds’ Early
and a disdain for regulations by state policy
Childhood Initiative work with Strengthening
makers form the backdrop for efforts to
Families Through QRIS, see:
increase quality for early care and education
www.ctfalliance.org/qris
settings in Idaho. Yet, since 2003 a unique
relationship between the Idaho Association for
To download a copy of the Strengthening
the Education of Young Children (Idaho
Families Self­Assessment, Guidebook for Early
AEYC) and the University of Idaho
Childhood Programs and other materials, see:
(IdahoSTARS state training and registry
www.strengtheningfamilies.net
system) was the basis for a collaboration that
eventually included Idaho’s Children’s Trust
The federal American Recovery and
Fund. Although quality efforts initially
Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, the “Stimulus
focused on voluntary training and education
Package,” offers some opportunities to implement
scholarships, mentoring, and environment
early childhood policy and systems change. To
assessment, by 2006 a broader focus began to
learn more about how this could possibly benefit
include the use of the Strengthening Families
implementation of QRIS, see:
approach as an integral component of Idaho’s
www.buildinitiative.org
Child Care Quality Rating and Improvement
System (QRIS) and accounts for 20% of the
The National Child Care Information Center has
quality standards. QRIS is currently in the
recently updated information about states who
design phase and being implemented through
are fully implementing QRIS, with links to
a statewide pilot program in over 20 cities.
states’ QRIS websites:
The pilot includes 52 centers and family­based
http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/pubs/qrs­defsystems.html
programs, serving nearly 3,000 children and
their families. Idaho has been successful at
Advancing Child Abuse and Neglect Protective
incorporating major components of the
Factors: The Role of the Early Care and
Strengthening Families approach (including
Education Infrastructure by Sharon L. Kagan
the self­assessment) into the QRIS standards.
gives a justification of why high quality early
They have created a curriculum around the
childhood programs are a logical foundation for a
SF/PF Framework that will soon be expanded
child abuse and neglect prevention agenda: http://
to programs outside of the QRIS pilot,
www.cssp.org/uploadFiles/Kagan.pdf
utilizing the “support to ECE practitioners”
door into their QRIS. The most recent work For further information,
being undertaken by the ECI team is to
implement the Community Café and reach out
contact:
to parents to cultivate their “leadership voice”
in order to raise an awareness of the Martha Reeder, Program Manager
importance of quality child care and create a
strong statewide voluntary QRIS. Early Childhood Initiative
National Alliance of Children’s Trust and
Prevention Funds
marthareeder@gmail.com
5

6. Strengthening Families
Through QRIS
Children’s Trust and Preventions Funds across the United States have
embraced the Strengthening Families Protective Factor (SF/PF)
Framework as a way to build strong families and communities and to
support the optimal development of the very youngest and most
vulnerable children.
Early Care and Education Systems have recognized the need for higher
quality early care and education settings, and have pursued the
development of Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) as a
way to meet this need.
High quality early care and education settings that reach out to parents
in significant and meaningful partnerships may be one of the best ways to
prevent child abuse and neglect. As QRIS are being built and revised, the
critical opportunity exists to strengthen families and prevent child abuse
before it ever occurs.
Primary Prevention: A Key Ingredient in High Quality Early Care and Education
National Alliance of
Children’s Trust and
Prevention Funds
5712 30th Avenue NE
Seattle WA 98105
Phone (206) 526­1221
Fax (206) 526­0220 [Recipient]
info@ctfalliance.org
Address Line 1
www.ctfalliance.org
Address Line 2
Address Line 3
Safe and Healthy Children Address Line 4
Strong and Stable Families
Thriving and Prosperous
Communities