Research has shown that when children receive high-quality child care, they are much more likely to perform well in school, graduate on time, and be productive members of society. This is why it’s critical that there are investments made into early care and education programs and that efforts are made to get low-income children, who often face significant barriers throughout their lives, into these programs.

Wisconsin’s child care quality rating and improvement system, YoungStar, is one program that has the potential to be a valuable tool in increasing success among low-income children. For the past five years, Kids Forward has been closely analyzing trends among the children and child care programs participating in YoungStar. These trends show a significant increase of children, including low-income children, in higher-rated programs and a pronounced decline of children in the lowest-rated programs.

This clear shift of low-income children moving into higher-quality child care settings means Wisconsin’s YoungStar efforts have been successful to some degree. But there is still a lot of room for improvement of our child care system, so more low-income kids can gain access to high-quality child care.

To learn more about YoungStar’s impact on the child care system and our recommendations to ensure progress continues, read our latest report, YoungStar: Key Obstacles Are Blocking Progress.

Dave Edie, Early Education Policy Analyst