Family Child Care Program Quality Assessment (PQA)

Assessing quality is an important element of any program serving children — including those that are family-based. The Family Child Care PQA is a validated assessment tool designed to measure the quality of family child care programs and identify provider training needs. Consisting of standards for best practice that can be scored by outside raters or used as a self-assessment tool by providers, it evaluates programs in four areas:

• Daily Schedule
• Learning Environment
• Provider-Child Interaction
• Safe and Healthy Environment

The Family Child Care PQA is appropriate for use in all family child care homes, whether the care is provided to relatives and friends or whether it serves a broader group of children in their homes. This unique assessment tool

• Assesses key aspects of program quality, including daily schedule, learning environment, provider-child interaction, and safety and health
• May be administered by trained, independent raters or as a self-assessment by family child care providers
• Provides specific, easy-to-understand quality indicators with objective five-point rating scales that define quality on a continuum
• Reflects research-based and field tested best practices in child development
• Provides reliable, scientifically validated assessment proven in a range of settings
• Can be used as a basis for program accreditation, reporting, monitoring, and training