Page 7 - Fall_2019

You may have heard about the Guiding Stars of Duval somewhere, someway… but do you
know what it is really all about? The official description is this: Guiding Stars of Duval is THE

quality rating improvement system (QRIS) for child care providers in Duval County. The
basic description is this: Just like restaurants and hotels, Guiding Stars give providers who
volunteer to participate a rating, from one to five stars, based on certain criteria, including

staff/child interaction, age-appropriate curriculum, small class sizes, and a safe physical
environment.

Participants, in other words, agree to hold themselves accountable to higher standards by
providing quality education and by helping children prepare for school.

To learn more about Guiding Stars, visit www.earlylearningjax.org. You can also find a list of
current participants and their ratings on this site.

The benefits of being in Guiding Stars are many, including:

 Professional Development Trainings
 Technical Assistance
 Recognition, and

 Financial Incentives

In August, the ELC of Duval distributed over a million dollars to over 700 directors and
teachers from Guiding Star centers and family child care homes, who lined up outside our

Southside office to pick up their wage incentive checks.