Percent of Children Receiving Subsidies Enrolled in Quality Rated Child Care

What does this measure?

This indicator measures the percentage of children receiving federal child care subsidies administered by Childcare and Parent Services (CAPS) who are enrolled in quality child care.

For measurement purposes, quality child care is defined as those programs that have achieved a 1-3 star rating in Quality Rated, Georgia’s tiered quality rating and improvement system. As of August 2022, more than 2,850 child care providers are Quality Rated and 93% of children with Childcare and Parent Services (CAPS) scholarships are enrolled at a Quated Rated provider. In 2016, Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) mandated that child care providers enroll in Quality Rated by 2021 in order to receive CAPS subsidies, incentivizing significant growth in enrollment.

This measure is computed by dividing the total number of children receiving subsidies by the amount receiving subsidies in a rated program as reported quarterly by DECAL.

Data Source

DECAL

Why is this important?

A key component of the state’s Early Learning Challenge is ensuring that children, including those from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds, have access to higher quality early learning environments. This measure looks at access to higher quality for children receiving subsidies. The higher the percentage, the more children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are able to access quality.