Latest News
Mercy Cares for Kids in Albany created a video to highlight the importance of investing in high quality early childhood education supports, such as QUALITYstarsNY. In the video, Executive Director Theresa Joslin and teaching staff explain some of the ways they implement high quality practices in their infant and toddler classrooms and what [...]
On July 6, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul announced the state’s $35 million investment in QUALITYstarsNY to expand our services to more early childhood programs across the state. The announcement was made at an event at Bronx Community College (BCC) Early Childhood Center, which is one of nearly 900 programs currently participating in QUALITYstarsNY. Lt. [...]
In 2020, QUALITYstarsNY issued an emergency addendum to temporarily change evidence requirements for some QUALITYstarsNY Program Standards during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since many programs are still facing immense challenges due to COVID-19, QUALITYstarsNY has extended its emergency addendum to stay in effect until the end of 2021. All programs going through either their first [...]
Head Start and Early Head Start programs in New York State have until September 30, 2021 to participate in QUALITYstarsNY, the state’s Quality Rating & Improvement System (QRIS). In the 2016 revision of the Head Start Program Performance Standards (HSPPS), the Office of Head Start (OHS) added the requirement that all Head Start/Early Head Start [...]
UPDATE June, 6, 2021: Participants for cohort 2 of the Quality Improvement Specialist Pipeline Project have been chosen. Thank you to all those who applied. Stay tuned for announcements about future cohorts if you are interested in applying to participate. 22-Hour Certificate Program for Early Childhood Leaders In [...]
On April 24, 2021, our pilot cohort earned their certificates for successfully completing the Quality Improvement Specialist Pipeline Project. Selected among a highly competitive pool of applicants, these 13 early childhood leaders were the first participants to take part in the 20-hour certificate program, offered by QUALITYstarsNY in partnership with our colleagues at the [...]
We have exciting news! The New York State budget, passed last week, made historic investments in New York’s early childhood system. QUALITYstarsNY will receive $40 million funding to sustain and expand our services across the state. This unprecedented funding for our work comes from a $5 million continued investment from the state and $35 [...]
Help us Thank Governor Cuomo! We are pleased to share that Governor Cuomo maintained New York State’s investment in QUALITYstarsNY in his proposed Executive Budget for fiscal year 2021-2022 (FY 2022). During a year when New York is grappling with a budget deficit and significant strain on state services and economic sectors resulting from [...]
Thousands of early childhood leaders and educators across the state joined us in 2020 for our Considerations for Reopening Webinar Series. The multi-part series was developed to support New York’s early childhood programs with planning and policy and practice implementation so they could reopen their doors and safely serve children during the pandemic. Our [...]
On March 2, QUALITYstarsNY participants on Staten Island took part in Read Across America Day, the national day promoting children's reading celebrated annually on the birthday of Dr. Seuss. Quality Improvement Specialist Simone Taylor hosted a virtual event, where teachers logged from their classrooms to watch Simone read to their children. “As an [...]