QUALITYstarsNY and the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) collaborated to launch a year-long Business Administration Scale (BAS) Community of Practice (CoP) for family child care providers. With a shared mission to support the ECE workforce, LIIF and QUALITYstarsNY have engaged in a collaborative partnership since 2020. LIIF has tapped into QUALITYstarsNY’s extensive network of participants to recruit early childhood businesses for grant programs, with at least a quarter of their pass-through grants being awarded to QUALITYstarsNY participating programs.
When QUALITYstarsNY learned that LIIF staff members were certified in the BAS—a tool designed to measure and improve the overall quality of business and professional practices in family child care settings—the BAS CoP was created. The initiative aimed to connect QUALITYstarsNY participating family child care providers with free, tailored support to sustain and expand their business practices. A BAS certification requires an individual to demonstrate reliability with the tool and in conducting assessments, with recertification required to maintain the certified assessor status. To obtain their certification, LIIF attended four days of training at the McCormick Center in Wheeling, IL. The certification allowed them to build the confidence and resources needed to facilitate the cohort.
12 Sessions of Professional Development
30 providers across New York State, along with their Quality Improvement Specialists, were invited to participate in the CoP, which provided 18 hours of professional development focused on business and management skills. For 12 monthly, 90-minute sessions, the group convened virtually with meetings consisting of presentation slides, interactive polls, and small group activities to encourage active participation. Among numerous templates and resources, participants received a workbook developed by LIIF to customize action plans and track their progress toward fulfilling specific business goals. Sessions were structured to provide a comprehensive learning experience, each building off the other and focusing on different BAS Items including recordkeeping, marketing and public relations, risk management, and community resources. At the conclusion of the 12 sessions, LIIF conducted BAS assessments at the providers’ child care programs. The assessments included a brief home tour, an interview with the provider, and a review of the program’s documents. Providers and Quality Improvement Specialists continue to use the score reports generated from these assessments, as well as what they learned from the CoP, to inform their Continuous Quality Improvement in QUALITYstarsNY and set new goals for the growth of their businesses.
“Sessions were meant to be collaborative workspaces where family child care providers could ask questions and share amongst each other about business practices that are most successful for them. The CoP environment encouraged vulnerability and growth as powerful tools to accomplish goals set forth in the action plans provided in the sessions.”
Amy Shea , Northeast Region ECE Program Manager at LIIFParticipation Impact
Many of the participating providers expressed interest in being a part of this initiative to better understand the business aspects of operating a child care program in an effort to expand and improve their quality of service. For Noelia O’Leary, owner of Nelly’s Nest Early Learning Home, Inc. in Rockland County, NY, the BAS tool has been essential in supporting her knowledge of best practices for running a successful program. “As a childcare provider, I am responsible for the care and wellbeing of my students and often my needs are put last. The BAS tool is a fantastic resource used to make sure the business owner is taking care of themselves,” says O’Leary, who has been operating her business for seven years. In addition to strengthening her program’s foundation of procedures to ensure she is compensated fairly with benefits, the BAS CoP has helped her understand the importance of proper documentation and bookkeeping practices to maximize profitability.
To assess the CoP’s effectiveness, LIIF distributed surveys during 10 out of the 12 sessions. The responses collected addressed participants’ satisfaction and the helpfulness and relevance of the sessions. On average:
“I have gained so much useful information and knowledge about the BAS tool while taking this class. Things I thought I knew but needed more clarity. This class was very well put together. The facilitators and all the Quality Improvement Specialists that were on board were open to all ideas from a wide range of providers from all over New York. Thank you for offering this opportunity to family providers.”
Reflections and Next Steps
The success of this CoP highlights the essential role that business and management training plays in supporting family child care programs. The trainings provided a pathway for participating providers to meet QUALITYstarsNY Standards in Management and Leadership—one of the four main Standards categories that reflect best practices of a high-quality early childhood program. This BAS tool helped providers build their skills in managing the business aspects of their program, as reflected in areas of the Standards related to financial accountability and stability, and administrative self-assessment (ASA-1). Its alignment with these Standards made the initiative especially effective in helping providers work toward their needs and quality improvement goals for their program. Through translating materials and exploring funding options, QUALITYstarsNY and LIIF hope to expand the program to offer more providers throughout New York State the opportunity to benefit from the professional development provided by the BAS CoP.
Amy Shea, Northeast Region ECE Program Manager and BAS trainer at LIIF, and Kathy Moss, Quality Improvement Specialist at QUALITYstarsNY who helped lead the BAS CoP, presented about its value for family child care providers to a national audience at the 2024 National Association for Family Child Care Conference. Their presentation outlined the effectiveness of the CoP model in empowering providers to learn more about the BAS tool and use it as a guide for enhancing their business.
Amy and Kathy will also be hosting a session about the BAS CoP at this year’s New York Association for the Education of Young Children conference in Verona, NY in April to share these lessons learned with more providers and childhood education leaders across the state.
If you would like to learn more about this CoP, please reach out to Kathy Moss (kmoss@qualitystarsny.org). QUALITYstarsNY participants—speak with your Quality Improvement Specialists to learn more about the BAS tool and how it can support you in developing high-quality business practices that can enhance your program for many years to come.
