Welcome to Iowa's Quality Rating System (QRS), a voluntary child care rating system for child development homes, licensed child care centers and preschools, and Child care programs that are operated by school districts.
The QRS was developed:
- to raise the quality of child care in Iowa
- to increase the number of children in high-quality child care settings
- to educate parents about quality in child care
There are five levels in the QRS. For a program to be rated at:
Level 1: all the Level 1 criteria must be met.
Level 2: all the Level 1 and Level 2 criteria must be met.
Levels 3-5: all the Level 1 and Level 2 criteria must be met, and then the program must earn a minimum of one point in each of the Level 3-5 categories. For levels 3-5, the level is determined by the total number of points earned.