A voter-initiated program to enhance life for children from birth through 5 years of age has announced creation of new child-care standards. The First Things First (FTF) board recently approved a package detailing a system of standards, technical assistance and incentives aimed at helping Arizona’s child-care providers — public, nonprofit and for-profit programs — improve the quality of education services. The program is formally known as Quality First.
For the past two years, FTF has been working with about a third of Arizona’s child care-providers to get them assessed, create plans to improve the quality of early education services they provide and begin implementing those plans. By summer 2012, those centers will be rated using the five-star system approved by the FTF Board.
