Liverpool (WSYR-TV) - A new ratings system is changing child care Central New York.
Child Care Solutions is testing a system that will enable parents to preview childcare centers much like hotels, restaurants, or movies. The agency is testing the system, called Quality Stars NY, right now.
The system evaluates daycares, nursery schools, and pre-Kindergarten programs according to a five-star system.
Shining Stars Child Care in Liverpool is among the centers participating in the test phase.
In addition to helping parents determine whether or not they want to entrust their child's care to a center, it offers the individual centers goals to which they can aspire.
According to Peggy Liuzzi, parents often rely on the subjective reactions of their peers to various centers. There simply isn't a source for objective data on any given center.
"What parents ask us, often, is just tell me which is the best one and we really don't have a good tool to do that. I think parents really want to know," Liuzzi said. "And they do depend on word of mouth and they depend on programs their neighbors use and their family use but that I think that people are looking for a standard that they really could trust and would be able to know more about what's happening at a program. And this is a really easy way to communicate that information to the parents."
Shining Stars is one of nearly two dozen local programs participating in the rating system's field testing. The system will be implemented over the next two to three years.
