About Us
The District of Columbia has expanded to a multi-sector, early childhood mixed delivery system, which includes child development centers, child development homes and community-based organizations (CBO) in the Pre-K Enhancement and Expansion Program. This system offers parents and families the option to choose which program best fits the needs of their child.
The District has made early childhood the centerpiece of its education reform agenda with the passage of the Pre-K Enhancement and Expansion Act of 2008. The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) Division of Early Learning (DEL) has worked to develop a common approach to assessing the quality of all programs serving children birth to school entry, and align a quality improvement approach that concentrates resources for improvement where it is most needed with a redesigned Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). Participation in the QRIS, Capital Quality, is required of all subsidy providers and open to all licensed providers serving children birth to Pre-K. For more information on Capital Quality, please visit https://osse.dc.gov/page/capital-quality-qris.
Capital Quality aims to advance excellence in early childhood education through a system that measures program quality, communicates quality to families and directs resources to and fosters a culture of continuous quality improvement. Capital Quality is public-facing, allowing parents to review and compare the program quality of various child development providers throughout the District, and make informed decisions when deciding where to enroll their child. Please visit My Child Care DC for more information on the public-facing profile, https://childcareconnections.osse.dc.gov/.