VALDOSTA — Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning observed a decade of Quality Rated child care.
DECAL hosted a lunch at Wiregrass Georgia Technical College to celebrate the Quality Rated partnerships in Valdosta and surrounding cities.
Kids World Learning Center was the first child care provider to receive the Quality Rated 10 years ago and has maintained its rating.
Jasmyn Smith, associate director of Kids World Learning Center, said, “Being the first in the program was exhilarating and we were all in.
“Being able to keep our quality rating has been easy with the support of this program and the resources they have connected us with.”
Quality Rated named former City of Valdosta Mayor John Gayle, with the 2022 Community Star Award. Gayle was awarded for his commitment to early childhood education.
DECAL Commissioner Amy Jacobs said, “Mayor Gayle’s many initiatives including ‘Read Across Valdosta’ and his support of Early Education Empowerment Zones, all which aligned with our mission at DECAL.”
“The more child care and school visits, the more I enjoyed connecting with the students and teachers,” Gayle said. “I wanted to be a positive role model to students and let them know if they can read, they can do anything.”
Quality Rated is a systemic approach to assess, improve and communicate the level of quality in early and school‐age care and education programs, Jacobs said.
Quality Rated assigns a quality rating to early and school‐age care and education programs that meet a set of defined program standards every three years.
Jacobs, said, “We are thankful for the sustained commitment to the goal of improving high quality learning.”
More than 3,000 child care partners are Quality Rated, 126 partnerships are a part of the original Class of 2012 maintaining their quality rating for 10 years.
Reg Griffin, DECAL chief communications officer, said for the next four months Quality Rated will host events across Georgia to recognize child care providers.
“We have more things in store for our providers,” he said. “This is only the beginning of our gratitude for your commitment to Georgia children.”
KAPLAN Early Learning Company provided gifts for child care providers and Greater Valdosta United Way provided lunch.