Quality Start LA

Quality Start LA

Quality Start Los Angeles (QSLA) is a voluntary quality rating and improvement system designed to help parents of children birth to five choose the best early childhood education for their family. QSLA also supports centers and family child care providers with ongoing program enhancements. This system is a very important tool for families looking for high quality early care and learning programs for their children.

QSLA assesses programs using the following elements which are known to contribute to high-quality early learning :

• Adult-Child Interactions: How teachers positively and intentionally engage with children to support their growth and development
• Program Environment: How safe, healthy, and developmentally appropriate the classroom environment is
• Developmental Screening and Monitoring: How teachers promote health and developmental screenings with families
• Child Observations and Planning: How teachers identify learning needs and create appropriate learning activities for children
• Teacher to Child Ratio*: How many children per teacher are in a classroom. (*Only assessed in Center-based care)
• Staff Qualifications: How much early childhood education and training the program’s staff have to support children’s learning and growth