Quality Childcare – for Families

Early Care and Education

Compass Website – Search the COMPASS online portal for quality child care or other early learning programs. Select a provider to view their addresses, Keystone STAR rating, contact information and recent Department of Human Services Inspection. 

Search COMPASS for High Quality Child Care

PA Promise for Children – All the tools you need to know to help your child learn and grow from the Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL).

PA Promise for Children

Early Learning GPS – Access resources according to the age and developmental stage of your child. 

Early Learning GPS

Early Intervention Technical Assistance – Resources to assist families in navigating and understanding Early Intervention supports available across Pennsylvania.  

Early Intervention Technical Assistance

Certification – All licensed childcare providers are regulated through the Department of Human Welfare.  View childcare provider regulations:

Center

Group

Family

Keystone STARS

Keystone STARS is Pennsylvania’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). A QRIS is a continuous quality improvement systemic approach to assess, improve, and communicate the level of quality in early and school-age care and education programs. Keystone STARS is a program of Pennsylvania’s Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL).

Our Guiding Principles

Keystone STARS is a responsive system to improve, support, and recognize the continuous quality improvement efforts of early learning programs in Pennsylvania. Our system is guided by three core principles:

• • A whole child approach to education is essential to meeting the holistic and individual needs of each and every child and family.
  • Knowledgeable and responsive early care and education professionals are essential to the development of children and the support of families.
  • Building and sustaining ongoing positive relationships among children, families, early care and education professionals and community stakeholders is essential for the growth and development of every child.

We believe inclusion, diversity, equity and respect are foundational values embedded in these principles.

Keystone STARS has four primary goals:

• • To improve the quality of early care and education
  • To support early care and education providers in meeting their quality improvement goals
  • To recognize programs for continuous quality improvement and meeting higher quality standards
  • To provide families a way to choose a quality early care and education program

OCDEL’s Keystone STARS Program supports all early care and education programs to improve program quality. We encourage programs to think about the Keystone STARS Performance Standards as a tool to support continuous quality improvement (CQI) that impacts services to the children and families in your care.

Keystone STARS – Improving the quality through:

Standards
Training/Professional Development
Assistance,
Resources and
Support