The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) has announced improvements that are coming to Step Up To Quality (SUTQ) in order to ease the burden on child care providers to achieve quality ratings.
The following adjustments to SUTQ have been announced, with full details to come soon:
- Reducing paperwork: The Ohio Department of Job and Families Services and Ohio Department of Education worked together to review all documents necessary to achieve a one- through five-star SUTQ rating. They identified ways to eliminate redundancy and reduce the amount of paperwork, without diminishing the integrity of the program.
- Continuous Rating: Currently, programs are required to reapply for their rating yearly. ODJFS will make annual renewal of a provider’s star rating easier by allowing them to retain that rating unless it is determined that they no longer meet the qualifications, or they would like to request another rating.
- Pre-Star: New providers that agree to serve children receiving publicly funded care will be paid at the base rate for one year before having to be SUTQ-rated.
Read the full press release here.
4C for Children will be paying close attention to the details of these changes as well as the implementation dates as they are released.
We are here to support you in providing quality care for children in our community, and to assist you with what you need in order to successfully achieve and maintain your SUTQ goals. We will share more details as they are made available. Thank you for all you do!