See a Program’s Quality Information
Virginia’s Quality Profiles give you information about participating programs, so you have more to consider when choosing care.
Virginia Quality Birth to 5 for Families
Choose Childcare With Confidence
You want to know your child will be cared for, encouraged, and learning. Foundation First helps you understand Virginia’s childcare quality information and what to ask providers, so you can choose a program with confidence.
Explore Quality Profiles
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Program Quality Information
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Help With Understanding VQB5
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Resources for Learning at Home
The Problem
How Do You Know It’s Good Care?
You can compare prices, check hours, and find a location near work. Understanding the care your child will receive takes more. How do teachers respond when children are upset? How do they encourage learning? What should you look for during a visit?
Without knowing where to find quality information or which questions to ask, you’re left making an important decision with only part of the picture.
You shouldn’t have to understand early childhood education to choose good care. You deserve information you can understand and use.
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Guiding Your Family
Know More Before You Choose
Virginia Quality Birth to 5, or VQB5, measures and helps improve learning experiences in participating programs serving children from birth to age five. These include childcare centers, family day homes, public school preschools, and Head Start.
Foundation First helps families understand VQB5 and use the available information to compare their options.
Understand How Quality Is Measured
Learn how classroom observations and curriculum information contribute to VQB5, so the information you’re reading makes sense.
Prepare Questions for Your Provider
Use what you learn to ask about teaching, daily routines, and classroom improvements, so you can understand what your child’s day will look like.
Inside the Classroom
What Does Quality Look Like?
The way a teacher listens, responds, and encourages a child matters. VQB5 uses a classroom observation tool called CLASS, short for Classroom Assessment Scoring System, to look at these everyday interactions.
Trained observers visit classrooms and give teachers feedback to support improvement. In preschool classrooms, CLASS looks at three areas.
Helping Children Feel Supported
Teachers build relationships, respond to children’s feelings, and help them feel comfortable participating.
Making the Day Work for Children
Teachers guide behavior, manage routines, and keep children involved in activities and learning.
Encouraging Children to Think and Learn
Teachers ask questions, build conversations, and help children explain their ideas and explore new ones.
Curriculum and Quality
A curriculum guides classroom learning. VQB5 considers state-approved curricula, but using one is optional.
Explore VQB5 ResourcesGetting Started
Three Steps to Compare Care
Explore Quality Profiles
Look up the participating programs you’re considering and review their quality information.
Talk With the Provider
Ask about the program’s results, how teachers receive support, and what improvements they’re working on.
Visit and Compare
Meet the teachers and see the program in person. Consider what you learn alongside your child’s needs, your schedule, location, and budget.
Recognizing Quality
Understanding the VQB5 Honor Rolls
Virginia recognizes programs for strong classroom experiences and progress in improving them. Here’s what each honor roll means.
Excellence Honor Roll
Programs earning Exceeds Expectations, the highest VQB5 rating.
Infant-Toddler Quality Honor Roll
Programs performing in the state’s top 10% for infant and toddler classroom quality.
Improvement Honor Roll
Programs in the top 10% for gains in teacher-child interactions from one year to the next.
Learning at Home
Help Your Child Learn Every Day
Conversations, books, play, and everyday routines give your child opportunities to learn. These resources offer ideas you can use at home.
CLASS at Home
Find ways to build connections, support routines, and encourage your child’s language through activities you can do together.
Download the CLASS at Home GuideECE Resource Hub
Explore book recommendations, activities, and tips you can adapt to your child’s age, interests, and your family’s routines.
Explore Take-Home ActivitiesSupport Every Stage of Learning
Virginia’s standards show how children grow and learn from infancy through preschool.
Explore Learning StandardsYour Questions Answered
What Families Ask About VQB5
Which Programs Participate?
Birth-to-five programs receiving government funding are required to participate. Programs without government funding can choose to participate.
What Does Participation Mean for My Child?
Your child’s teachers receive feedback and support to improve classroom experiences. Participating programs complete CLASS observations in each infant, toddler, and preschool classroom during the fall and spring. They also report curriculum use and information about teachers, classrooms, and enrollment.
Is CLASS an Assessment of My Child?
No. Observers look at interactions between teachers and children. They aren’t testing or scoring your child.
Why Is Enrollment Information Collected?
Enrollment information helps Virginia understand children’s early learning experiences and how programs support kindergarten readiness.
How Is My Child’s Information Protected?
VDOE keeps children’s information private and secure under federal and state protections. It doesn’t share information in a way which identifies an individual child or a small group of children.
How Does Foundation First Support This Work?
Foundation First leads Ready Region North Central and is the local connection for VQB5. Virginia’s Ready Regions network brings organizations together to coordinate early childhood services and support programs and families.
Virginia’s Ready Regions networkWe’re Here to Help
Feel Ready to Make Your Choice
You know your child. Quality information and conversations with providers help you understand your options. If you’re unsure what something means or where to start, Foundation First will help you find answers.
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Lead Agency · Ready Region North Central
A coordinated early childhood system across eleven localities in North Central Virginia.
Ready Region North Central brings together local agencies, early childhood providers, and families to build a seamless, family-centered system. Our goal is to make it easier for every child and caregiver in our region to access the supports they need to thrive.
Learn more about Ready Region