Who gets to decide what quality child care looks like, and how to quantify it? Over 30 years ago, in order to “assess, improve, and communicate the level of quality in early care and education settings,” quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) were developed across the United States to increase the likelihood that child care subsidies would support high quality care for young children. These systems were built in response to the notion that most child care in the U.S. is low quality, and “children from low income families and minority families are more likely to be in low quality care.”

In this episode, you'll hear from Keisha Nzewi, Director of Public Policy at the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network, and Miren Algorri, a family child care provider about their perspectives on California's quality rating and improvement system.

Hosted by Salaine McCullough. Engineering by Maximo Planes. Produced by Gretchen Howard. Interviews by Paola Marizán. Music by Chad Crouch. Inspired by research by Keisha Nzewi.

This series is made by the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network, and made possible by support from First 5 LA. You can follow the Network on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube at CARRNetwork to stay up-to-date on child care news in California. If you would like to learn more about the research that went into The Love Connection and read the full report, visit https://rrnetwork.org/policy/the-love-connection.