(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - So how many do I have total?

- Five.

- I have five total.

- [Narrator] Choosing the right child care for your child is one of the most important decisions you will ever make.

The relationship your child has with their caregivers prepares them for success in school and will also affect how they feel about themselves and the world around them.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Choosing high quality child care can set your child on a path of academic success by increasing your child's language, and pre-reading skills, boosting math, and problem solving skills, and building on the science skills of inquiry and exploration.

So, what does high quality child care look like?

How do you know if a preschool child care center or family child care home is providing high quality?

The key is to visit multiple locations and ask a lot of questions.

- I believe high quality child care is when you're caring for and managing children and your program at a standard that is higher than the average or even the minimum, in our case licensing standard.

Why I believe it is important?

Is that we are caring for these little lives and so much is at stake.

We must believe that children are born, ready to learn and we must act accordingly and we must teach our teachers to act accordingly, so we don't underestimate the power of their learning and what they can do at an early age.

- Research has shown that our children do better on Ohio's Kindergarten Readiness Assessment, if children have attended quality programs, so what a great way to start them.

So, that's one thing we really want programs to understand and participate in step up to quality.

- [Narrator] Ohio's Quality Rating and Improvement System, step up to quality supports high quality child care programs that exceed licensing standards and it provides parents with help in finding quality child care.

- And our families need to know that these programs are committed to providing lower staff, child, teacher ratios.

They are providing smaller group size.

They will provide assessments, so you understand where your child is at, and they'll share these assessments with you and involve you as a family.

Step up also requires the use teachers develop lesson plans and the lesson plans are individualized.

The State of Ohio wants to make sure that families know, first of all, what quality child care is but also they've made it very simple for you to find it.

So, going to childcaresearch.ohio.gov So, going to childcaresearch.ohio.gov will take you to a site where you can put in what you're looking for in a child care program.

You can look at location, radius, age groups, what they provide as well as the star rating, so you can be an informed consumer.

- I can hop with four apples up on?

- [All Children] Top.

- [Narrator] The best way to determine the right child care program for you and your child is to visit the child care centers you're considering.

In meeting the staff, and observing the activities and interactions, you and your child will be able to see and feel, if that program is a good fit.

Take your time and visit multiple programs to find the one that's right for your child.

- As a family, you should have high expectations of how a program involves you in your child's education.

It's important to ask them, what's their training?

Ask them, what curriculum they use?

Ask them, what lesson plans and how they design that?

By asking these questions, it shows that you're informed and you know what your child is to be getting.

- [Narrator] Programs where children are encouraged to play with words and ideas, experienced learning materials, solve problems with friends and have fun doing it are truly high quality child care.

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