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79 3.7. Consumer Education

LDSS must advise families who receive child care subsidy that they have full parental choice of all legally operating child care providers who meet the provider requirements of the subsidy program. Providers who fail to meet all provider requirements are not eligible to receive subsidy payments.

Appropriate consumer education must be provided by the LDSS to applicants and recipients to assist them in gaining needed information about child care services, such as:

1. The Head Start program, the Virginia Preschool Initiative, the Mixed Delivery program, and locally-operated programs that offer scholarships or services based on a sliding fee scale, including YMCA/YWCA programs, church programs and local not-for profit programs; 2. The 2-1-1 helpline; 3. Information about developmental screenings; and 4. Additional programs and resources for which they may be eligible.

Consumer education resources include: 1. VDOE’s Child Care VA website: www.childcare.virginia.gov (under “Families”); 2. The 2-1-1 helpline; 3. Child Care Aware, Virginia’s resource and referral agency, at www.vachildcare.com; 4. The Ready Region supporting the locality; and 5. CommonHelp.

LDSS must also provide information about VaECC operations, the availability of providers, and how to identify and monitor quality child care including:

1. Where to access the compliance history of child care providers; 2. Where to report complaints about child care providers; 3. Guiding questions and considerations for families at https://www.childcare.virginia.gov/families/ask-the-right-questions ; and 4. Information on quality child care, including Virginia’s Unified Measurement and Improvement System, VQB5. Information on VQB5 can be found at Home | Virginia Quality Birth to Five (VQB5)

In response to state law, Virginia has developed the Unified Virginia Quality Birth to Five System (VQB5) to measure and help improve the quality of all publicly-funded birth-to-five classrooms and support families to choose quality programming across program types.. As a result, parents are responsible for determining whether a program meets their family’s needs and preferences for quality care. The VQB5 Quality Profile website can serve as a helpful resource, providing information on how programs are rated based on factors such as curriculum and teacher-child interactions. The VQB5 Quality Profiles include information about performance on quality measurements and other topics of interest to families, policymakers, and the general public. View VQB5 Quality Profiles at: EarlyChildhoodQuality.doe.virginia.gov.