The QCC County Program Profile provides county data from the Common Data File (CDF) and the Annual Progress Report (APR). For counties that are a part of a consortium, the QCC County Program Profile provides a combined view of the CDF and APR. Both qualitative and quantitative data are presented to provide a local view of early learning and care climate.

The Fresno County voluntary Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) was created in 2009 as part of a locally developed 2008 – 2015 Fresno County Preschool Master Plan by a cross-section of dedicated early childhood education (ECE) advocates. These ECE advocates recognized that school readiness outcomes for children can be positively impacted by increasing and improving the quality and access to ECE programs.

In January 2012 the Fresno County Local Consortium modified their existing tier matrix to incorporate the common tier requirements of the Race to the Top ‚ Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) program. Fresno County has selected to adopt the California QRIS model with additional local requirements embedded in Tiers 2 and 5, which address needed supports for children who are dual language learners and children with special needs. Fresno County Local Consortium’s goal is to have every ECE program demonstrate continuous improvement and/or strive to earn a five-star rating.

• CSPP-QRIS GB
• IMPACT Legacy
• First 5 Fresno County
• QCC QI BG

• First 5 Fresno County
• Central Valley Children’s Services Network
• CPIN
• WestEd-PITC
• Fresno County Department of Public Health
• Fresno EOC Head Start
• Migrant Head Start
• CSU Fresno
• Fresno City College & Fresno Pacific University & small and large school districts
• Department of Social Services, Community Care Licensing Family Child Care Home Provider

Since the launch of the Fresno County Early Stars QRIS, word-of-mouth has been an effective marketing strategy to recruit providers. However, to expand our reach, our program has invested in marketing campaigns, attending community events, conferences, and sister program meetings to promote the program. In addition, recruitment of new providers has been supported with the work of the Workforce Pathways Grant by leveraging conversations and offering opportunities to learn more about how the Early Stars Program can support their quality improvement efforts. FCSS also collaborates with community partners, including the FindCare program of the local resource and referral agency and the Family Child Care Home Education Network (FCCHEN); Migrant Head Start; the Local Planning Council; Fresno Area Child Care Consortium; Central California Association for the Education of Young Children (CCAEYC); and the Family Child Care Home Association, including the Latino branch. FCSS leverages these partnerships to share information about Early Stars, including an enrollment period, which ensures providers are receiving Continuous Quality Improvement Supports.

We use coaching, technical assistance, training, materials/resources, professional learning communities/communities of practice, and block/incentive grants.

Incentives/block grants are provided to sites based upon their engagement in continuous quality improvement, in alignment with their site Quality Improvement Plan.

From a rural school district: I wanted to share my experience with the Fresno County Early Stars Program. As a supervisor I was familiar with the Early Stars program, in Fresno County it is highly promoted at meetings, through email and pretty much just in general. I was hesitant to join for quite a few years. I was nervous about Early Stars because I was told by another director that I would not get a good rating because I did not have a Bachelors in Child Development. The Early Stars team assured me that was not the case and that I should give it a try. I submitted my application in February 2025 and also attended the PreK CLASS certified reliable observer training. I finished the training and started my attempts to become reliable. At the same time, our FCSS Project Specialist came out and met with my staff and our superintendent to create our plan to receive our stars. We also had our first CLASS observation through the Early Stars program. I had also just failed my 3rd attempt testing to be reliable and was feeling very discouraged. The FCSS team all encouraged me to not give up. Well after being so nervous about joining Early Stars we got a 4-star rating and our CLASS observation scores were really good. I was feeling great about my decision to join and mad at myself for not joining sooner. I have to say our Project Specialist and ASPIRE program lead have been a constant support system for my staff and also for me personally. They encouraged me to not give up on becoming a reliable observer. I took the training again at the end of July and passed my test. As of September 15th, I am fully certified to observe! Early Stars has helped me accomplish so much in a short amount of time. I am truly thankful for this program and all that they provide for preschools, staff and the children of Fresno County.

A CEO/Owner of a Center-Based Private Preschool shared: Before the Early Stars program everything was kind of all over the place, but since we have joined this program, our practices have been based on routines and repetition. We feel like this program has made a huge difference in us building relationship with parents and children by being on the same page and communicating with families about their children learning. They help us do this by teaching us how ASQs and DRDPs are supposed to be done correctly. Early Stars teaching helps us teach parents why we do ASQs and DRDPs and the importance of it. With the trainings that we get, it makes it easier for note taking and collecting observation about the children. Our classroom has improved drastically on the way it looks and with the children’s interest in them. We appreciate Early Stars.

A Preschool Center Director of a Rural School District shared: Early Stars has helped build educator capacity. Our teachers and instructional assistant are more knowledgeable in the area of CLASS, ECERS, ASQ, and DRDP. The QRIS grant has allowed our center to pay teachers to attend professional development opportunities in various topics related to child development. Some of the topics include Teaching Pyramid, supporting dual language learners, ASQs, DRDP trainings, and working with special need students. Our preschool program is also able to promote our 4-star rating. The QRIS grant has also allowed me to provide subs for lead teachers so they can attend weekly collaborative team and PLC meetings. During these meeting teachers can analyze DRDP and other student data to develop lesson plan activities that would best support the learning needs of each student. Early Stars helps support our efforts for continuous quality improvements. Every year our center completes the Early Stars Action Plan. This action plan helps our center create specific goals towards achieving a high-quality star rating.

A Family Child Care Home Provider shared: The Early Stars program was the best decision I have made for my business. It has taught me about environment, how to work with children, health and safety practices, lesson planning, documentation, early education, and so much more. It has been a guide for me. It helps me look at my daycare and ask myself what my goals were and how I was going to get there. The matrix for me was not just something I had to just achieve and forget about it, it was about the process of achievement, the learning. I have learned so much in the process that my questions started to get answered on its own. It has been great! I would recommend Early Stars program to any family child care program who wants to grow.