Daycares in District of Columbia

The District of Columbia scores licensed daycares through DC Capital Quality, the District's quality rating program. DC Capital Quality assigns providers one of four categorical tiers — Developing, Progressing, Quality, or High-Quality — using established classroom-observation tools: the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS), and the Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale (FCCERS), combined with a Continuous Quality Improvement Plan.

The District of Columbia's minimum legal requirements meet the standards published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the leading professional accreditation body for early-childhood programs and the most widely cited benchmark for high-quality care, on ratios and group sizes, and the District requires a higher staff credential than most states. D.C. requires an associate's degree at minimum for lead teachers in licensed centers, where most states require only a high school diploma; NAEYC's professional standard is a bachelor's degree. The District caps infant ratios at 1:4 (matching NAEYC), toddler ratios at 1:4 (stricter than NAEYC's 1:6), and preschool ratios at 1:10 (matching NAEYC). Infant and toddler group sizes are both capped at 8 children (matching or beating NAEYC), and preschool groups are capped at 20 (matching NAEYC). Pre-service training hours are not set in District rule, and required ongoing professional development is 21 hours per year (NAEYC: ≥25).

These minimum legal requirements apply to every licensed daycare in the District of Columbia, regardless of its DC Capital Quality rating. They are one of the Structural inputs in every Childery rating shown above. The rating distribution above combines that Structural input with DC Capital Quality scores and other Process inputs to produce the Overall scores. For the full breakdown, see the District of Columbia methodology page.