A Proposed Licensing and Quality Scale for the Human Services and Early Care & Education

Previous posts have introduced the Regulatory Compliance Scale (RCS), in this post, based upon the latest regulatory science research, this RCS can be expanded to a more comprehensive and all inclusive Licensing and Quality Scale (LQS) which will seven components related to licensing the program quality.

The seven components are the following: the Regulatory Compliance Scale, risk assessment rules, key indicator rules, quality indicator standards, complaints about the facility, key indicator criteria being satisfied, and overall regulatory compliance history.

The Regulatory Compliance Scale (RCS) is a Likert type scale that has 1 – 7 scaling where 7 = full regulatory compliance (no rule violations); 5 = substantial regulatory compliance (1-2 rule violations); 3 = moderate regulatory compliance (3-9 rule violations); and 1 = low regulatory compliance (10+ rule violations). The RCS is based upon 40 years of research and the corresponding international regulatory compliance and quality databases.

Risk Assessment Rules (RAR) are those rules which have been determined to place children at greatest risk for mortality/morbidity. These identified rules are generally always in full regulatory compliance.

Key Indicator Rules (KIR) are those rules that are statistically predictive of overall regulatory compliance with all rules. These identified rules are generally in the mid-range of regulatory compliance and are very predictive between distinguishing those high quality programs vs those that are not.

Quality Indicator Standards (QIS) are those standards that are statistically predictive of overall program quality on various dimensions such as staffing, curriculum, parental involvement, and teacher behaviors in the classroom.

Complaints can be any indications that there are issues at the specific facility that a concerned individual is reporting to the state licensing agency which require follow up and an abbreviated inspection review.

Key Indicator Criteria are the specific criteria which make programs eligible for a Key Indicator Abbreviated Inspection. Examples of Key Indicator Criteria are the following: no change in director, less than 10% enrollment change, less than 20% staff turnover, no change in corporate sponsorship, etc…

And lastly, Compliance History should either demonstrate a very low level of non-compliance or a constant regulatory compliance improvement over time.

LQS = RCS + RAR + KIR + QIS + Complaints + KI Criteria + Compliance History

The RCS should have a score either at a 7 or 5 level, Full or Substantial regulatory compliance.

The RAR should have no violations.

The KIR should have no violations.

The QIS should have a score in the range of 28-36+ on the Quality Scale.

There should be no complaints about the program.

All KI Criteria should have been met.

And the Compliance History should have very few non-compliances and always be improving.

When a program/facility can satisfy all of the above, this would place it at the highest LQS scoring level. If a program/facility cannot meet these various components, the resulting LQS score will be lower depending on the respective scores. As has occurred with the RCS, it took a great deal of time to decide upon the scaling and point value based upon years of regulatory compliance data from around the world. The same will be true with the LQS but the hope is that it will not take quite as long to fill in the gaps related to scaling and point values. The more agencies that use the above LQS, the quicker it will be in the development of a corresponding international database.