It's one of the toughest and most important decisions you'll make as a parent, choosing who will watch your children.
To help solve that daycare dilemma, the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families adopted the YoungStar quality rating and improvement system in 2010. The program rates child care providers on a scale of one to five stars depending on how many points they receive during an annual evaluation. YoungStar measures quality in four different areas: the education level of the providers, the learning environment and curriculum, the program's business practices, and health and well being. The ratings are posted on the Department of Children and Families website where you can also see a list of violations for each provider.
For many parents, like Gena Vandomelen of De Pere, it helps take some of the guesswork out of choosing a child care provider for her three children.
