In this brief, we examine whether child care in DC facilities improved in quality, as measured by Capital Quality, DC’s Quality Rating and Improvement System. We also examine how facilities’ improvements affected the overall supply of high-quality child care in DC.

Why This Matters

Access to high-quality child care is beneficial for young children’s development, allows parents to support their families by working and going to school, and contributes to productive communities in the long run. Child care quality rating and improvement systems are designed to increase families’ access to high-quality child care by shifting child care supply toward higher quality designations. To achieve this, the systems provide professional supports and create market incentives to encourage quality improvement initiatives. Analyzing improvement trends demonstrates the extent to which Capital Quality succeeded in fostering improvement among DC child care facilities and can reveal areas where additional supports may be needed.

What We Found

Our analysis of Capital Quality administrative data showed the following:

• Most facilities improved their scores based on observations conducted under Capital Quality, but some domains of quality were harder to improve than others.
• Higher observation scores led many facilities to achieve higher quality designations.
• DC’s supply of high-quality child care increased, but this reflects more than just facilities’ quality improvements.
• Improving new facilities’ quality may be especially important for building the supply of high-quality care.

How We Did It

DC’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) engaged the Urban Institute to conduct a comprehensive review of Capital Quality. We analyzed administrative records of Capital Quality participation and observations, conducted interviews and focus groups with stakeholders, and developed recommendations for systems improvement. For this brief, we performed descriptive analyses of observation data underlying quality designations published in fall 2019 and spring 2024. These data were obtained through a data sharing agreement with OSSE.