Step Up To Quality Stories

Why You Should Pursue a Career in Early Childhood Education

The early years of a child’s life can have an incredible impact on their future. They’re not only learning colors, words, shapes and numbers — they’re learning how to interact with others, explore the world, and understand and express their own emotions. It’s a great responsibility to be an...Read More ›

How to Strengthen Communication between Parents and Providers

Children often spend their day with teachers and child care providers just as much as their parents, which means intentional, open communication between parents and providers is an important aspect of quality care and successful outcomes. Providers are knowledgeable in early education and development, and parents are experts on their...Read More ›

This is Quality

Every year, and every day, is about quality at Step Up to Quality. But in 2022, we’re going to be emphasizing quality in new ways. The early childhood education field has been significantly impacted by the pandemic. However, child care providers have shown incredible resilience. People outside of the field now...Read More ›

A Big Thank You for Early Childhood Professionals

As Nebraska’s quality rating and improvement system, Step Up to Quality has a mission to support and provide resources to those who are doing essential work in the early childhood education field. These benefits range from personal recommendations for improvement and financial incentives to something just as vital: gratitude...Read More ›

Tips and Tools for Teaching Children Emotional Skills

Children can experience a wide range of emotions throughout a single day, but they aren’t always able to recognize and understand emotions in themselves and others. That’s why it’s important for children to learn emotional skills in early childhood education settings. More broad emotions, like happiness and anger, are generally picked...Read More ›

How to Advance Early Childhood Education with Local, Fresh Foods

In quality early childhood education, food is an important component—from what children consume at snack time to learning about how it’s produced. Healthy eating habits start as early as infancy. Our colleagues at the Farm to Preschool program, an initiative through the Nebraska Department of Education, work to connect early...Read More ›

A Child Care Safety Checklist for Parents and Providers

If you’re reading this, odds are you care deeply about the safety of children as they learn, play and grow. Safety is also important to us at Step Up to Quality. When it comes to creating a child-safe environment in early childhood education settings, some hazards are difficult to recognize until...Read More ›

Meet the Step Up to Quality Team: Lauri Cimino

The Step Up to Quality team is an incredible resource for child care providers going through any of the five Steps — and they can also connect providers with other early childhood education resources. As a part of the State of Nebraska Department of Education’s Office of...Read More ›

The Search Engine That Could

We are thrilled to launch new features on our website — a comprehensive, seamless, user-friendly search function and insightful resources for parents looking for high quality early childhood education. This search engine is deceptively powerful. Parents can easily narrow down their child care search by inputting a few preferences and...Read More ›

500+ Providers Strong

We achieved a big milestone: more than 500 providers are now participating in Step Up to Quality! “This achievement means that thousands of children in Nebraska are receiving the best possible care in their most formative years,” said Step Up to Quality Director Lauri Cimino. We want to take a moment and...Read More ›

Meet the Step Up to Quality Team: Ann Adams

The Step Up to Quality team is an incredible resource for child care providers going through any of the five Steps – and they can also connect providers with other early childhood education resources. As a part of the State of Nebraska Department of Education’s Office of Early...Read More ›

Simple Ways to Advocate for Early Childhood Education Issues

Many people got bitten by the political bug this year – fighting for causes you care about, empowering others to use their voice and seeing change happen within your community (and knowing you had something to do with it) are all rewarding and exhilarating. This engagement is the backbone...Read More ›

Meet the Step Up to Quality Team: Diane Lewis

Special Tax Credits More Widely Available to Child Care Programs and Teachers

In 2016, Nebraska became just the second state (after Louisiana paved the way) to create tax credits for early childhood education programs and teachers. “I’ve traveled all over the country to conferences and have visited with experts in the early childhood education field from all over, and I can tell you...Read More ›

Meet the Step Up to Quality Team: Jenny Fleming

The Step Up to Quality team is an incredible resource for child care providers moving through the process – and they can also connect providers with other early childhood education resources. As a part of the State of Nebraska Department of Education’s Office of Early Childhood, the Step...Read More ›

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