Ready Region Capital Area

703-324-8100 TTY 711
12011 Government Center Parkway
Fairfax, VA 22035
Flor Philips
ECPS Division Director

Ready Region Capital Area

Resources  Important Dates

We are proud to have been selected as the lead organization for Ready Region Capital Area. As a Ready Region lead organization, we are part of a statewide network focused on bringing strategic leadership and coordination of early childhood care and education (ECCE) services and resources to prepare all children and families for success. Ready Regions focus on:

  • Strengthening quality. We will ensure all components are in place to coordinate quality measurement and guide improvement in publicly funded classrooms as part of the Unified Virginia Quality Birth to Five (VQB5) measurement and improvement system.
  • Building relationships. We will engage with leaders across the region to facilitate buy-in for shared accountability and benefit.
  • Increasing access. We will administer Mixed Delivery programming in the region, lead our VBREE delegation and regional activities to build child care supply, and coordinate enrollment to help parents learn about and access ECCE services that meet their needs and preferences, while helping ECCE providers connect with and serve more families.
  • Engaging families. We will support a Family Council, made up of families from across our region to ensure the early childhood system is designed to work for families.

Neighborhood and Community Services, Early Childhood Programs and Services is the lead agency for Ready Region Capital Area (RRCA).  RRCA includes the counties of Arlington and Fairfax and the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax and Falls Church.

For more information, email CapitalAreaVQB5@fairfaxcounty.gov.

We will ensure all components are in place to coordinate quality measurement and guide improvement in publicly funded classrooms as part of the Unified Virginia Quality Birth to Five System (VQB5).

To prepare all children for kindergarten and in response to state law, Virginia has developed the Unified VQB5 to measure and help improve the quality of all publicly-funded birth-to-five classrooms and support families to choose quality programming across program types.

All publicly-funded birth-to-five early childhood programs are required to participate in VQB5 on an annual basis. Programs that do not receive public funding have the option to participate. Details available on the VQB5 Participation Requirements Web page.

VQB5 Quality Profiles (with information about early childhood program performance on quality measures and other topics of interest to families, policy makers, and the public) are available at EarlyChildhoodQuality.doe.virginia.gov.

Ready Regions coordinate and support participation in VQB5 for early childhood care and education (ECCE) programs in the region. 

To enroll in VQB5, email CapitalAreaVQB5@fairfaxcounty.gov.

The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) administers VQB5 as established by the Virginia Board of Education. To learn more, visit VDOE VQB5 - Virginia's Quality Measurement and Improvement System Web page, or email vqb5@doe.virginia.edu

We will engage with leaders across the region to facilitate buy-in for shared accountability and benefit.

Ready Region Capital Area is committed to partnering with other organizations and stakeholders to implement this work. Our Strategic Advancement Advisory Council (Shared Governance partners) include representatives from the following organizations:

  • Arlington Community Foundation
  • Fairfax Futures
  • Family Child Care Associates
  • Kids’ First Years
  • Northern VA Community College
  • Family Council Chairs

Ready Region Capital Area serves as the lead agency for the Virginia Business Roundtable for Early Education (VBREE) Regional Initiative to harness the power of cross-industry regional leaders to identify and implement solutions to child care challenges. The VBREE Regional Initiative creates a unified structure for progress across regions toward priority goals to build sufficient supply of child care and strengthen the early educator pipeline so that all families can access affordable, high-quality care. Visit Get Ready VA to learn more about the VBREE Regional Initiative.

We will administer Mixed Delivery programming in the region, and coordinate enrollment to help parents learn about and access ECCE services that meet their needs and preferences, while helping ECCE providers connect with and serve more families.

Ready Region Capital Area identifies high quality childcare centers and home-based child care to participate in Mixed Delivery.

Virginia Early Childhood Foundation’s (VECF) Mixed Delivery program provides public funding for ECCE services for eligible children from birth to age five. It helps address the growing demand for full-day, year-round ECCE services that meets families’ needs and preferences. Mixed Delivery also tests strategies to solve the tough issues that site leaders and families face, including increasing teacher salaries to improve recruitment and retention. To learn more about Mixed Delivery visit VECF’s website.

Ready Regions is working to coordinate enrollment across publicly funded ECCE programs in the region, such as child care centers and home-based child care (including those participating in VECF’s Mixed Delivery program), Head Start, Virginia Preschool Initiative, and others, to:

  • Help parents easily learn where there are available spots for their children, what they qualify for, and information such as cost, hours, and location. Parents may search for child care (ages 0-5).
  • Help ECCE providers keep enrollment numbers steady, communicate when they have slots available, and grow in ability to secure the resources for delivery of quality services.

To learn more, email CapitalAreaCE@fairfaxcounty.gov.

For current information about child care supply and demand, and child and family outcomes in our region and in Virginia, visit the Ready Region ECCE Supply/Demand Dashboard.

We support a Family Council, made up of families from across our region to ensure the early childhood system is designed to work for families. 

Our Family Council provides input on early childhood design and decisions, and helps our Ready Region understand and better meet families’ needs.  

To learn more, email NCSFC-RRCA@fairfaxcounty.gov.

Resources

Virginia Quality Birth to Five (VQB5)

VQB5 is Virginia’s unified measurement and improvement system that focuses on the quality of all publicly-funded birth to five classrooms and supports families with accessing quality early care and education programming across various program types.

 

 

 

 

Teachstone’s CLASS tool measures effective educator-child interactions which foster higher social, behavioral, and cognitive outcomes for children. 
To learn more, visit:

 

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