Dellwood Child Care gets four stars

For its recent evaluation from Youngstar, Dellwood Child Care Center in Clintonville, achieved a four-star rating on a scale of 1-5, with five being the best.

It is the first time that Dellwood Child Care was eligible to receive a four-star rating from a Youngstar evaluation.

Youngstar is a national organization that provides a quality rating for child care centers.

Dellwood Child Care opened Sept. 1, 2020, and was first evaluated on Dec. 31 of that year, when it received a three-star rating. Patti Krause, the director at Dellwood, said that was the highest rating possible for Dellwood Child Care at that time.

“We stayed as a three-star (in 2022). Once we had the education from the teachers to meet the criteria for a four-star (rating), that’s when we decided to go for a four-star,” Krause said.

Krause said she was excited when she was notified about the four-star rating, adding that Dellwood just missed out on a five-star rating.

“To be a five-star, you have to be 4.67, and we’re a 4.4, so we just missed it,” Krause said. “There is a lot more entailed with a five-star. We would all have to have associate degrees for teachers. We’re shy of that by one or two classrooms. We’re very close, but that is our next goal.”

Ratings
Krause said the Youngstar rating measures the quality of care that is offered to the families of Dellwood Child Care.

“We have a whole curriculum that we have to follow, and we have to do observations and goals to get the children to where they are supposed to be,” Krause said.

Clintonville Superintendent Troy Kuhn added, “At every level, there are specific benchmarks. So being a lead teacher at the daycare, it’s not just fun and games and playtime. They have certain goals they’re supposed to meet at every age. If they don’t make the benchmarks, then there’s almost like a plan put (in place) for the individual kid to help them meet the benchmarks. The kids are assessed, and therefore the daycare is assessed.”

According to Krause, other things considered by the evaluation include the education of the teachers at the child care center, the set-up of the rooms to make sure there is enough equipment to meet all the goals of the facility, the interaction the children have, and the overall quality of service the teachers offer the children and families.

The evaluation is done during a surprise visit by a rater to the child care center.

“We have a coach that helps us for about a year getting prepared for it (surprise evaluation visit),” Krause said. “Then we’re in a one-month window and they just show up whenever. We never know when they’re coming. They pick a room out of a hat, and that’s the room that they’re rating.”

The evaluations are done every two years.

“On our off-year, we have to maintain our education, and our teachers as our leads,” Krause said. “And we have to continue doing the portfolios and the lesson plans.”

Rating significance
Besides Dellwood Child Care being recognized as a top child care center, the four-star rating also brings financial benefits to eligible families who have children enrolled at Dellwood Child Care. The four-star rating allows parents who participate in the Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program to receive additional funds through the program to help pay for child care.

“Parents would apply for assistance, and they have to be within a certain threshold,” Krause said. “If they qualify for it, then as soon as our star rating goes into effect, then the funds automatically get put onto an EBT card, and then the parents would transfer those funds over to the child care center.”

Krause said those extra funds, which come from the state of Wisconsin, can only be used for child care.

Dellwood does not receive additional funds for a four-star rating, but the extra funds for eligible families is a benefit to the community, Kuhn said.

Another benefit of the four-star rating, is teachers at Dellwood Child Care receive a bonus in pay. Krause said the bonus is paid by the state of Wisconsin, not the school district.

Kuhn said the four-star rating is something the Clintonville School District can promote regarding Dellwood Child Care.

“We’re not a daycare, we’re a child care center, meaning we have plans, we have education, and we have portfolios. We have all of that,” Kuhn said.

Krause added, “What we’re trying to do is be recognized as professionals. We are teaching, we’re not babysitting. When you think of daycare, a lot of people think it’s just babysitters. That’s not what we are. We are teaching. We are teaching through play. Dellwood does not have any screens, so there’s no computers for the kids. No TV. Everything is teacher led, play led.”

Currently, Dellwood Child Care has 105 children enrolled.

Regarding the rating, Kuhn said, “I do want to give props to Patti, she’s been there from the beginning. It wasn’t easy at the beginning, especially hiring employees with little or no background. But Patti has brought the center to where it is. Not saying that it’s only Patti, but she was an integral part in that.”

Dellwood importance
Dellwood has been a topic of discussion with the Clintonville Board of Education during discussions about the school district’s budget.

Kuhn said Dellwood Child Care is important to the district for two reasons. First, it allows district staff to have their children enrolled in child care nearby. Second, it allows out-of-town parents who work in the area to enroll their children at Dellwood. The hope is that the children will open enroll into the Clintonville School District when they are school age.

“Eventually we get money for that as open-enrolled students,” Kuhn said.

He added, “I think more importantly though, having our child care center is important for the community. I know it’s one of those topics that’s discussed at the board meetings. We’re taking about a $300,000 loss right now. Taxpayer money is helping to support our child care (center), but the question I ask, ‘What if tomorrow, that child care (center) closed? Where are all the kids going?’ Child care is a hard business right now. When we get really good employees, we do our best to keep those employees. Another positive is, though, when we get really great employees, they see the benefits of working with kids, and they want to go to the next level. They want to become a teacher. They want to do something above.”