About YoungStar

The care children receive at home and away from home couldn’t be more important.

Studies show that children who experience engaging, one-on-one activities in safe, healthy and nurturing learning environments have a better chance at lifelong success. They’re more likely to graduate from high school, less likely to engage in criminal activity or participate in special education programs. And they often earn higher wages throughout their lifetime.

The Department of Children and Families is committed to improving the quality of care for Wisconsin’s youngest children. YoungStar, Wisconsin’s child care quality rating and improvement system, is helping to make it happen.

YoungStar drives quality improvement in child care throughout the state of Wisconsin by:

Helping providers who want to improve the quality of their care
Creating financial incentives that encourage providers to deliver better services to children
Giving parents the meaningful information they need to make informed child care decisions for their children—at home and away from home
Supporting ongoing child care quality improvement by linking higher quality care to higher Wisconsin Shares subsidy amounts and tiered Quality Incentive payments through Child Care Counts

YoungStar represents the work of many individuals and organizations over several years. From the legislative process used to create YoungStar to the organizations that are now administering YoungStar in Wisconsin, each of the documents provided on this page gives specific and in-depth information about the workings of YoungStar. If you have any questions about any of these documents, please feel free to contact your Local YoungStar Office or the Child Care Information Center (CCIC).

YoungStar Administration

The Department has selected Shine Early Learning to administer all YoungStar services beginning Spring 2023.
Please visit our YoungStar Administration page for more information.

YoungStar Moves Away From Points

Are you interested in learning more about the changes taking place the the rating criteria in YoungStar?
Visit the YoungStar Rating Criteria page for the latest information.

YoungStar Goals

YoungStar is a five-star quality rating system for child care providers based on education, learning environment, business methods, and practices around child health and well-being. Through this rating system, the state is addressing several key issues in Wisconsin's child care system. The rating system will:

Improve the overall quality of child care
Create a clear, understandable tool to help parents choose quality child care
Create incentives for providers to improve services, particularly for low-income children
Link the quality of child care providers to Wisconsin Shares subsidy amounts