There’s a big gap between how good Americans think their child care is and what experts think. Only 13 percent of Oregon’s child care programs even participate in a rating system.
A new poll by , the and found 88 percent of parents said their child care was “very good” or “excellent.”
But experts say less than 10 percent of child care is "very high” quality — and that the vast majority is just “fair."
Tom Udell is the co-director of " Oregon’s Quality Rating and Improvement System.” He said it’s hard to know how good Oregon’s child care centers are because the rating system’s only been around three-and-a-half years.
“I think that we have really good participation rates for the amount of time the program has been available,” Udell said.
About 13 percent of Oregon’s kids are in a child care programs that participate in the state’s rating system.
Some states, like North Carolina and Oklahoma have had rating system for 20 years.
Copyright 2016 Oregon Public Broadcasting
