Environment Rating Scales (ERS)

The Environment Rating Scales (ERS) are tools that are used to measure quality in child care programs. There are four separate tools, each to be used with a different age or setting:

  • ITERS-R - for birth to 30 months
  • ECERS-R - for 30 months to 5 years
  • SACERS - for school-age programs
  • FCCERS - for family child care homes

 

ELC-Manatee uses the Environment Rating Scales to ensure School Readiness programs are providing quality care to the children they serve. As the agreement states, ELC-Manatee requires providers “to work toward achieving and maintaining a score of 3.0 or higher.”

Each provider will be assessed during the agreement year. The Early Learning Coalition will perform at least one assessment on 1/3 of the classrooms in each age range at each program site.

On the day of the assessment, ELC-Manatee staff will arrive at your center/FCCH in the morning (before and after-school programs may be different). The assessors and the director will randomly select which classrooms will be assessed. Each classroom observation takes a minimum of three hours. Additional time will be needed for the ELC-Manatee staff to ask teacher questions.

Technical assistance is available upon request to any provider after receiving your score and after training is completed. ELC-Manatee staff will work with teachers and directors to develop a program improvement plan to increase quality based on the results of the classroom’s ERS assessment. If your program has been assessed and you would like to receive technical assistance, please contact the Early Learning Coalition of Manatee County's Quality Department at (941) 757-2900 extension 260.