Your care is
life-changing work
Step Up to Quality helps early childhood educators go above and beyond for the children in their care.
You are quality
High-quality early childhood programs can have a lifelong, positive impact on young children and their families. Step Up to Quality helps early child care providers and educators recognize and improve quality.
Programs enrolled in Step Up to Quality have access to coaching and resources that help them on their path to higher quality. These resources enable any provider or educator — big or small — to take quality to the next level.
Step Up to Quality programs go beyond what is required because they strive to do better for their children’s and families’ futures. You are educating our future workforce, our future leaders, and our future parents.
Benefits of participating
Step Up to Quality programs have
special access to support and resources that improve quality.
Incentive bonuses. You’ll receive your first incentive bonus when you move up a step for the first time. Use incentive bonuses to pay for program materials like books, toys or professional development opportunities.
| Step Levels & Bonus Amounts | Child Care Centers | Family Child Care Homes |
|---|---|---|
| Step 2 | $500 | $250 |
| Step 3 | $750 | $400 |
| Step 4 | $1,000 | $500 |
| Step 5 | $1,250 | $600 |
Tax credits
Tax credits are available for Nebraska’s early childhood professional workforce and early childhood programs that participate in Step Up to Quality. Other eligibility requirements include work experience, training and education level.
Professional development and support
Step Up to Quality and other early childhood organizations provide opportunities for professional development and support, helping great child care providers become even better.
Resources for enrolled providers
We’re here to support enrolled providers with the resources, information and forms you’ll need throughout your Step Up to Quality journey.
Resources for unenrolled providers
Interested in enrolling in Step Up to Quality? Find more information about the program and how to get started.
Promote your rating
Your Step Up to Quality rating is a big achievement of which you should be very proud. We know you were already doing a remarkable job with young children and families before this recognition — but Step Up to Quality can help you demonstrate your commitment to your parents and community.
To help you share your big accomplishment with the community, we’ve developed some tools to help you promote your quality-rated status.