Building on feedback from the field, as well as current research on supporting young children’s development and learning, the authors have revised and updated the widely used Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale. FCCERS-3 is the next-generation assessment tool for use in home-based child care programs for children from infancy through school age (birth to age 12).

FCCERS-3 focuses on the full range of needs of the wide age-range of children often found in family child care programs. Further, the scale assesses both environmental provisions and provider-child interactions that contribute to children’s learning and development, including language, cognitive, social-emotional, and physical development, as well as concerns for health and safety.

FCCERS-3 is appropriate for state- and district-wide QRIS and continuous quality improvement, for provider self-assessment, and as a learning or monitoring tool within networks of family providers. The established reliability and validity of the scale make it particularly useful for research and program evaluation with family child care programs.

While the approach to assessing quality and the scoring process remain the same for the new FCCERS-3, users will find the following improvements informed by extensive use of the FCCERS in the field and by the most recent research:

Enhanced focus on interactions and the role of the provider. Six new language and literacy Items. A new Item on math experiences. A new approach to scoring based solely on observation of ongoing program activity (3-hour time sample). The elimination of the Parents and Provider subscale and provider interview, freeing up time for observing more actual programming. Improved indicator scaling, providing more precise and useful scores for use in self-improvement and professional development. Reduced emphasis on the number of materials, along with greater emphasis on how materials are used to encourage learning.

Suitable for use in inclusive and culturally diverse programs, FCCERS-3 subscales evaluate:

Space and Furnishings Personal Care Routines Language and Books Activities Interaction Program Structure.