Licensing Measurement

for the future. Caring for Our Children Basics (CFOCB)
was published and immediately became the default
voluntary early care and education standards for the ECE
field. The CFOCB is a combination of the risk
assessment and key indicator methodologies. Three
major publications by the following Federal agencies:
HHS/ACF/USDA: Department of Health and Human
Services/Administration for Children and
Families/United States Department of Agriculture, OCC:
Office of Child Care, and ASPE: Assistant Secretary’s
Office for Planning and Evaluation dealing with
licensing and program monitoring strategies were
published. These publications will guide the field of
licensing measurement for years to come. The Office of
Head Start developed and implemented their own Head
Start Key Indicator (HSKI) methodology. And in 2016,
CCDBG was reauthorized and differential monitoring
was included in the legislation being recommended as an
approach for states to consider.
Most recently, the Office of Head Start is revising their
monitoring system that provides a balance between
compliance and performance. This system revision will
go a long way to enhancing the balance between
regulatory compliance and program quality. Also, there
has been experimentation with an Early Childhood
Program Quality Indicator instrument combining
licensing and quality indicators into a single tool. These
two developments help with breaking down the silo
approach to measurement where licensing and quality
initiatives are administered through separate and distinct
approaches such as licensing versus professional
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