Welcome
Create your quick start guide for your quality improvement needs!
The Illinois Action for Children Program Inventory is a questionnaire designed to support child care programs that want to engage in Illinois’ new quality rating and improvement system. Program information collected here can be used to determine which quality standards your program meets as well as assist the quality coach in determining technical assistance and support needed.
Instructions
Before getting started, verify that your internet browser settings are up to date. The Program Inventory works best in Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer 9, 10 and 11. Additionally, be sure of the following:
- All staff are registered as Gateways Registry members.
- A program administrator has attended an ExceleRate orientation either in-person or online.
Finally, we encourage you to have these relevant program documents compiled and organized together:
- Professional development records
- Any assessment results (completed within the last 12 months)
These documents are needed to complete this program inventory and will aid your program in preparing for your ExceleRate application and future verification visit.
Please allow approximately 60 minutes to complete your inventory. You will be permitted to stop and save information and return to complete your inventory as needed, by selecting the "Save and Continue Later" header located at the top of each page. You will also have the option to save and print your results for your own records.
All information provided here will be useful when completing your ExceleRate application. Please be aware information provided should be complete and accurate and all information and evidence will need to be verified to achieve a Circle of Quality.
How the Program Inventory is Scored
Based on responses to some preliminary questions you will be directed to questions regarding Bronze Circle Standards, Silver Circle Standards or Gold Circle Standards. Inventory responses will be tallied and results will be provided based on the number of standards your program meets according to the criteria below:
- If the program meets 53% or below of the Silver Circle of Quality standards (8 or fewer standards), you may wish to prepare/apply for the Bronze Circle of Quality
- If the program meets 60% of the Silver Circle of Quality standards (9 or more standards), you may wish to prepare/apply for the Silver Circle of Quality
- If the program meets 80% of the Silver Circle of Quality standards (12 or more standards), you may wish to prepare/apply for the Gold Circle of Quality
Note: Programs licensed for 3 years or less will be directed to questions based on the Bronze standards and are strongly encouraged to prepare/apply for the Bronze Circle of Quality.