How to Prepare Your Home for FCCERS-R
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How to Prepare Your Home for FCCERS-R (Adobe .pdf 64KB)
As you prepare to switch from FDCRS to FCCERS-R many things are consistent from scale to scale and will continue to provide a quality environment for the children in your care. This form provides information on how you may choose to prepare your home for the FCCERS-R.
General Information
All items on the FCCERS-R address the entire age range from infants through school-agers. Toddlers are classified as children from 12 through 30 months. Any age child enrolled should have access to materials that are developmentally appropriate and address specific learning needs. For example, books for infants and toddlers and preschoolers and school-agers must be included if all ages are served.
A few homes are designed to serve only school-age children. These homes will now be assessed using FCCERS-R. Some items are age specific and may not be scored. In other cases, Tennessee additional notes have been added to clarify expectations for these programs.
The care of children with special needs is addressed throughout the scale as well as in Item 34: Provisions for children with disabilities.
Items 35 – 38 will not be scored for assessment purposes in Tennessee.
Additional notes can be accessed at www.tnstarquality.org. The General Notes include important information that will be helpful as you prepare. Notes regarding levels of quality, supervision and examples are key to understanding the application of the scale for assessment purposes.
A significant change from FDCRS to FCCERS-R looks at the amount of time children have access to play materials. The term “much of the day” refers to all time periods not taken up by routine caregiving. This requires play periods to be scattered throughout the day with accessibility to a wide variety of materials. Re-evaluating your schedule as posted and practiced may be needed in order to meet this important factor in providing quality care.
New Items Added
Item 21: Math/number requires materials that support math learning including shapes, numbers and measuring. Materials must be accessible for much of the day. This item also considers provider interactions regarding math concepts, the organization of the materials and age-appropriateness for the children enrolled.
Item 22: Nature/science requires materials that are categorized as collections of natural objects; living things; nature/science books, pictures, games or toys; and nature/science tools. Many materials must be accessible for much of the day. This item also considers provider’s use of everyday events as well as indoor and outdoor experiences.
Item 28: Provider-child interactions replaces Tone on FDCRS. This item emphasizes respectful and responsive caregiving for all ages.
Item 30: Interactions among children addresses the responsibility of the provider to encourage and model a socially positive environment.
Item 32: Free play occurs indoors and outdoors for much of the day with ample and varied materials accessible. The caregiver is expected to provide supervision and facilitation of free play.
Item 33: Group time considers that best practice reduces times that children are kept together doing the same activities and addresses the need for small group self selection.
Specific Details on Items
Forced participation occurs when children are required to participate in an activity or lose interest during the activity and are not allowed to leave. Items 15: Using books, 17: Art, 18: Music and movement, 25: Use of TV, video, and/or computer, and 33: Group time take forced participation into scoring consideration.
Item 1: Indoor space used for child care expects adult seating close to routine care areas.
Item 4: Arrangement of indoor space for child care requires providers to be able to visually supervise all the children with a few momentary lapses allowable.
Item 11: Health practices requires handwashing upon arrival at the program.
Item 16: Fine motor requires materials from 4 categories: building toys, manipulatives, art materials and puzzles.
Item 19: Blocks does not consider interlocking building toys. These are counted as small building materials under fine motor. Blocks can stack and slide.
Item 25: TV/video and/or computer cannot be used with infants. If infants are present when older children are viewing, there must be alternative activities for their engagement.
Produced by the UT College of Social Work Office of Research & Public Service under contract to the Tennessee Department of Human Services for the Tennessee Child Care Evaluation & Report Card Program. Adapted from Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale Revised Edition by Thelma Harms, Debby Cryer and Richard M. Clifford. (New York: Teachers College Press, ©2007 by Thelma Harms and Richard M. Clifford.) Permission is being requested to the publisher and the authors. All rights reserved. This project is funded under an agreement with the Tennessee Department of Human Services and the University of Tennessee, Social Work Office of Research and Public Service.