Assessing Child Care Standards and Rates of Expulsion for Problem Behaviors in Preschool Children

Abstract

Quality in child care programs has been studied often and researchers search to find correlations between quality measures and positive child outcomes. Some studies also show that problem behaviors result in large numbers of child expulsions in preschool age programs. The question remains whether the quality of the program produces care that lends to a lower incidence of behavior problems leading to child expulsion. The current study investigated the correlations among quality standard levels, behavior problems, and expulsion rates in a variety of child care programs in one state. Results showed that programs that are documented as having achieved the high quality standard of NAEYC accreditation do not necessarily employ direct care staff with higher education and experience levels. Although higher quality programs in this study were not shown to experience a significantly lower occurrence of problem behaviors, higher quality programs did report lower child expulsion rates.