Childcare Excellence Awards

Cash Achievement Awards for Early Childcare Educators

The Cloudsplitter Foundation has created a Childcare Excellence Award Program to recognize dedicated educators who have demonstrated commitment to both providing high quality early childcare education for children aged birth to five years and continually improving the standards of education and care they provide. One objective of the award program is to improve childhood education and early childhood education outcomes by promoting participation by classroom educators in QUALITYstarsNY, New York State’s Quality Rating and Improvement System for all types of regulated early childhood programs. A second objective, in addition to recognizing the hard work and dedication of early childcare educators, is to foster continued improvement and retention of such high-quality educators. Eligible participants may be nominated for multiple $2,000 cash achievement awards as they progress through the QUALITYstarsNY program.

Program Details

  • Who is eligible to receive an award?
    • Teaching Staff and Leading Staff working in an early childhood education space (Home-Based or Center-Based, includes sole proprietorships)
    • Teaching Staff and Leading Staff engaged in full-time educational activities (25+ hours a week)
    • Employer must be operating in Clinton, Essex, Franklin Counties, or in the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne within the State of New York
    • Employer must participate in QUALITYstarsNY program
    • Employer must achieve qualifying stages within the QUALITYstarsNY program
  • Achievement
    • Progress along the QUALITYstarsNY five-star rating path is based on a point system. When an employer has achieved enough points to achieve a qualifying stage, Teaching Staff and Leading Staff are then eligible for awards
  • Award Process
    • Once a qualifying stage is achieved by an employer, eligible Teaching Staff and Leading Staff are nominated for an award by their QUALITYstarsNY Quality Improvement Specialist to the Selection Committee.
    • Childcare educators that are self-employed or employed in sole proprietorships are also eligible if they have achieved a qualifying stage and will submit a nomination to the Selection Committee.
    • Nominations will include the awardee’s contact information and qualifications for an award.
    • Award certificates are authorized for select nominees by a Selection Committee (comprised of representatives from the Child Care Coordinating Council of the North Country and City University of New York)
    • The determination that a QUALITYstarsNY participant has qualified for an award is the sole responsibility of the Selection Committee
    • For each awardee, the Selection Committee will prepare a certified award certificate, signed by the Selection Committee Chair, and attach the original Nomination Application submitted in support of the awardee.
    • Award certificates become active once signed by the awardee.
    • Fully countersigned Award certificates are redeemed by awardees upon submittal to the sponsoring foundation.
  • Nomination and Award certificate forms are linked here.

* The above summary does not constitute an offer or commitment. *

Note, due to the high volume of grant applications we have received in recent rounds, Cloudsplitter will begin closing the application on the website once we have received our fixed number of applicants. To maximize the possibility that you will be included in consideration, we would advise you get your application in well before the grants deadline.