Quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) seek to define quality in early childhood settings, support programs in increasing their quality, and rate programs so parents can better understand varying levels of quality when selecting a setting for their children. QRIS systems are multi-level, differentiated performance assessments intended to increase transparency about program quality and incentivize continuous improvement among programs. Each state develops its own QRIS system which rates programs on their ability to meet increasingly rigorous sets of standards. The BUILD Initiative works with states to develop their QRIS systems and policies and has additional resources that provide useful context for understanding how these systems develop and what they incorporate in their rubrics. There are often financial incentives to participating in QRIS. In many of the profiled states, a program can only receive public early childhood funding if it participates in QRIS, and many others will use a tiered reimbursement structure where programs that have higher ratings on the state QRIS will receive higher reimbursement rates from state administered childcare subsidy programs than those with lower ratings.