Ready Regions

With steady investment and bipartisan support from Virginia’s governors and legislature, VECF has supported local coalitions across the Commonwealth to work with public and private leaders on early childhood priorities since 2005. Building on this foundation, in 2022 a regional network was established in Virginia Code (§ 22.1-289.05) and charged with strengthening early childhood systems and coordinating early childhood care and education services in nine Virginia regions. This network – called Ready Regions® – brings unprecedented levels of coordination, accountability, and family engagement, ensuring high quality education opportunities for all children and families, in every community in the Commonwealth.
Virginia’s Ready Regions® network is helping every Virginia community be:
- Accountable. Virginia’s early education system must prepare children for success.
- Parent-centered. Families must be engaged in designing a system that works for them.
- Responsive. Parents must be able to choose the child care they want and need.
- Reliable. Early education programs need consistent supports to deliver quality services.
- Bold. Every community in Virginia should be a place where families can thrive.
For more information about your Ready Region, please contact the Ready Region Lead.
Click on the map below to learn more about each Ready Region.

Learn more about VQB5
To prepare all children for kindergarten and in response to state law, Virginia has developed the Unified Virginia Quality Birth to Five System (VQB5) to measure and help improve the quality of all publicly-funded birth-to-five classrooms and support families to choose quality programming across program types.
Ready Regions coordinate and support participation in VQB5 for ECCE programs in the region.
To learn more about VQB5, visit the VDOE Quality Measurement and Improvement (VQB5) website or e-mail vqb5@doe.virginia.edu. VQB5 Quality Profiles (with information about early childhood program performance on quality measures and other topics of interest to families, policy makers, and the public) are available at www.EarlyChildhoodQuality.doe.virginia.gov.
RecognizeB5
RecognizeB5 is a component of VQB5 that provides direct financial incentives to eligible teachers, with the goal of reducing teacher turnover in child care and family day homes, where wages are significantly lower than in comparable settings. The program is open to both Lead and Assistant teachers working in publicly-funded child care and family day home sites that are participating in VQB5.
RecognizeB5 2024-2025 Guidelines & FAQ
RecognizeB5 Guidelines 2024-2025 [ENGLISH] [SPANISH]
RecognizeB5 FAQ 2024-2025 [ENGLISH]
RecognizeB5 Support: 804-358-8323 Ext. 129 or RecognizeB5@vecf.org
Learn more LinkB5
LinkB5 is an online data portal for early childhood care and education providers serving children ages birth to five, to document program-, classroom-, and teacher-level data, and is the home for VQB5 Ratings and registration for the RecognizeB5 program.
LinkB5 Support: 1-833-554-6525 or Linkb5support@virginia.edu