Illinois Quality Program Self-Assessment (IL-QPSA)
The Illinois Quality Program Self-Assessment (IL-QPSA) is a free, strengths-based process that helps out-of-school time programs assess current practices, recognize strengths, identify opportunities for growth, and take action to improve program quality.
What is the IL-QPSA?
The IL-QPSA is a free, strengths-based process that helps out-of-school time programs assess current practices, recognize strengths, identify opportunities for growth, and take action to improve program quality.
Grounded in the Illinois Statewide Afterschool Quality Standards™, the IL-QPSA brings program teams together to move through a continuous improvement cycle:
Assess → Reflect → Plan → Implement
Using the Quality Standards and Toolkit, teams reflect on their practices, reach consensus, identify priorities, and develop an Action Plan for improvement.
Registered participants complete the IL-QPSA Learning Path through ACT Now’s Center for Afterschool Learning (ANCAL).
Get Started with the IL-QPSA:
Resources and FAQs:
1. Create or access your free ANCAL account
ANCAL is ACT Now’s online learning platform and home of the FY27 IL-QPSA Learning Path.
2. Register for the FY27 IL-QPSA
Complete the registration form to identify your participating organization, sites, and registered participants. Everyone listed on the registration form will be assigned the FY27 IL-QPSA Learning Path in ANCAL.
3. Begin the FY27 IL-QPSA Learning Path
Once registered, use the Learning Path in ANCAL and the Quality Standards Toolkit to guide your team through the process. The syllabus provides the complete requirements, steps, and deadlines.
Module 1: Prepare & Assess
Build your understanding of the IL-QPSA, assemble your assessment team, review evidence, and complete your program’s self-assessment.
Module 2: Reflect & Plan
Review your results, discuss strengths and opportunities for growth, identify priorities, and develop your Action Plan.
Module 3: Implement, Monitor & Sustain
Put your Action Plan into practice, monitor progress, and use what you learn to support your program’s next cycle of continuous improvement.
The IL-QPSA is grounded in Illinois’ shared vision for high-quality out-of-school time programming.
The revised framework includes:
4 Core Areas • 15 Standards • 60+ Recommended Practices
🌤 Climate
Creating environments where young people feel safe, supported, respected, and connected.
💡 Learning
Providing engaging and meaningful opportunities that support young people’s learning and development.
🤝 Partnerships
Building strong relationships with families, schools, and communities.
⚙️ Systems
Developing the organizational practices and systems needed to sustain high-quality programming.
The Toolkit uses Illinois’ state tree, the White Oak, to show how the pieces fit together: Core Areas organize the framework; Standards describe high-quality practice, and Recommended Practices provide examples of how Standards may look in action. Importantly, Recommended Practices are examples—not a checklist.
The IL-QPSA combines individual learning with team reflection.
Your Assessment Team
Your assessment team works together to review evidence, discuss program practices, and reach consensus on ratings.
Teams may include site coordinators, program staff, teachers, program evaluators, community partners, parent or family representatives, and other stakeholders who understand the program. registration form
Your Registered Participant(s)
Registered participants complete the required IL-QPSA Learning Path in ANCAL and ensure the team’s final consensus ratings are entered into the IL-QPSA.
Your assessment team can include many people; only the individuals responsible for completing the official IL-QPSA requirements need to be listed on the registration form.
The IL-QPSA is designed to help programs move beyond simply identifying whether a practice is in place. It creates space for teams to ask:
What are we doing well?
What evidence supports that?
Where could we grow?
What matters most right now?
What will we do next?
The Standards and Toolkit are intended to work together to create a flexible path for programs to assess, reflect, plan, and improve over time, with practical guidance and tools that programs can adapt to their own settings.
| Step | FY27 Deadline |
| Pledge to Quality | October 16, 2026 |
| ACT Now Newsletter | October 16, 2026 |
| Add/Edit Program Profile | October 16, 2026 |
| Module 1 | October 16, 2026 |
| Complete Self-Assessment | October 16, 2026–January 15, 2027 |
| Module 2 | January 15, 2027 |
| Submit Action Plan(s) | March 26, 2027 – Hard Deadline |
| Module 3 | March 26, 2027 |
FY27 IL-QPSA Syllabus
Your guide to requirements, deadlines, roles, and the full FY27 process.
FY27 IL-QPSA Registration
Register your organization, participating sites, and registered participants.
Complete Modules 1–3, enter your assessment, access results, and submit your Action Plan.
Illinois Statewide Afterschool Quality Standards Toolkit
Use the Toolkit with your assessment team to review Standards, examine evidence, reflect, plan, and implement improvements.
Participation in the IL-QPSA is also connected to ACT Now’s Illinois Afterschool Pledge to Quality, an opportunity for programs to demonstrate their commitment to quality and continuous improvement.
Programs completing the process can access technical assistance and professional development, opportunities to connect with other providers, recognition of their commitment to quality, and a Certificate of Completion after successfully completing the quality improvement process.
After submitting the IL-QPSA, programs receive a Results Report in ANCAL. The report is designed to help teams understand their current practices, recognize strengths, identify opportunities for growth, and determine priorities for their High-Quality Action Plan.
Your Results Report Includes:
Core Area Overview
See a snapshot of results across the four Quality Standards Core Areas: Climate, Learning, Partnerships, and Systems. The Recommendation Overview helps teams identify areas of strength and areas that may benefit from additional attention.
Individual Standard Ratings
Review how your team rated each selected Standard using the IL-QPSA 1–4 rating scale. Ratings of 3 and 4 can help identify strengths, while ratings of 1 and 2 can point to practices the team may want to explore more closely.
From Results to Action
Teams look across their results for patterns, celebrate what is working, and select three priorities to address through their High-Quality Action Plan.
The IL-QPSA is NOT a pass/fail assessment.
Results are intended to support reflection and continuous quality improvement—not to judge or evaluate the overall quality of a program.
The Illinois Quality Program Self-Assessment (ILQPSA) is a continuous quality improvement process that helps afterschool programs assess their practices using the Illinois Statewide Afterschool Quality Standards Framework and identify priorities for growth.
Analysis of FY26 action plans from 94 sites reveals field with strong relational foundations and a clear commitment to quality. Programs consistently highlighted positive staff-youth relationships, supportive program climates, and valuable community partnerships as key strengths. At the same time, many sites identified a need to strengthen the systems and structures that support long-term program success.
Illinois afterschool programs have built strong relationships with youth and families while demonstrating a strong commitment to continuous quality improvement. With 91% of identified improvement areas rated as “partially implemented” or “mostly implemented,” the findings indicate that quality practices are largely in place.
The next stage of improvement is creating consistent, sustainable systems that strengthen these practices over time, allowing programs to maintain highquality experiences despite staffing changes, growth, and evolving program needs.
You don’t have to navigate the IL-QPSA alone.
ACT Now’s Quality Initiatives Team is available to support programs throughout the process, from getting started and building an assessment team to understanding results and developing an Action Plan.
Questions about the IL-QPSA?.
Contact: Jackie Tichler @ tichlerj@actnowillinois.org
