The Stars Among Stars Program has been established to recognize VPP participants within Region VII with total case incidence rates (TCIR) and days away/restricted/transferred case incidence rates (DART) well below the BLS national average. All Star, Demonstration, Merit, and Conditional sites are eligible for the Recognition Program provided the site meets the other requirements as specified below.
By recognizing companies with injury/illness rates more than 50 percent below the National Average, we keep the focus of the VPP on reducing injuries and illnesses at participating sites. We also encourage employers to continue working to reduce their rates even though they already meet the basic requirement of having rates below the BLS national average.
The region VII VPPPA will be accepting Star Among Stars applications from currently active sites for the following calendar years: 2025
Specific rules for the Stars Among Stars Program have been developed to clarify several issues. These rules are as follows:
- All Region VII VPP participants in the Star, Merit, Demonstration, and Conditional Programs are eligible for the SAS Award.
- The site must have been approved for the VPP prior to the end of the year for which the rates are being calculated. For example, all sites approved for VPP on or before 12/31/25 are eligible for recognition based on their 2025 rates.
- To initially qualify for recognition as a Star Among Stars recipient, a site must have both its Total Case Incidence Rate (TCIR) and Days Away/Restricted/Transferred Case Incidence Rate (DART) for the previous year at 50 percent below the BLS national industry averages for their appropriate NAICS code. This means the TCIR and DART must be 50 percent or more below the BLS national average after both have been calculated and before the rates have been rounded off. A rate which is 50.00 % below would qualify, whereas a rate of 49.9999 percent below would not.
If a site’s TCIR and DART rates are both at least 75 percent below the BLS national average and have an SGE who has participated in one or more VPP audits during the corresponding calendar year or has provided mentoring for another site seeking VPP recognition or has an employee(s) that participates as a member of either the Regional or National VPPPA Board of Directors will qualify as a “Super Star Among Stars” and will be recognized as such. This means the TCIR and DART must be 75 percent or more below the BLS national industry averages after both rates have been calculated and before the rates have been rounded off. A rate which is 75.0000 percent below would qualify, whereas a rate of 74.9999 percent below would not. If only one rate is at least 75 percent below the national average, but both are at least 50 percent below, the site will qualify as a Star Among Stars recipients.
A third level of qualification has been set for sites with their TCIR and DART rates both at least 90 percent below the BLS national average and have an SGE who has participated in one or more VPP audits during the corresponding year or has provided mentoring for another site seeking VPP recognition, or has an employee(s) that participates as a member of either the Regional or National VPPPA Board of Directors will qualify as a “Star of Excellence” and be recognized as such. This means the TCIR and DART must be 90 percent or more below the BLS national industry average after both rates have been calculated and before the rates have been rounded off. A rate which is 90.0000 percent below would qualify, whereas a rate of 89.9999 percent below would not. If only one rate is at least 90 percent below the national average, but both are at least 50 or 75 percent below, the site will qualify as a “Star” or “Super Star” Among Stars if all other criteria are met.
- The deadline for submitting SAS Applications is August 1st, 2026. Once all applications have been received, they will be reviewed by the Region VII Awards and Recognition Committee. Awards will be presented during the Safety-7 Conference at the Des Moines Marriott Downtown, October
A site may compare their TCIR and DART rates to either of the two most recent BLS NAICS tables. In other words, to qualify for 2025, you must compare your rates to either the 2023 or 2024 BLS NAICS rates for your industry. This is a more stringent requirement than the current requirements for participation in the Star Program which allows a site to use any of the previous THREE years of BLS data. The company should use whichever rate benefits them; however, you must use both rates from the same year, meaning you cannot use the BLS TCIR rate from 2023 BLS stats and the DART rate from the 2024 averages, or vice versa.
- The site must also use the most specific BLS data available when comparing their site’s rates. For example, if the site’s NAICS code is 241116, they must compare their site rates to the BLS rates published for 241116. If no data is available, the site would then compare their rates to the data available for 24111-. If no data is available at this level, the site may compare their rates to 2411–, and so on. This does not impact which year’s data you use to qualify for the award. If the BLS rates for 2024 provides data at the six-digit level (241116), and the 2023 BLS rates only provide data at the four-digit level (2411–), you may still use the 2023 data if it is more advantageous.
- Sites in Region VII who wish to be eligible for the SAS Program must submit injury information based on a calendar year.
- The site must not have had a fatality, including contractor employees, during the year for which the rates are being calculated.
Any company may have one (1) recordable injury or illness during the year and still qualify for the program regardless of the site’s rate due to the recordable incident. This includes sites exceeding the national average based on the incident. The incident CANNOT be a lost time/restricted/transferred work case. A site may not exceed the BLS national average (as defined in No. 5 above) more than once in three years to continue qualifying for the SAS program. NOTE: If your site qualifies for this program based on Rule 3 for any of the three program levels, you do not have to worry about this rule! This rule is designed specifically to give smaller VPP sites a fair opportunity to qualify for recognition.
A company with one recordable incident during the year will qualify as a “Star Among Stars” unless the company’s rates are still at least 75 or 90 percent below the BLS national average for their NAICS code which meets the requirements for the “Super Star Among Stars,” or a “Star of Excellence.”
| Percent TCIR is below BLS National Average: | Percent DART is below BLS National Average: |
| (BLS industry average – Site TCIR for year) X 100 | (BLS industry average – Site DART for year) X 100 |
| BLS industry average | BLS industry average |
10. All statistics submitted by a VPP site will be verified by OSHA and/or the Regional BOD. You must submit a copy of your OSHA 300A. If applying for “Super Star” or “Star of Excellence”, you must submit documentation that an SGE participated in a VPP audit or your company provided mentoring for another company seeking VPP status, or the site has an employee(s) that participates as a member of either the Regional or National VPPPA Board of Directors. Applications will not be considered if these documents are not submitted.Applications should be submitted by email to Bret Skellenger at beskelle@cardinalcorp.com by the deadline of August 1st, 2025
You can find data and rates for your industry at the BLS website 2025 home : Monthly Labor Review : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
You can download this application here: http://regionviivpp.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Final-2025-SAS-app.docx