July 6 -- The Women's Bureau, Department of Labor, invites public comment by September 5, 2023 regarding the collection of data for the National Database of Childcare Prices. The Women's Bureau seeks to update the National Database of Childcare Prices by requesting market rate survey data collected by the states and the District of Columbia between 2019 and 2022.
This proposed information collection seeks to update the National Database of Childcare Prices (NDCP). The NDCP is the most comprehensive federal source of childcare prices at the county level. The NDCP was first made available to the public in 2022 and it currently provides data for the years 2008 through 2018. The NDCP is based on data collected by each state in their childcare market rate surveys (MRS). State-administered MRS are conducted by state human services or workforce development offices (i.e., Lead Agencies) according to federal regulations to receive Child Care and Development Block Grants (CCDBG). MRS provide market prices of various types of child care (e.g., center-based, home-based) by age of children (e.g., infants, toddlers, preschoolers, school-age children) and by geography. MRS are used to establish reimbursement rates for childcare subsidies. MRS sample eligible centers and care providers in the priced market and obtain the full market price of care. MRS data are a rich source of local childcare price data. However, these data are not reported to the federal government and they are retained by the states. As a result, reporting metrics are not standardized across states and some of the data is not accessible to the public.
MRS are currently collected in three-year cycles. The most current MRS data collection cycle reflects the years 2019 through 2021. Some states may have applied for waivers and conducted data collection or reporting activities in 2022 due to disruptions caused by the COVID–19 pandemic. This information collection would request MRS data for surveys conducted between 2019 and 2022 from all states and the District of Columbia. Data requested would have already been collected by each state to meet federal regulations; no new data collection obligation is created. The Department of Labor would reconcile measures for uniformity across the states and geography would be standardized at the county level to be able to combine these data for analysis with county characteristics that are publicly available from the American Community Survey. The resulting database (NDCP) would be evaluated to protect respondent confidentiality, implementing proper disclosure avoidance techniques in counties with small samples. The database would be made available to the public as a research tool to understand childcare prices at the county level and changes in childcare prices over time.
NDCP:
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/wb/topics/featured-childcare
Draft technical documentation:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/r3t1hw40yv82wkkjep7h1/redrafticrrequestnationaldatabaseofchildcarepric.zip?rlkey=qzbwqj7gh2rige218s0h70cb0&dl=0
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2023-14211
