The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014 requires states administering child care assistance programs to certify that provider payment rates are sufficient to ensure that children eligible for assistance have equal access to comparable child care services provided to children who are ineligible for CCDBG. Provider payment rates must be set using at least one of two methods: 1) a statistically valid market rate survey or 2) a pre-approved alternative methodology.   

Recognizing the urgent need for a new, innovative approach to establishing public payment rates, the General Assembly directed the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) to develop a methodology to estimate the actual cost of providing high-quality early childhood services in community settings, and to use this methodology to establish public payment rates for early childhood care and education (ECCE) providers in community-based settings. This directive—included in the 2022 Special Session I Budget—also specified that the methodology should meet the federal requirements for alternative methodologies as described in the CCDBG Act of 2014. 

This report summarizes Virginia’s approach to developing the alternative methodology, provides an overview of the cost estimation model and results, and how payment rates were determined for CCSP vendors. The report also provides a description of Virginia’s plans to evaluate the impact of the revised payment rates for providers in the CCSP. 

• Estimating the Cost of High-Quality Early Childhood Care and Education

Links to archived reports from previous years are also provided below.

• Virginia's Child Care Subsidy Program: 2018 market rate survey report