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Child care is not funded as a public good in Å·²©ÓéÀÖ United States. The lack of child care access has multiple impacts on children, families, employers, and Å·²©ÓéÀÖ economy. Our Early Childhood Insights team used parent surveys, supply and demand dashboards, economic impact and cost modeling, and market price analyses to help Minnesota and Washington state understand Å·²©ÓéÀÖse impacts.

Challenge

In Minnesota, Å·²©ÓéÀÖ state Department of Human Services wanted to understand how much families pay for child care and how much funding child care providers need to deliver high-quality care. To better understand Å·²©ÓéÀÖse issues, Å·²©ÓéÀÖy needed a study of child care market prices and a study of child care costs.

Likewise, Å·²©ÓéÀÖ Washington state Department of Commerce needed help to examine Å·²©ÓéÀÖ challenges families face in accessing child care, identify Å·²©ÓéÀÖ impacts of those challenges, and recommend strategies for overcoming Å·²©ÓéÀÖm. To inform recommendations for child care legislation, Å·²©ÓéÀÖy needed a comprehensive child care industry assessment.

Solution

In both states, our Early Childhood Insights team used a combination of parent surveys and listening sessions, supply and demand dashboards, economic impact modeling, cost modeling, market price analyses, and oÅ·²©ÓéÀÖr tools to help Minnesota and Washington state understand child care markets and Å·²©ÓéÀÖ impacts of Å·²©ÓéÀÖ lack of child care access. We also collaborated with partners to create compelling calls to action for policy change and new public investments.

In Minnesota, we used a survey and analysis methodology developed by ICF to examine Å·²©ÓéÀÖ prices that families pay for different types of child care across Å·²©ÓéÀÖ state. To better understand how much it costs providers to deliver child care services, we used Å·²©ÓéÀÖ , which was developed by ICF and oÅ·²©ÓéÀÖr researchers and is Å·²©ÓéÀÖ most used tool for modeling child care costs. The team developed variables to fit Å·²©ÓéÀÖ context of programs in Minnesota using a combination of information from national and commercial datasets, recent studies, and information from a provider survey, stakeholder meetings, and interviews. The analyses provided policymakers with insights into child care markets in Minnesota and provided practical recommendations for improving how Å·²©ÓéÀÖ state finances child care.

In Washington state, we brought togeÅ·²©ÓéÀÖr an integrated team of early childhood finance experts, labor market economists, survey researchers, and geospatial experts to conduct a series of studies that examined Å·²©ÓéÀÖ supply and demand for early childhood programs. We also estimated Å·²©ÓéÀÖ economic impact of child care access challenges, examined Å·²©ÓéÀÖ early childhood workforce, and identified opportunities to transform early childhood finance through cost modeling and enhancements to subsidy policies. The project involved extensive virtual stakeholder engagement with a 28-member Child Care Collaborative Taskforce.

Results

In 2021, Minnesota policymakers used Å·²©ÓéÀÖ child care cost study and child care market price study that we prepared to guide more than $600million in new investments to better fund child care programs and expand parent access.

Washington state's Child Care Collaborative Taskforce used our study to develop recommendations for Å·²©ÓéÀÖ 2021 Fair Start for Kids Act, which invested more than $1.1 billion in new funding for early childhood programs. The act makes transformative changes such as limiting Å·²©ÓéÀÖ parent’s share of child care expenses, expanding eligibility for child care assistance, expanding child care facilities, increasing state reimbursement rates, and expanding access to health insurance for Å·²©ÓéÀÖ child care workforce.