Federal Child Care and Development Fund regulations require states to conduct Market Rate Surveys every two years, to ensure that rates are adequate and provide access to all children. The object of this Market Rate Survey for Washington State DEL is to collect data regarding child care subsidies, as well as gathering and analyzing other elements of Federally-funded child care service provision. This information will be collected by conducting a county-level phone survey, that captures specific elements such as: 1) current rates of child care centers and family child care homes; 2) numbers of slots; 3) numbers of subsidized slots; 4) current vacancy for all age groups; and 5) current vacancy by infants, toddlers, preschoolers and school age as defined by licensing standards. WRMA will conduct the survey in both Spanish and English.

The report will include a description of the data gathered from the Market Rate Survey and an analysis of this data correlated with DEL’s two subsidy policy studies and The Child Care Resource and Referral Early Learning Data Report. The report will also support DEL in addressing the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee requirement by providing recommendations for increasing access and affordability of child care in the State.