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58 | P a g e FFY 2025–2027 CCDF State Plan

Licensing standards identify only the minimum requirements for metrics of potential interest to cost modeling. Quality Rated indicators are not mandates, and providers do not have to meet the scoring thresholds on any structural quality indicator (e.g., group size) to achieve a higher rating. Furthermore, a previous Quality Rated Validation Study conducted by the Lead Agency found that the scores earned by providers on structural quality indicators￿those most strongly associated with child care costs￿ were not strongly correlated with their final quality rating. A previous Economic Impact Study conducted on behalf of the Lead Agency included data (collected by survey) that questioned the validity in applying published BLS statistics to Georgia’s private child care providers and their workers. BLS data is neither collected or reported in a manner that would inform wages exclusive to private child care centers and account for variations by region (below the state level); nor is it available in any form for family home providers and their workers. These concerns led the Lead Agency to engage in a strategic planning process for its cost modeling efforts in early 2022. The strategic plan identified two internal data sources that could be used to improve the quality of cost model assumptions. The first was the Lead Agency’s most recent (at the time) market rate survey in 2021, for which it received responses from more than 2,800 providers including information pertaining to their operating structure (hours of operation, number of classrooms by age group, single or multiple sites under management). The second, and more compelling internal data source was the Lead Agency’s Quality Rated information system, which recorded structural quality indicator measurements for each rating issued, including but not limited to, observed group size and child-adult ratios, staff education credentials, and annual training hours. All providers participating in child care subsidy program are required to participate in Quality Rated, and a total of 2,712 providers (representing 11,863 classrooms) were included in the data set analyzed by the Lead Agency. With guidance from its strategic plan, in late 2022 (and through the summer of 2023), the Lead Agency engaged in a series of surveys with providers to address key assumptions in the cost model not addressed by the market rate survey or Quality Rated data. The Lead Agency was able to leverage its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) stabilization subgrant program, STABLE 4ward, in this regard by requiring participating providers to submit quarterly reports, including responses to survey questions about their unit costs and primary cost drivers. Furthermore, because the reports were collected quarterly, the Lead Agency was able to vary the information it requested from providers in each period. 3,677 providers participated in STABLE 4ward, representing more than 34,000 active child care workers in Georgia. The Lead Agency was able to collect hourly wage and education credentials for these workers; identify staffing levels for non-teaching staff as a function of facility size; gather information on employee benefits, occupancy costs, and the cost to provide child meals; and obtain information specifically from FCCLH providers to establish their effective hourly wage in a manner commensurate with the wage treatment of hourly staff employed at CCLCs. This information addresses unit costs for most of the expenses incurred by providers.

While licensed-exempt and informal caregivers are allowed to participate in the subsidy program under certain conditions, their availability as an option to families should not mean that they should be considered an influential part of the total cost study. These programs typically care for less than 1.5% of all children in care in the subsidy program. For licensed-exempt providers to participate, they must be either government owned and operated or a seasonal camp for school aged children. An informal caregiver can also