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64 | P a g e FFY 2025–2027 CCDF State Plan
The Lead Agency must make this report widely available no later than 30 days after completion of the report, including posting the results on the Lead Agency website. The Lead Agency must describe in the detailed report how the Lead Agency took into consideration the views and comments of the public or stakeholders prior to conducting the MRS or ACF pre-approved alternative methodology. a. Describe how the Lead Agency made the results of the market rate survey or ACF pre-approved alternative methodology report widely available to the public by responding to the questions below. i. Provide the date the report was completed: 5/29/2024 ii. Provide the date the report containing results was made widely available (no later than 30 days after the completion of the report): 6/3/2024 iii. Provide a link to the website where the report is posted and describe any other strategies the Lead Agency uses to make the detailed report widely available: Market Rate Study for child care pricing: https://www.decal.ga.gov/documents/attachments/GeorgiaChildCareMarketRate sSummarywithAppendices.pdf Evaluation of the cost of child care: https://www.decal.ga.gov/BftS/CostofCare.aspx
In addition to posting these resources on the Lead Agency's website, the Lead Agency held 3 webinars during July and August of 2024 regarding the changes to rates and other policies. During each webinar, these resources were mentioned along with directions on how to locate these resources on the Lead Agency's website. iv. Describe how the Lead Agency considered partner views and comments in the detailed report. Responses should include which partners were engaged and how partner input influenced the market rate survey or alternative methodology: The Lead Agency is solely responsible for all CCDF activities in the State of Georgia and for its current Market Rate Study and Total Cost Study. The lead agency did not consider the views and comments of other state agencies since they have no direct role in CCDF administration. The Lead Agency considered the views of early childhood and education advocates in that that the data collected represented the largest number of providers possible. In terms of those representing child care providers, some feedback was received asking the Lead Agency should reconsider the counties assigned to each market rate zone. This feedback did not inform the development and execution of the Market Rate Study because the Study was already established to conduct that analysis. Ultimately, no immediate action was made to re-assign counties to new market rate zones, but the analysis pointed to the possible need to revisit the original criteria for the zone and conduct further evaluation. The lead agency has initiated that work in advance of the next Market Rate Study. For both early childhood and education advocates and child care provider advocates, in addition to showing rates for each market rate zone for licensed centers and licensed family homes, the final report responded to the desire to see how market prices varied by factors such as Child Care and Parent Services (CAPS) participation and Quality Rated (QR) participation and rating,