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APPENDIX A. Market Rate Survey Provider Letter: 2023

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES DIVISION OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND EARLY EDUCATION

ROY COOPER KODY KINSLEY GOVERNOR SECRETARY

ARIEL FORD DIRECTOR Child Care Market Rate Survey 2023 Page | 44

September 5, 2023

Dear Child Care Provider:

Once again it is time for completion of the Child Care Market Rate Survey. Staff members from the Center for Urban Affairs and Community Services (CUACS) at North Carolina State University will be contacting you for information on the rates you charge for child care services. The results of this survey will be used in a confidential manner to make recommendations for payment rates for subsidized child care in North Carolina.

Please complete this survey as soon as possible by visiting https://survey.ncsu.edu/childcare to submit your response online. If you are not able to complete the online survey, you are also given the option of requesting to complete the survey by telephone by returning the enclosed postcard. If your facility’s survey response is not submitted in either of these ways you may be contacted via telephone as a follow-up, to assure the most complete response possible from providers. However, to assist with a faster and less expensive effort overall, we ask that you please do all you can to respond and submit the survey online as soon as possible.

How will the results of this survey help you and other child care providers? Survey results provide recommendations for the development of rates for subsidized child care that reflect the current market. Your survey answers provide extremely valuable information for the Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE). This data helps determine where existing market rates are inconsistent with the price of care in the private market and helps make the case for keeping subsidy reimbursement rates in line with private pay rates. Over the past decade, Child Care Subsidy Assistance market rates have been updated based on results from survey data.

Survey results support the continuation of higher subsidy rates for higher quality care. Since the star rated license was first implemented, child care providers have continued to move to higher star levels of licensure. To ensure that subsidy payment rates accurately reflect the private rates charged for higher levels of licensure and quality, the Division needs your input. Market rate information helps the Division recommend fair payment rates for child care providers offering higher quality care who participate in the subsidized child care program.