Background

The Office of Child & Family Services (OCFS) administers the Child Care Market Rate Survey to all licensed child care providers across the State every three years. For this cycle, OCFS has partnered with Burns & Associates, Inc. (a division of Health Management Associates), a national consulting firm, to assist with the administration of the survey.

Survey Instrument and Cash Card Drawing

The 2021 Child Care Market Rate Survey is open from October 5, 2020 through January 29, 2021 (extended from December 24, 2020). The survey, which is a fillable PDF file, can be downloaded from the following link:

  • Child Care Facility/ Small Facility: 2021 Child Care Market Rate Survey (download)
  • Family Child Care Providers: 2021 Child Care Market Rate Survey (download)

Providers are advised to save the survey under a different name (e.g., your site name), and check that the information you enter is saved prior to submitting the survey.

Participation in the survey is critical in ensuring CCSP reimbursement rates remain current, and we sincerely appreciate your time and commitment in completing the survey. To demonstrate our appreciation, providers completing the survey within the following timeframes will be entered in a drawing for the following:

  • Providers submitting the survey by October 20, 2020 will be entered into all three drawings.
  • Providers submitting the survey by October 27, 2020 will be entered in a drawing to receive a $500 Visa gift card
  • Providers submitting the survey by November 11, 2020 will be entered in a drawing to receive a $200 Visa gift card
  • Providers submitting the survey by November 25, 2020 will be entered in a drawing to receive a $100

Visa gift card Drawings will take place the first business day after the dates described above. The winner of each drawing will be contacted by B&A staff to determine where to send the gift card.

COVID-19 Considerations

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on provider operations and families seeking child care. While it is uncertain when child care operations will return to ‘normal,’ it is important that information gathered through the survey are not influenced by the impacts of the pandemic. Question 4 provides space for providers to communicate the ways in which COVID-19 has impacted their program, although this information will not be taken into account when determining market rates.

For all other questions, the survey requests information to be reported based on your last full fiscal year ending on or before March 31, 2020. When reporting private pay rates and information about capacity and enrollment, report the information as of the last day of your fiscal year. For example, if the site operates on the calendar fiscal year, report information covering January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019. If the site operates on the State fiscal year, report information covering July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019. Similarly, cost-based information should reflect only the costs incurred in your last full fiscal year which ended on or before March 31, 2020.

Assistance with the Survey

If you have a question about the survey or need any additional assistance, you may use either of the following contacts for support:

Saving and Submitting the Survey

As you are completing the survey, we advise that you periodically save the survey to a location that you can easily access in case you need time to gather additional information and wish to close and later return to your survey. Additionally, it is important to read each question and any accompanying instructions carefully. Providers should attempt to complete all relevant questions. If a question does not apply to the site, or accurate information cannot be reported, providers may skip the question.

Partially-completed surveys are still accepted. When you have completed your survey, please email it as an attachment to [email protected]. We are requesting all completed surveys to be submitted by January 29, 2021.