Justification for Non-Material Change to OMB 1290-0025

Justification for Non-Material Change to OMB 1290-0025

This memo requests a non-material change to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) package previously approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB Control No. 1290-0025) for data collection for the National Database of Childcare Prices. These changes are requested as a result of updated internal formatting requirements for external contact materials.

Background

Since 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Women’s Bureau has hosted National Database of Childcare Prices (NDCP). The NDCP is the most comprehensive federal source of childcare prices at the county level and it currently provides data for the years 2008 through 2018. The NDCP is based on data collected by each state in their childcare market rate surveys (MRS). State-administered MRS are conducted by state human services or workforce development offices (i.e., Lead Agencies) according to federal regulations to receive Child Care and Development Block Grants (CCDBG). MRS provide market prices of various types of child care (e.g., center-based, home-based) by age of children (e.g., infants, toddlers, preschoolers, school-age children) and by geography. MRS are used to establish reimbursement rates for childcare subsidies. MRS sample eligible centers and care providers in the priced market and obtain the full market price of care. MRS data are a rich source of local childcare price data. However, these data are not reported to the federal government and they are retained by the states. As a result, reporting metrics are not standardized across states and some of the data is not accessible to the public.

MRS are currently collected in three-year cycles. The most current MRS data collection cycle reflects the years 2019 through 2021. Some states may have applied for waivers and conducted data collection or reporting activities in 2022 due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This information collection would request MRS data for surveys conducted between 2019 and 2022 from all states and the District of Columbia.

On January 2, 2024, OMB approved the new information collection request (ICR) for state MRS.

Change Requests

DOL requests minor changes to the contact materials for states, to accommodate for internal changes in formatting. This non-substantive change requests the following:

• Remove “Office of the Secretary” on the header of each contact letter to states.

• Change from single to double spacing between paragraphs and after sentences.

The contact materials have been updated and provided in this package.

These requested non-substantive changes do not require any changes to the burden estimates.