Non Sub Justification of Changes to Letter

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Justification for Non-Material Change to OMB Control Number 1290-0025

Women’s Bureau requests a non-material change to OMB Control No. 1290-0025 for data collection for the National Database of Childcare Prices (NDCP). These changes are requested to facilitate completion of a new round of data collection and do not affect the scope, methodology, or respondent burden. 

No burden is requested to be changed in this non-substantive change request.

Background

The NDCP is a comprehensive federal source of county-level childcare prices, and it currently provides comprehensive data for the years 2008 through 2021. 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. MRS provide market prices for 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. Because MRS data are retained by states, metrics and reporting standards vary, resulting in inconsistent and often inaccessible data. The NDCP addresses these gaps by standardizing and aggregating the state data, thereby providing a comprehensive, publicly accessible resource for childcare prices. 

MRS are currently collected in three-year cycles. The most recently completed MRS data collection cycle reflects the years 2022 through 2024. This information collection would request MRS data for surveys conducted between 2022 and 2024 from all states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Changes Requested to Letter

Women’s Bureau requests minor changes for states to update contact information for the person responsible for responding to questions about the data collection and for the Agency Heads who are sending the communication as well as to update the dates requested for the survey data. This non-substantive change requests the following: 

    • Change from double to single spacing between paragraphs and after sentences. 
    • Change font to Times New Roman.
    • Update background text to reflect changes in Administration priorities. 
    • Update Agency Heads to [Name] for the Women’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor and [Name] for the Office of Child Care, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
    • Update contact information for the agency contact at the Women’s Bureau.
    • Change the data collection period from 2019-2021 (which was collected in 2024) to 2022-2024 (to be collected in 2026). 
    • Update letter to reflect collecting cost-based data in lieu of price data for states that conduct surveys using a pre-approved, cost-based alternative methodology. 
    • Remove references to supplemental COVID-19 data collection, as these are no longer relevant to the current data collection cycle.


“3. If your state conducted any COVID-19 pandemic supplemental surveys to develop supplemental reports, please submit these reports.  Submit a report using the following naming convention:  MRSCOVIDREPORT_XXXX [where XXXX = the year study was published].
4. If any supplemental COVID-19 reports do not include prices for each county, upload the extant data file(s) that were used to develop the price estimates, if available.   Upload a separate file for each year of data to the secure link created for your state in an Excel format or other file format that can be converted to Excel.  Upload the data for each year using the following naming convention:  MRSCOVIDDATA_XXXX [where XXXX = year study was published].”