Child Care Market Rate Survey Project: Oregon Resource and Referral Administrative Data Update, 2006

Starting with the Family Support Act of 1988, requirements for federal funding stipulate that child care subsidy rates be informed by market rates. In 1990 the federal government began a major investment in child care with the passage of the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990. Support of parental choice was a key component of this new block grant program that sent new money to states to support child care. Parental choice and state control of policy remained central when the program was expanded in 1996 as a part of welfare reform legislation. At that time, child care funding became known as the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF).
States are required by the CCDF Final Rule to ensure that families receiving child
care assistance have equal access to comparable care purchased by private-paying parents. A market rate survey (MRS) is a tool States use to achieve this program objective. Some States conduct surveys to collect the child care market rate and others use administrative data, such as data collected by child care resource and referral (CCR&R) and State licensing agencies, to analyze the market rate for child care.
This survey was one strategy used to collect child care market price
data. Comparing findings garnered from different methods allows one
to evaluate whether different data collection methods produce different
price findings (convergent validity) and how well these data collection
methods represent the child care market (criterion-related validity). These
data can also be used to explore several validity issues of concern with
market price studies.
The major areas of investigation in this survey include child care prices
by type of care, geographic location, and price mode (hourly, daily,
weekly, monthly). Other areas of investigation include capacity by age
group, additional fees facilities charge, whether they care for subsidized
children, and what affects the prices that they charge parents.