New on First Five Nebraska’s website are English and Spanish versions of the fiscal analysis for Nebraska’s Child Care Cost Model. The analysis outlines development of the cost model, which began in 2020 with an advisory workgroup comprised of child care providers and representatives from the Nebraska Departments of Education and Health and Human Services. The group developed a quality frame that guided the model’s development, and included ratios, salary and benefits, qualifications, family engagement, professional development supports, child health and development and more.
Providers offered input
To ensure as many child care providers as possible were directly included, a series of provider input sessions were held in 2023 to gather specific information on challenges of running their businesses, including staffing and quality and their needs for additional support. More than 110 providers in 31 Nebraska counties participated in these sessions, with 54% of them being family child care home providers.
Providers overwhelmingly said their biggest challenges were finding qualified staff and their inability to pay competitive salaries and benefits. “It is nearly impossible to find part-time staff to work when fast food places are paying higher wages across the street,” said a center director in Kearney. Other topics covered in the provider sessions were markers of quality, the importance of staff-child relationships, the need for additional parent education to ensure best practices are continued at home and the increasing need for support in helping meet a family’s basic needs, like diapers or food.
Model estimates cost of providing care
The Nebraska Child Care Cost model estimates the cost of child care under various scenarios, providing insight into the impact of different policy and programmatic decisions. It accounts for all aspects of business operations for both centers and family child care settings and can run different scenarios considering factors that impact the cost of providing care, such as licensing requirements, staff training, salary and benefits, quality variables like curriculum and supplies, family engagement ratios and size of the facility. The model makes it possible to compare the estimated cost of care to current subsidy reimbursement rates.
Learn more about Nebraska’s Child Care Cost Model
Read more the cost model fiscal analysis in English and Spanish
Test drive the cost model
