Child Care Rate Setting: Using Cost Data to Inform More Equitable Subsidy Payment Rates

States, territories, and tribes actively seek to ensure family access to child care and child care provider access to subsidized payment rates to support them in serving children and families. The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), a core part of the child care market, allows flexibility in its implementation by states, territories, and tribes. This flexibility supports access and quality and ensures that families whose child care is covered by subsidy funding have the same experience selecting and accessing it as families who are not eligible to receive child care assistance. This brief discusses the role policies related to subsidy-rate-setting can play in supporting equitable access for families and equity in funding amounts of reimbursement rates.