Table 6 : Non-personnel expenses Expense Category
Education Program Expenses
Occupancy
Program Management and Administration
Child Care Center – Annual Amount
$ 2,199 per child $ 19,089 per classroom $ 365 per child
Family Child Care Home – Annual Amount
$ 1,080 per child $ 6,512 per home $ 524 per child
In addition to these expenses , the model also includes a 5 % contribution to an operating reserve , a practice that contributes to long-term financial sustainability , and helps programs survive unexpected interruptions to their revenue or unanticipated one-time expenses .
Revenue For the purposes of understanding the sufficiency of current revenue streams to support the cost of quality child care , the model includes revenue data . The following revenue data are included allowing the user to compare estimated costs to potential revenue :
Child Care Subsidy – federal Child Care and Development Block Grant funding Working Connections Child Care ( WCCC ) subsidy rate data are used for center and
homebased settings , and include
quality differentials for Early Achievers levels . The model uses the most recently implemented market rates as of August 2022 , which are based on the 85th percentile of the 2018 market rate survey . Because the WCCC subsidy regions are different from the Child Care Aware of Washington regions used for the cost analysis , users must select which subsidy region to use for comparing cost to subsidy rates . Users can also choose an Early Achievers level to include the higher WCCC rates for programs that have reached different Early Achievers levels .
Private tuition Tuition data are included in the model based on the
2021 market rate study . The model uses the 85th percentile of the market rate as the tuition amount to align with where DCYF sets WCCC subsidy rates . Users must select which market region to use for comparing cost to market tuition , given that the market rate study regions are different from the Child Care Aware of Washington regions used for the cost analysis .
Child and Adult Care Food Program The cost-estimation model accounts for revenue from the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program , or CACFP . The federal food program reimburses providers for meals served to children , with different rates based on family eligibility . The
most recent CACFP rates are included , and the model assumes that all children eligible for a subsidy are also eligible for CACFP .
Adjustments to Anticipated Revenue The model takes into account how providers operate . No program is always 100 % full and as such the model adjusts the expected revenue to account for classrooms not operating at full capacity . By default , this enrollment efficiency is set at 85 %, which is the industry standard , meaning that the cost per child calculations are based on the program needing to cover its expenses when only collecting revenue from 85 % of the total licensed capacity .
In addition , the model also accounts for uncollected , or bad , debt . This reflects the reality that programs are not always able to collect full tuition
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