Validating A Tool for Comparing Early Care and Education Program Costs

The CT Early Care and Education Finance Project developed the Tool for Comparing Early Care and Education Program Costs, a tool that estimates the operating cost of center-based early care and education. The Tool is an interactive spreadsheet that estimates the costs of operating a “generic” center or school-based early care and education program for preschool aged children. The primary finding of this study was that regardless of the size of the budget, the number of children served, or staff characteristics — classroom specific workforce costs on average accounted for about 61% of total program costs in this small sample. This finding supports the assumption used by the Tool that classroom-related costs account for 60% of total program costs.