What is a county ceiling rate and how is it determined?
The county ceiling rate is the maximum amount that the Department of Public Welfare will pay a provider caring for a child from a family receiving state financial assistance (subsidy) in a particular county. Child Care Information Service (CCIS) organizations survey child care providers for the DPW every year. Part of the survey asks about how much the child care provider charges private fee paying parents to care for their children. That price is then documented by county and by type of service (infant, toddler, preschool, etc.). The next step involves finding the 75th percentile in each service type. That price then becomes the market rate for care in the county and is “tagged” as the county ceiling rate. Setting a subsidy rate at the 75th percentile means identifying the rate at or below which at least 75 percent of the providers in a category charge. To determine the 75th percentile, all of the market rates are collected in a category and are ranked from highest to lowest. The rate
