CEELO has developed the Cost of Preschool Quality & Revenue (CPQ&R) calculator, a free Excel-based tool, to help users determine costs and funding sources related to implementing high-quality preschool programs. The CPQ&R can inform funding allocations by estimating costs of expansion and quality enhancements to identify trade-offs on quality and access associated with different pre-K policy options.
CEELO State Administrative Cost of Quality (SACQ) budget planning tool helps users generate data on the functions and costs of the state infrastructure to implement, monitor and sustain quality of early childhood programs. SACQ can be integrated into the CPQ&R to determine costs and funding sources related to implementing high-quality preschool programs. Learn how New Mexico and Washington State used SACQ.
Both CPQ&R and SACQ are free to use after completing either the CPQ&R licensing agreement or the SACQ licensing agreement, and the user request questionnaire.
Below you will find links to useful resources for the CPQ&R: Background Information, User Guide, Communications Toolkit, and Additional Resources.
CPQ&R Background Information
CPQ&R User Guide
This is the “how to section” for learning more about entering data and producing cost estimates that are customized to your specific goals. We recommend printing the CPQ&R User Guide and keeping it “by your side” as you manipulate and enter data in the CPQ&R. The Before You Start document and the Data Checklist (MSword) are also helpful to review before you start entering data.
CPQ&R Communications Toolkit
Go to the Toolkit
Resources here will help users present cost and revenue data from CPQ&R in a variety of communication formats. The toolkit offers talking points, quotes from national experts, resources for more information, and graphics, along with printable handouts.
CPQ&R Additional Resources
- Two Sides of the Coin: Costs and Financing High Quality Early Learning, shares what we are learning about using cost data to inform and drive policy decisions on financing high-quality early learning programs. CEELO’s Lori Connors-Tadros ,GG Weisenfeld, Theresa Hawley, Illinois Action for Children, and Nasha Patel, LA Department of Education. (July 2018, Presentation QRIS National Meeting)
- Determining Costs of Preschool Quality in Kentucky, describes how Kentucky and the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence validated estimates that reflect the cost of providing preschool and child care across Kentucky at various levels of quality. The data collection methods, including use of the CPQ&R, and the cost findings are summarized. (May 2018, CPQ&R Spotlight)
- This CPQ&R FAQ addresses common concerns to help you get going sooner rather than later.
- Modifying the CPQ&R for your specific goals.
- Creating Graphics with the data produced by the cost projections of the CPQ&R, and as illustrated in the Communications Toolkit.
- Checking Assumptions and Cost Projections for Reasonableness.
- Additional Training and Technical Assistance Opportunities for using the CPQ&R are available.
- Webinar: Why Understanding the Costs of Preschool Quality is Important. This webinar demonstrates the use of the Cost of Preschool Quality Tool (CPQ). (July 2016, Webinar)
- Data is Our Friend: Understanding the Costs of Quality – presentation on using the Cost of Preschool Quality and Revenue tool to get good data on costs of high quality early learning programs to drive policy decisions. (CCSSO-SCASS, February 2018)
