The Nebraska Child Care Cost Model is essential to understanding the costs incurred by providers in our current system and the revenues available to them. However, it is not intended to serve as a business planning resource for early childhood professionals who own and/or administer child care programs. Rather, it is meant to inform strategic decisions that will guide our state toward a child care system in which early childhood educators are compensated fairly for the critical role they play in child development, receive the training and skills necessary to meet the demands of the field, and have sufficient program resources to meet the needs of the children they serve. By illuminating the true cost of delivering child care in Nebraska, the cost model can help us develop a more sustainable early childhood infrastructure and better support parents in the choices they make about the care and development of their youngest children. (author abstract)