The Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) engaged CELFE to 1) study and develop a model to understand the cost of providing child care in the Commonwealth, and 2) use this research to provide recommendations on the child care financial assistance (often referred to as child care subsidy) rate structure and other strategies for improving the child care funding system to address challenges such as improving child care affordability, raising compensation for the child care workforce, and ensuring access to high quality child care across the Commonwealth. Massachusetts joins a small but growing number of states that are completing in-depth studies of the cost of child care to inform their child care funding policy. CELFE made recommendations on next steps for research on the cost of child care in the Commonwealth and suggested implications EEC might consider as they use the results of this current research to inform the future development of their funding system for early childhood education and care.