• Numbers 1 to 999999
• 0 when none served
• - (dash) when data applies but is not available

Guidance: Element 5, Column (A) is the average number of hours of child care services provided per child per month regardless of category/type of child care.

One method to calculate the average number of hours of care per child per month:

1. Calculate the total number of hours of care for month X (for example, January)
2. Calculate the total number of children served during month X
3. Divide the total number of hours from step 1 by the total number of children from step 2 to get the average number of hours of care provided per child for month X
4. Do steps 1 - 3 for each month services are provided
5. Add together each of the monthly totals to get a sum
6. Divide the sum from step 5 by the total number of months services are provided during the year to get the average number of hours care provided per child per month

Some Tribal Lead Agencies do not pay for (or keep records for) the actual number of hours of service per child. Rather, they reimburse by "full" or "part" days of service (or other increments). Such Tribal Lead Agencies can still calculate the average number of hours of child care per child per month by multiplying the average number of full and part days by the maximum number of hours of service that these definitions represent.

For example, if a Tribal Lead Agency defines a part day as 4 hours per day or fewer, the Tribal Lead Agency would multiply the number of part days provided per month by four. Full days can be similarly converted.

When data are applicable but not available, provide a footnote in the comment section explaining when the missing data will be submitted. Tribal Lead Agencies should also describe in a footnote how they calculated the average number of hours.