In this brief, the authors explore methodological considerations for linking the Child Care Development Fund Policies Database to the National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) to answer research questions such as Are Higher Subsidy Payment Rates and Provider-Friendly Payment Policies Associated with Child Care Quality? They focus on the challenges and solutions of transforming administrative subsidy policy elements and subsidy rates into variables for statistical modeling, and analyzing them in conjunction with the NSECE to answer questions of interest to child care subsidy policy-makers.