Coordinated Evaluations of Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Policies and Initiatives | HHS 2021 ACF OPRE YE 1901

Opportunity Information: Apply for HHS 2021 ACF OPRE YE 1901

The Coordinated Evaluations of Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Policies and Initiatives Planning Grants (Phase I) is a federal funding opportunity from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). It is designed to help CCDF Lead Agencies partner with researchers to plan rigorous, policy-relevant evaluations of child care subsidy policies that aim to improve low-income families' access to high-quality child care. The central idea is to move beyond descriptive studies and instead build strong evaluation designs that can credibly test whether specific subsidy policy approaches actually change access, provider participation, family affordability, or other key outcomes.

This opportunity focuses specifically on two major levers in subsidy systems: (1) how subsidy payment rates are set and implemented, and (2) how family co-payments are structured. Applicants are expected to examine local policies and practices in these areas, with the goal of designing evaluations that can determine how different approaches to payment rates and co-pays affect families and the child care market. For example, projects might explore questions such as whether higher or differently structured provider payment rates increase the supply of high-quality providers willing to accept subsidies, or whether certain co-payment structures reduce financial barriers and improve continuity of care for children in subsidized settings. While the grant does not fund full-scale impact evaluations yet, it funds the intensive planning work needed to make those evaluations feasible and rigorous.

Awards are made as cooperative agreements, which typically means OPRE expects substantial involvement and collaboration during the project period rather than a hands-off grant relationship. Phase I awards run for 18 months and support a single planning project and budget period. The deliverable at the end of the planning period is a well-developed evaluation plan, including refined research questions, study design, analytic approach, data strategy, and operational protocols that position the team to launch an evaluation. OPRE indicates that this planning phase may be followed by a separate Phase II funding competition, under a different funding opportunity announcement, to support carrying out the evaluation plans developed in Phase I.

A key requirement is that projects must be built as true partnerships between CCDF Lead Agencies and research partners. Eligible Lead Agencies include states, territories, tribes, or local agencies that administer child care subsidies, and research partners must come from institutions of higher education or research organizations. The funding announcement emphasizes collaboration "from start to finish," meaning the agency and researchers are expected to jointly develop the research plan, align it with policy and operational realities, and ensure the evaluation design is both rigorous and usable for decision-making. In practice, this typically involves shared governance, clear roles and responsibilities, and ongoing engagement so the evaluation is relevant to the agency's policy context while still meeting high research standards.

In addition to individual project planning, grantees are expected to participate in a broader consortium of funded teams. This consortium will meet and communicate regularly to coordinate where possible and strengthen the overall knowledge base. Coordination topics may include using common data elements, aligning outcome measures, sharing methodological approaches, and developing shared resources that benefit all projects. The intent is to increase research capacity not only within each funded partnership, but also across the field, so findings and methods can be compared or synthesized more effectively across different jurisdictions and policy environments.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary funding opportunity (CFDA 93.575) in the Income Security and Social Services category. The funding opportunity number is HHS-2021-ACF-OPRE-YE-1901. OPRE anticipated making about 15 awards, with an award ceiling of $150,000 per project for the 18-month planning period. The opportunity was originally posted on June 4, 2021, with an application deadline of July 20, 2021 (11:59 p.m. Eastern Time for electronic submissions). Eligibility is listed as unrestricted, but the practical eligibility is shaped by the requirement that projects be conducted through a formal partnership between a CCDF Lead Agency (or local subsidy administrator) and an eligible research entity.

Overall, this grant program is structured to help jurisdictions and researchers do the hard upfront work required for credible evaluation: selecting policies to test, ensuring the policy variation or implementation strategy can support an evaluation, securing and linking administrative or survey data, addressing privacy and human subjects considerations, defining measurable outcomes, and designing methods that can distinguish policy effects from other changes happening at the same time. The longer-term aim is to generate actionable evidence about how subsidy payment rate strategies and family co-payment approaches can be designed to expand access to high-quality child care for low-income families, while also building a coordinated set of studies that can inform both local program improvement and federal policy discussions.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families - OPRE in the income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Coordinated Evaluations of Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Policies and Initiatives" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.575.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 04, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 20, 2021 Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 1159 p.m., ET, on the listed application due date.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $150,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 15 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for HHS 2021 ACF OPRE YE 1901

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