Child Care Policy Research Partnerships: Effects of CCDF Provider and Family Friendly Policies

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Child Care Policy Research Partnership (CCPRP) awards will support research partnerships between Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agencies in states, territories, or tribes and organizations with demonstrated research capacity. Funded projects are expected to pursue research questions of current relevance to the CCDF Lead Agency partner and add to the broader knowledge base about the efficacy of child care subsidy policies.This iteration of the CCPRP awards prioritizes rigorous evaluations of CCDF provider and family friendly policies in states, territories, or tribes implemented in response to the 2024 CCDF Final Rule, including new flexibilities for Tribes. There is a particular interest in understanding whether and how these policy changes help working families afford child care and support child care quality, stability and accessibility in communities. Specifically, this program seeks to support evaluations of whether and to what extent family and provider friendly policies implemented in response to the 2024 CCDF Final Rule resulted in the intended outcomes: lower child care costs for families; increase child care options for families; easier and faster subsidy enrollment for families; more stabilizing provider payment practices; provider payments aligned to costs; and easier for providers to participate in the subsidy system.Sponsored projects will be expected to participate in a consortium that will meet and communicate regularly to identify opportunities for coordination, such as common data elements and research methods, and to develop collective expertise and resources for the field. The consortium’s collaboration will support research capacity and learning within individual projects and across recipients.This opportunity will fund up to eight 5-year cooperative agreements. The first year will be a planning period. Each year will have a $400,000 award ceiling.For further information about prior awards made for CCPRP, see https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/project/child-care-policy-research-partnerships-1995-2023