Child Care Policy Research Partnerships: Evaluating Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agencies’ Consumer Education Strategies

forecasted

The Child Care Policy Research Partnerships: Evaluating Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agencies’ Consumer Education Strategies funding opportunity will support research partnerships between state, territory, and tribal CCDF Lead Agencies and institutions with demonstrated research capacity to rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of lead agencies’ consumer education strategies that are designed to help parents make informed choices about their children’s early care and education. To ensure that the funded work is timely and relevant, the CCDF Lead Agency and their research partners must collaborate actively throughout all phases of the project.Award recipients will be expected to:(1) Conduct a rigorous summative (i.e., impact) evaluation that uses an experimental approach or an approach that lends itself to strong causal inference. Projects are expected to employ a randomized control trial or a high-quality quasi-experimental design.(2) Engage relevant entities, groups, and/or individuals with lived experience in the research process (e.g., child care resource & referral agencies, parents with young children), as appropriate. This type of engagement can improve the rigor and relevance of ACF research and evaluation, facilitate the uptake of findings, and increase our capacity to promote equity. For more information on OPRE’s expectations for active engagement (see Making Evaluations Rigorous and Relevant, https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/report/making-evaluations-rigorous-and-relevant-role-active-engagement-development-learning).(3) Collaborate with federal staff and participate in a consortium that will meet and communicate regularly to identify opportunities to coordinate, such as using common data elements and research methods, and to develop collective expertise and resources for the field.(4) Disseminate knowledge and insights gained from the evaluations to a broad range of audiences at the local, state, and national levels.Additional Information:(1) The awards will be 5-year cooperative agreements with five 12-month budget periods.(2) The cooperative agreements allow for a 1-year planning period.Funding is subject to availability of funds and the best interests of the federal government. For further information about OPRE, see https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre.