Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agency Data and Research Capacity Grants | HHS 2024 ACF OPRE YE 0080

Opportunity Information: Apply for HHS 2024 ACF OPRE YE 0080

The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agency Data and Research Capacity Grants are a federal funding opportunity from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), specifically the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The program will fund cooperative agreements to help CCDF Lead Agencies strengthen how they gather, manage, connect, and use data to guide child care policy and improve program operations. This is described as a Phase I "planning grant" focused on building a solid foundation for future, more in-depth work to upgrade and use data systems effectively.

At its core, the grant is designed to support formal partnerships between a CCDF Lead Agency (for example, a state, territory, Tribe, or local subsidy administering agency) and one or more experienced research partners, such as universities, research organizations, or other entities with demonstrated policy research expertise. The expectation is that the work is jointly led and genuinely collaborative from start to finish, with both the Lead Agency and researchers shaping priorities, assessing current capacity, and producing a practical research and data plan that the agency can actually use.

Funded projects will spend the planning period assessing the Lead Agency's current data and research capacity and then translating agency priorities into clear, policy-relevant questions about child care policies and practices. Grantees are expected to build logic models that map those questions to specific data needs, identify which data sources already exist (and how accessible they are), and look for additional data sources in other state, territorial, tribal, or local systems that could potentially be linked. A major emphasis is on understanding whether existing administrative data are sufficient for answering key questions or whether new data collection is necessary. Projects also have to directly address practical barriers that commonly prevent agencies from using data well, such as limitations in data quality, gaps in coverage, access constraints, governance and privacy issues, analytic capacity, and obstacles to linking data across systems.

The intended outcome is stronger decision-making capacity within CCDF Lead Agencies, particularly through improved use of data on children, families, the child care workforce, and providers participating in the subsidy system. Rather than funding a full research study right away, these grants fund the planning work needed to create a feasible, detailed research plan that lays out how the agency will identify, link, and use relevant datasets to answer its priority questions and support better policy decisions. The planning grants run for 18 months and are structured as a single project and single budget period. OPRE notes that this Phase I effort may be followed by a separate Phase II competition under a different notice, which would support executing the research plans and potentially making more substantial improvements to data systems.

A key feature of the program is participation in a consortium of awardees. Grantees are expected to meet and communicate regularly with other funded teams to coordinate, share lessons learned, compare approaches to linking data across systems, and surface common facilitators and barriers. The idea is to accelerate learning not only within each individual project, but also across the broader field by developing shared expertise and resources that multiple jurisdictions can use.

From a funding and administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary opportunity using the cooperative agreement mechanism, meaning the federal government will have an active partnership role during the project. The funding opportunity number is HHS-2024-ACF-OPRE-YE-0080, listed under CFDA 93.575. OPRE anticipates making around 10 awards, with an award ceiling of $150,000. The original application closing date listed is July 8, 2024, and awards are explicitly subject to the availability of funds and federal priorities.

Eligibility is described as unrestricted in the sense that many types of organizations can apply, but the program structure effectively requires a CCDF Lead Agency and a qualified research partner working together. Eligible applicant types include state, county, city/township, and special district governments; independent school districts; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public housing authorities; nonprofit organizations (with or without 501(c)(3) status); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses as well as small businesses); and other eligible entities. While a CCDF Lead Agency may partner on multiple applications, OPRE indicates it is unlikely any one lead agency will receive more than one award either as the primary recipient or as a partner, and the same general expectation applies to research partner organizations. Individuals (including sole proprietorships) and foreign entities are not eligible and would be disqualified. Faith-based and community organizations that meet the standard eligibility requirements may apply and will be considered on the same basis as other applicants, with the usual federal nondiscrimination protections and rules applicable to religious character and exercise.

• The Administration for Children and Families - OPRE in the income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agency Data and Research Capacity Grants" 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 2024-05-09.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-07-08. (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 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others, Unrestricted.

Apply for HHS 2024 ACF OPRE YE 0080

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