Child Care Policy Research Partnerships | HHS 2024 ACF OPRE YE 0194

Opportunity Information: Apply for HHS 2024 ACF OPRE YE 0194

The Child Care Policy Research Partnerships (CCPRP) grant opportunity is a discretionary funding program from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), designed to strengthen evidence on what works in child care policy. The program funds new research and evaluation projects that are built and carried out through formal partnerships between Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agencies (in states, territories, or tribes) and qualified research partner organizations that can demonstrate strong research capacity. The overall intent is to generate practical, policy-relevant findings that can inform decision-making at the local, state, tribal, territorial, and national levels.

This round of CCPRP places a clear emphasis on rigorous evaluations of child care quality improvement efforts that are supported by CCDF "quality set-aside" funds. The focus is not simply on describing programs, but on testing their effectiveness using strong evaluation methods. Priority is given to projects that examine initiatives meant to expand families' access to high-quality child care, with particular attention to groups that often face the greatest barriers. That includes children in underserved communities, infants and toddlers, children with disabilities, and families needing care during nontraditional hours (such as evenings, nights, or weekends). The expectation is that funded studies will help build credible evidence about how child care subsidy policies and quality improvement strategies influence access to quality care, and which approaches produce meaningful results.

Awards will be made as cooperative agreements, which typically means there will be substantial involvement from the federal funder during the project period (for example, ongoing collaboration, guidance, and shared learning expectations), rather than a more hands-off grant structure. ACF expects to make up to eight awards, each lasting five years. The listed award ceiling is $400,000. The closing date for applications in the posted announcement is May 6, 2024, and the funding opportunity number is HHS 2024 ACF OPRE YE 0194 (Assistance Listing/CFDA 93.575).

A major feature of this opportunity is participation in a cross-project consortium. Recipients will be expected to meet and communicate regularly with other funded teams to coordinate where it makes sense and to build shared infrastructure for the field. This can include aligning on common data elements, discussing research designs and methods, and developing shared expertise, tools, and resources. The idea is that the combined value of the awards should be greater than the sum of individual studies, improving research capacity across projects and producing more comparable and useful findings over time.

Eligibility is described as unrestricted in the sense that many organization types can apply, but the structure of the program effectively requires a partnership between a CCDF Lead Agency and an experienced research entity. Either partner may serve as the applicant (the official recipient), meaning an application can be submitted by the CCDF Lead Agency or by the research partner organization, as long as the partnership is real and central to the work. CCDF Lead Agencies and research partners are allowed to be involved in multiple applications, but the announcement notes it is unlikely any single lead agency or research organization would receive more than one award either as the recipient or as a partner, which is meant to spread awards across different teams and jurisdictions.

The eligible applicant types listed are broad and include state, county, and local governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofit organizations (both with and without 501(c)(3) status); for-profit organizations (including small businesses and other than small businesses); and other entities that fit the eligibility rules. Individuals, including sole proprietorships, are not eligible and will be disqualified, and foreign entities are also not eligible. Faith-based and community organizations may apply on the same basis as other applicants, and ACF states it will not discriminate based on religious character or affiliation, consistent with applicable federal regulations and protections.

In practical terms, this opportunity is aimed at teams that can combine real-world policy authority and operational knowledge (from CCDF Lead Agencies) with strong evaluation and analytic capabilities (from research partners). Successful proposals will likely be those that identify timely child care policy questions, evaluate an existing or planned quality improvement initiative funded through the CCDF quality set-aside, and produce findings that are credible, actionable, and useful to both the sponsoring jurisdiction and the broader child care field. For background on the long-running CCPRP portfolio and prior awards, ACF points applicants to its historical project page covering 1995 to 2023.

• The Administration for Children and Families - OPRE in the income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Child Care Policy Research Partnerships" 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 2024-03-06.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-05-06. (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 $400,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 8 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.

Apply for HHS 2024 ACF OPRE YE 0194

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