Secondary Analyses of Child Care and Early Education Data

Overview

<p>The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) is soliciting applications for Secondary Analyses of Data on Child Care and Early Education grants. Analyzing existing data sets may provide researchers an efficient and cost-effective method for answering critical research questions. This funding opportunity aims to support researchers conducting secondary analyses of data to address the goals and outcomes of programs administered by ACF, in particular the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF). Findings are intended to inform policy, program administration, and future research. Researchers may conduct secondary analyses of survey, program evaluation, or administrative data. Data sets from primary research and evaluation may also be candidates for secondary analyses. A data set may be used by itself or linked with other data sets to best address the research questions proposed.</p> <p><strong>Description</strong><br>The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) is a block grant of more than $9 billion that provides funding to states, territories, and tribes to provide access to child care and early education services for low-income families with children under the age of 13. ACF supports the social and economic well-being of families, children, individuals, and communities through the delivery of human services programs. This includes child care and early education programs such as those funded with CCDF that aim to promote economic security, health and safety, and positive developmental trajectories for vulnerable young children and their families.</p> <p>CCDF is the primary federal funding source for child care subsidies and aims to help eligible low-income working families access child care and early education and to improve the quality of child care for all children. CCDF is administered as a block grant to state, territory, and tribal governments. CCDF also aims to improve the quality of care and promote children’s healthy development and learning by supporting child care licensing, quality improvement systems to help programs meet higher standards, and training and education for child care and early education workers.</p> <p>These grants will provide funding to address key questions of relevance to child care and early education programs funded by CCDF. Findings are intended to inform policy, program administration, and future research.</p> <p>ACF makes substantial investments to deliver these high-quality child care and early education programs to young children and their families, and there is a robust and growing body of research to inform those investments. However, many critical questions remain about how to most effectively and efficiently support the well-being of young children and their families, particularly those with low incomes and at-risk for economic insecurity.</p> <p><strong>The specific goals of the grants are as follows:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Produce new evidence of relevance to the goals and outcomes of CCDF;</li> <li>Encourage active communication, networking, and collaboration among prominent child care and early education researchers and policymakers; and</li> <li>Build the capacity of child care and early education researchers to rigorously analyze existing data sets and disseminate their findings to multiple audiences.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Topics of particular interest to ACF include, but are not limited to the following:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Recruiting and retaining a qualified child care and early education workforce;</li> <li>Structural or systemic factors that shape access, utilization, services, and outcomes related to child care and early education, particularly for communities that have been historically underserved or marginalized;</li> <li>Promoting equity and improvements in approaches to reach, recruit, enroll, and sustain families, particularly those most in need of child care and early education services (which include, but are not limited to the following: children in underserved areas; infants and toddlers; children with disabilities; and children who receive care during nontraditional hours);</li> <li>Consumer education efforts and parental choice regarding children’s enrollment in child care and early education programs;</li> <li>COVID-19 pandemic impact, response, and recovery in the child care and early education market;</li> <li>Building the supply of high-quality child care and early education;</li> <li>Improving child care and early education staff/provider competencies through professional development;</li> <li>Facilitators and barriers to the implementation of new or expansion of existing child care and early education programs;</li> <li>Coordination and collaboration between child care and early education programs and state or territory early care and education or social service systems;</li> <li>Supporting the well-being of the child care workforce;</li> <li>Approaches to engage, support, and meet the health, mental health, economic self-sufficiency, and other needs of families who utilize child care and early education programs.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Data sets that are well suited for secondary analyses on the above topics include, but are not limited to, the following:</strong></p> <ul> <li>National Survey of Early Care and Education 2019</li> <li>ACF-801 Monthly Child Care data;</li> <li>ACF-218 Annual Quality Progress Report data; and</li> <li>State or territory-level workforce registry, subsidy, Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), licensing, monitoring, child care resource and referral, or Preschool Development Grants Birth-5 data.</li> </ul>