Child Care Policy Research Partnerships

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) plans to solicit applications for Child Care Policy Research Partnerships (CCPRP). These five-year cooperative agreements will support partnerships between Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agencies in states, territories, or tribes and research partner organizations with demonstrated research capacity to develop rigorous investigations of child care subsidy policies and practices. Sponsored projects will inform local and federal understanding about the efficacy of child care subsidy policies and practices to increase low-income families access to quality child care. To ensure that the funded work is timely and relevant to the current child care context, the CCDF Lead Agency and their research partner organization(s) must collaborate actively throughout all phases of the project and are encouraged to engage other local and state child care entities, as appropriate. This iteration of the CCPRP awards will prioritize research projects implementing rigorous, policy-relevant evaluations that will test whether quality improvement initiatives in states, territories, or tribes implemented through the CCDF quality set-aside increase families access to quality child care, especially access for: children in underserved areas, infants and toddlers, children with disabilities, and children in nontraditional-hour care. 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 consortiums collaboration will support research capacity and learning within individual projects and across recipients. For further information about prior awards made for CCPRP, see https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/project/child-care-policy-research-partnerships-1995-2023.