Introduction
The Urban Institute, in partnership with ICF International, was awarded a contract that will support the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in learning from high-quality, rigorous research, to be conducted by Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) lead agencies in partnership with researchers, on the implementation of policies responding to the goals of the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014.
In FY 2016, the ACF Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) awarded eight grants under the funding opportunity announcement, “CCDBG Implementation Research and Evaluation Planning Grants.” Through this grant program, CCDF lead agencies will develop research plans to evaluate the implementation of key policies and initiatives.
These planning grants may be followed by a second competitive funding opportunity that would provide funding to CCDF lead agencies to carry out the planned research. In conjunction with these grants, this task order will:
- Support ACF in building the capacity of the field, including CCDF lead agencies that are not grant recipients, to conduct high-quality, rigorous research;
- Inform the development of research-based information related to the implementation of policies responding to the goals of the CCDBG Act of 2014; and
- Facilitate learning from the research conducted. Key project tasks include assessment of grantees’ policy interests, proposed approaches, and evaluation and data capacity; planning and execution of capacity-building activities; review and summarization of grantee plans and activities; and a process evaluation exploring the benefits and drawbacks of the two-phase structure of the CCDBG Implementation Research and Evaluation grants.
The point of contact is Kathleen Dwyer.