This post is part of Transform Consulting Group’s blog series highlighting federal programs that provide education and youth development services in communities.
The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) is a federal program that provides assistance for low-income families to access and use child care. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s Administration for Children and Families administers the CCDBG program.
In 2012, the CCDBG provided more than $5 billion dollars toward the goal of improving the quality and accessibility of child care through Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) “vouchers” to working families.
Approximately 1.7 million children receive a child care subsidy from the CCDF program every month. Since these funds are provided to states as a block grant, states are able to decide how to spend a considerable portion of the money within the confinements of the authorizing legislation. In 2008, Indiana received more than $185 million in funds and served an average of 31,000 children per month.
The CCDBG program has just been reauthorized by Congress with updates that will revise and expand the requirements placed on state plans. The potential changes will affect:
- State licensing
- Consumer and provider education information
- Training and professional development
- Child-to-provider ratios
- Health and safety
- Child abuse reporting
- Protection for working parents
- Priority for low-income populations
- Coordination with other programs
- Needs of children in child care services during the period before, during, and after a state of emergency
- Guidelines for early learning and development
- Requirements regarding actions toward improving child care
CCDBG was enacted under the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 amended and reauthorized the CCDBG, and consolidated three federal childcare programs previously serving low-income families under the program formerly known as, Aid to Families with Dependent Children.
At Transform Consulting Group, we have been working in Indiana to support the implementation of the Early Learning Advisory Committee to assess the availability, affordability, and quality of early childhood programs statewide, and make best practice recommendations for interventions to improve and expand early childhood education.
