Under the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act, Lead Agencies have significant responsibility for ensuring the health and safety of children in child care through their state child care licensing systems. They are also responsible for establishing health and safety standards for child care providers who receive Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) funds. These health and safety standards are an important component of safeguarding and promoting the health and development of all children.

The CCDBG Act specified dates when certain provisions were effective and allowed time to implement the new requirements:

• Monitoring, including annual inspections of CCDF providers, became effective on November 19, 2016.
• Posting results of monitoring and inspection reports became effective on November 19, 2017.
• Comprehensive background checks (CBCs) became effective on September 30, 2017 (further clarification provided in Section 6).
• Where the Act did not specify a date, the statutory requirements became effective upon the date of enactment (November 19, 2014), and states had until September 30, 2016 to implement them.