Using the Website
The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Fundamentals website has been reengineered and revised to reflect the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014 and its expanded purposes and impact on child care and on Lead Agencies’ administration of CCDF grants. The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act is the law that, along with Section 418 of the Social Security Act, authorizes the federal child care subsidy program known as the Child Care and Development Fund.
A set of gears was chosen as the graphic icon for the website to illustrate the critical work of creating a collaborative system that is dependent on several partners to fully implement the CCDF in each state. The term state is defined in both the CCDBG Act and CCDF final rule as including states, territories, and tribes; therefore, for ease of reading, state will be used inclusively throughout this guide unless otherwise specified.
Look for the gear icon throughout the guide! Additional text displayed with the gear will help show the interconnectedness of different parts of CCDF administration—such as subsidy, health and safety, licensing regulations and monitoring, quality rating and improvement systems (QRISs), and other quality initiatives. Gears may also provide information about the connections between CCDF administration and Head Start, Early Head Start–Child Care partnerships, prekindergarten, early intervention, and health partners in states.
