The Understanding the CARES Act brief is a supplement to the CCDF Information Memorandum (CCDF-ACF-IM-2020-01) released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on April 29, 2020.
National Center on Subsidy Innovation and Accountability
The National Center on Subsidy Innovation and Accountability (NCSIA) provides technical assistance to Child Care and Development Fund programs in developing child care subsidy systems that are child-focused, family-friendly, and fair to providers. NCSIA works with grantees to help them reach goals in the following areas:
- Subsidy eligibility
- Integrating quality and subsidy
- Strengthening program integrity and fiscal accountability
- Error rate reporting
- Comprehensive background checks
- Equal access, including rate setting, payment practices, family co-payments, and other policies and practices that support building the supply of and providing high-quality care to more children from low-income families
Highlighted Tools and Resources:
Equal access and market rate surveys are important concepts for CCDF leaders. Market rate surveys can impact payment rates, which must be sufficient to ensure equal access.
Collaboration Between CCDF and TANF to Meet the Needs of Low-Income Working Families outlines why collaboration with TANF is important and the beginning steps in collaboration. It also offers examples of how CCDF and TANF can collaborate, including various state initiatives and highlights fiscal considerations for both programs.
The CCDF Fraud Toolkit is an evolving resource designed to assist CCDF Lead Agencies in increasing program integrity and accountability and decreasing fraud within their child care programs.
The Grantee Internal Controls Self-Assessment Instrument is designed to assist grantees in assessing how well their policies and procedures meet the Child Care and Development Fund's (CCDF) regulatory requirements in the areas of program integrity and financial accountability.
Comprehensive background check resources are available that break down the requirements into easier to understand language.
Guidance on Estimating and Reporting the Costs of Child Care aims to support Lead Agencies and their partners as they create cost estimates, prepare detailed reports, and use cost estimates to inform their rate setting.
The Error Rate Review training module provides state administrative staff with background on the federal error rate review and covers the steps needed to complete the error rate review process..
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This webinar, Increasing Subsidy Payments and Setting Rates, Including Cost of Care: Requirements and Options, will help Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agencies understand the requirements and options for including cost-of-care information when setting subsidy rates. Considering...
This implementation guide focuses on the use of contracts to stabilize child care and support overall improvements to the child care system. Potential challenges to using contracts are identified and strategies and resources are offered to overcome concerns.
These fact sheets summarize the error rate findings for each year. They include information about the national error rates, causes of improper payment errors, and states' strategies to reduce errors.
The most recent fact sheet includes the findings from the 2021 federal fiscal year....
In the first webinar for the FY 2022 program integrity webinar series, NCSIA provided strategies to investigate and recover improper payments caused by providers, participants, and the agency. Throughout this webinar techniques and examples are provided for describing the results of...
The third brief, originally published in May 2018 and updated in January 2022, describes the process for analyzing the market rate survey results and developing price estimates that can then be used to assist Lead Agencies in setting base payment rates.
This implementation guide outlines strategies for using contracts for direct service child care slots.
This guide outlines strategies for increasing subsidy payment rates for direct child care services.
This brief is intended to assist Lead Agencies in considering ways to track existing Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) funding and the three child care relief funding packages.
The purpose of this brief is to help Lead Agencies with addressing their administrative needs, specifically related to the COVID-19 funding packages.
The National Center on Subsidy Innovation and Accountability (NCSIA) created the following resources to assist those interested in program integrity and fiscal accountability.
