Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Policies Database, United States, 2009-2022

Résumé 0

The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) provides federal money to states and territories to provide assistance to low-income families, to obtain quality child care so they can work, attend training, or receive education. Within the broad federal parameters, States and Territories set the detailed policies. Those details determine whether a particular family will or will not be eligible for subsidies, how much the family will have to pay for the care, how families apply for and retain subsidies, the maximum amounts that child care providers will be reimbursed, and the administrative procedures that providers must follow. Thus, while CCDF is a single program from the perspective of federal law, it is in practice a different program in every state and territory. The CCDF Policies Database project is a comprehensive, up-to-date database of CCDF policy information that supports the needs of a variety of audiences through (1) analytic data files, (2) a project website and search tool, and (3) an annual report (Book of Tables). These resources are made available to researchers, administrators, and policymakers with the goal of addressing important questions concerning the effects of child care subsidy policies and practices on the children and families served. A description of the data files, project website and search tool, and Book of Tables is provided below: 1. Detailed, longitudinal analytic data files provide CCDF policy information for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the United States territories and outlying areas that capture the policies actually in effect at a point in time, rather than proposals or legislation. They capture changes throughout each year, allowing users to access the policies in place at any point in time between October 2009 and the most recent data release. The data are organized into 32 categories with each category of variables separated into its own dataset. The categories span five general areas of policy including: Eligibility Requirements for Families and Children (Datasets 1-5) Family Application, Terms of Authorization, and Redetermination (Datasets 6-13) Family Payments (Datasets 14-18) Policies for Providers, Including Maximum Reimbursement Rates (Datasets 19-27) Overall Administrative and Quality Information Plans (Datasets 28-32) The information in the data files is based primarily on the documents that caseworkers use as they work with families and providers (often termed "caseworker manuals"). The caseworker manuals generally provide much more detailed information on eligibility, family payments, and provider-related policies than the CCDF Plans submitted by states and territories to the federal government. The caseworker manuals also provide ongoing detail for periods in between CCDF Plan dates. Each dataset contains a series of variables designed to capture the intricacies of the rules covered in the category. The variables include a mix of categorical, numeric, and text variables. Most variables have a corresponding notes field to capture additional details related to that particular variable. In addition, each category has an additional notes field to capture any information regarding the rules that is not already outlined in the category's variables. Beginning with the 2020 files, the analytic data files are supplemented by four additional data files containing select policy information featured in the annual reports (prior to 2020, the full detail of the annual reports was reproduced as data files). The supplemental data files are available as 4 datasets (Datasets 33-36) and present key aspects of the differences in CCDF-funded programs across all states and territories as of October 1 of each year (2009-2022). The files include variables that are calculated using several variables from the analytic data files (Datasets 1-32) (such as copayment amounts for example family situations) and information that is part of the annual project reports (the annual Book of Tables) but not stored in the full database (such as summary market rate survey information from the CCDF plans). 2. The project website and search tool provide access to a point-and-click user interface. Users can select from the full set of public data to create custom tables. The website also provides access to the full range of reports and products released under the CCDF Policies Database project. The project website and search tool and the data files provide a more detailed set of information than what the Book of Tables provides, including a wider selection of variables and policies over time. 3. The annual Book of Tables presents key aspects of the differences in CCDF funded programs across all states and territories as of October 1, 2022. The Book of Tables includes variables that are calculated using several variables from the data files (Datasets 1-32). The Book of Tables summarizes a subset of the information available in the data files, and includes information about eligibility requirements for families and children; application, redetermination, priority, and waiting list policies; family co-payments; and provider policies and payment rates. In many cases, a variable in the Book of Tables will correspond to a single variable in the data files. Usually, the variable options used in the Book of Tables will match the variable options in the data files. In some cases, the wording of the variable options may have been slightly modified for the tables.