Child Care Bureau: Laws, Policies, Program Instructions, and Allocations

CCDF FY 2000 Funding

Related Items: FY 2000 Procedures for CCDF Grantees

"Dear Colleague" Letter

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
ADMINISTRATION FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
Administration on Children, Youth and Families
330 C Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201
/programs/acyf/

May 6, 1999

Dear Colleague:

Enclosed are two Program Instructions that contain application and plan procedures to apply for FY 2000 Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) funds:

ACYF-PI-CC-99-03 contains the CCDF Plan Preprint; and

ACYF-PI-CC-99-04 contains the procedures for Tribes that elect to consolidate the CCDF program with other employment and training funding sources under an approved 102-477 plan.

Based on the CCDF amended regulations, the Tribal Plan Preprint includes new requirements for: Child Count under age 13 (Plan section 1.9); Coordination of Services (Plan section 2.2.2); Market Rate Survey (Plan section 3.2); and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Agency's Criteria/Definitions Regarding Inability to Obtain Care (Plan section 4.4). Other minor changes have been made to the Plan that improve the format and provide additional clarity in certain sections.

Regardless of whether a Plan was submitted last year, all Tribal Lead Agencies must complete and submit the attached plan preprint. This revised Plan preprint will be effective for a two-year period beginning October 1, 1999.

Resource and Referral and School-Age Care Funds

A $19,120,000 earmark was included in the FY 2000 Discretionary Funds appropriation for child care resource and referral and school age care activities. Consistent with two percent tribal set-aside, Tribes will receive $382,400 of this amount. Because Congress earmarked funds specifically for these activities, all FY 2000 CCDF grantees are required to spend CCDF funds for this purpose.

The Tribal Estimates Chart (attached to both Program Instructions) provides the estimated amount that each Tribe must spend on these activities. The estimated allocations are based on a grant amount of $500, plus a per child amount. The $500 amount was established to ensure that smaller grantees have a minimum amount of funding for resource and referral and school-age care activities.

There is no separate application process to receive these earmarked FY 2000 Discretionary Funds. However, a description of resource and referral and school age care activities must be included under Plan section 5.2.

Both of these quality activities are important supports to working families that need to find quality child care arrangements during their working hours. Therefore, we strongly encourage Tribes to develop comprehensive child care programs that include both of these important quality activities.

Infant and Toddler Quality Improvement

The FY 2000 Discretionary Funds appropriation also requires States to use $50,000,000 above the four percent quality requirement to improve the quality of infant and toddler child care. Tribes are not required to meet a specific earmark for infant and toddler quality building activities. Yet, we strongly recommend that quality enhancement activities for infants and toddlers care be included in the two-year CCDF tribal Plan that will be submitted to ACF by July 1, 1999.

Construction and Renovation Application Deadline

If you plan to apply to use FY 1999 CCDF funds for construction or renovation application prior to July 1, 1999. Please see Program Instructions ACYF-PI-CC-CC-97-05 (issued August 18, 1997) and ACYF-PI-CC-97-06 (issued November 4, 1997) regarding construction and renovation procedures.

If you have any information about any of the information contained in the enclosed Program Instructions, please contact your ACF Regional Office. A list of Regional Offices is provided as an attachment to each Program Instruction.

Enclosures

Sincerely,
_________/s/__________
Carmen R. Nazario
Associate Commissioner , ACYF
for Child Care