Child Care Technical Assistance Network (CCTAN)

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The Child Care Bureau (CCB) is dedicated to enhancing the quality, affordability, and availability of child care for all families. CCB administers Federal funds to States, territories, and tribes to assist low-income families in accessing quality child care for children when the parents work or participate in education or training. CCB has contracted with the following partners to promote their mission.

The Afterschool Investments project provides technical assistance to support program development and administration on issues related to afterschool initiatives. The project produces and disseminates information, tools, and materials for supporting and sustaining programs and creating successful partnerships between CCDF grantees and the many other public and private sector partners responsible for improving after-school opportunities in the States. The contractors are The Finance Project in partnership with the National Governors Association.

This five-year project will support a national center to help Head Start and Child Care programs identify and implement practices with demonstrated effectiveness in promoting children’s social and emotional competence. The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning is a collaborative initiative of the Child Care and Head Start Bureaus. The goals of the Center are designed to strengthen the capacity of Child Care and Head Start to improve the social and emotional outcomes for young children. The University of Illinois will partner with a consortium of universities and early childhood organizations including the University of Colorado at Denver, the University of South Florida, the University of Connecticut, Tennessee Voices for Children, and Education Development Center to carry out the goals and activities of the Center.

The Child Care and Early Education Research Connections (Research Connections) is a web-based, interactive database of research documents and public use data sets for conducting secondary analyses on topics related to early care and education. This project was launched in 2004 through a cooperative agreement with the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) at Columbia University and the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan. Research Connections conducts literature reviews; develops and disseminates materials designed to improve child care policy research; provides technical assistance to researchers and policy makers; conducts data analysis workshops; synthesizes findings into policy research briefs; and provides support to the Child Care Policy Research Consortium.

The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA), through a cooperative agreement with the CCB, receives funding to operate Child Care Aware-a national toll-free child care consumer telephone hotline and Web-site. The mission of Child Care Aware is to ensure that families have access to accurate, useful information about finding child care. Through Child Care Aware, families are linked to their local, community-based child care resource and referral program, and consumer education materials.

The Child Care Information Systems Technical Assistance Project (CCISTAP) supports state, territory, and tribal grantees, and the Central and Regional Office Federal staff in collecting, managing, analyzing, and reporting child care data. CCISTAP support falls into four major categories: systems development, CCB web support, statistical analysis and report generation, and provision of technical assistance (TA). The primary focus of technical assistance, provided to CCDF grantees through the Child Care Automation Resource Center (CCARC), is on building the capacity of information systems at the local level to improve the quality of administrative data. TA is provided through a toll-free help line, software utilities for data providers, delivery of training at Regional and National conferences, and customized on-site technical assistance.

The Communications Management Center coordinates and supports national and regional child care conferences for State, Territorial and Tribal Administrators. The Center supports national leadership forums on critical child care issues, such as Child Care for Infants and Toddlers and Child Care Issues in the Hispanic Community; the annual CCB State Administrators meeting; and regional conferences throughout the country in every ACF Region.

The Healthy Child Care America campaign is a collaborative effort of health professionals, child care professionals, families and other services working in partnership to improve the health and well-being of children in child care settings. The goals of the campaign are to: provide technical assistance to assist States, Territories, Tribes and communities in developing and strengthening linkages between child care providers, health professionals, and families. These partnerships ensure that children are cared for in healthy and nurturing environments and have access to a medical home that enables them to receive necessary immunizations, health screenings and other health and social services. The Healthy Child Care America campaign is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Child Care Bureau and Maternal and Child Health Bureau and is coordinated in partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics.

NCCIC is the primary clearinghouse to support the development of expertise and the dissemination of child care information. An extensive database of child care information is maintained, and resources are disseminated via information and referral services, an Internet Web-site, publication of the Child Care Bulletin, periodic mailings, resource rooms at conferences, and presentations at meetings and conferences. A network of State technical assistance specialists, working with the ACF regional offices, provides onsite consulting support to State grantees.

The National Infant & Toddler Child Care Initiative works collaboratively with CCDF administrators and other partners to move forward system initiatives to improve the quality and supply of infant and toddler child care. Through Learning Communities and other approaches, the Initiative works with States and Territories to develop a deeper knowledge about specific elements of the early care and education system that supports quality infant and toddler child care. The Initiative collects and disseminates information on infant and toddler child care supply, investments, and initiatives; produces materials and resources; and responds to requests for information and technical assistance related to infant and toddler child care.

The Tribal Child Care Technical Assistance Center provides targeted technical assistance services to more than 500 tribes supported by the Child Care and Development Fund. Activities include a toll-free information and referral line; maintenance of a Web-site with information on tribal child care programs, including promising practices and available resources; an annual national tribal child care conference; and cluster trainings.

Past Technical Assistance Projects

For additional information on the Child Care Bureau's Child Care Technical Assistance Network, Contact CCB.

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