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The Child Care Bureau   Advanced
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Child Care Automation Resource Center (CCARC) Mission

Logo of the Child Care Automation Resource CenterChild Care Automation Resource Center
2600 Tower Oaks Blvd, Suite 600
Rockville, MD 20852
Toll-free: 1-877-249-9117
Fax: 1-301-692-0700
ccarc@childcaredata.org

The Child Care Automation Resource Center (CCARC) was established by the Child Care Bureau to help States, Territories, and Tribes participating in the Federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) to meet their reporting obligations under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA). CCARC provides technical assistance to CCDF grantees in their efforts relating to the state/territory monthly data report (ACF-801), the state/territory annual report (ACF-800) and the tribal annual report (ACF-700).

Technical Assistance (TA) Available from CCARC

Long Distance Technical Assistance (TA)

TA is available through the following avenues:

  • Phone: Call the CCARC toll-free help line at 1-877-249-9117 Monday-Friday, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, prevailing Eastern Time
  • Fax: Fax your questions or requests to CCARC at 1-301-692-0700
  • E-mail: Email your questions or requests to CCARC staff at ccarc@childcaredata.org
  • Mail: CCARC’s address is 2600 Tower Oaks Blvd, Suite 600, Rockville, MD 20852

On-Site Assistance

In addition to long distance assistance, CCARC staff often are present on-site at Regional and National conferences to deliver training workshops to the conference participants. While on site, staff are available to meet with individual grantees to discuss their specific needs, to provide resource materials, and to demonstrate aspects of the data gathering and submission process.

CCARC also provides customized technical assistance to State grantees through on-site technical assistance visits to the grantee location. Commonly identified needs include:

  • Resolving systems issues
  • Effectively analyzing and utilizing CCDF data
  • Applying available software tools

States or Territories wishing to request customized on-site technical assistance should contact their Regional ACF Liaison and the CCARC.

System Design Document

One of CCARC’s first technical assistance activities was to develop the Child Care Electronic Environment: a System Automation Worktool (CEE:SAW) to help CCDF grantees ensure that they would be able to meet the new Federal reporting requirements for child care. To guide the development of the CEE:SAW document, CCB formed the Functional Requirements Organizing Group (FROG) in April, 1998, consisting of Federal, State, and contractor staff. The CEE:SAW document, remains available today. For additional information, see the full CEE:SAW article To order a copy of the CEE:SAW document, return the CEE:SAW Order Form (also available in Word) to the Child Care Automation Resource Center.

Software Tools

The CCARC has developed two software tools to support CCDF grantee efforts to prepare and submit accurate data reports. The Child Care Data Viewer is available to states and territories and provides a way to review data for accuracy prior to submission, and to generate reports after the data has been authenticated. The Child Care Data Tracker, available to tribes and territories, is a case management tool that allows grantees to record, manage, and use case-level information required for CCDF reporting

Online Help

General reporting information and additional helpful guides are available online in the Grantee Reporting section of this web site. Specific context sensitive help for data elements in the ACF-800, ACF-801, and ACF-700 forms also is available: