Information to Inform the Office of Child Care about Implementation of Child Care American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Funds

Child Care Stabilization Funds Follow Up Questions

The Office of Child Care (OCC) holds monthly meetings with Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agency administrators to provide ongoing technical assistance (TA) and support. To learn more about the success stories, challenges and additional TA needs for the recent child care stabilization grants that were part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), OCC would like to conduct structured interviews during these meetings for the next six months. OCC will use information collected during these interviews to inform technical assistance and support opportunities for CCDF Lead Agencies.

PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT OF 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13) STATEMENT OF PUBLIC BURDEN: The purpose of this information collection is to help the Office of Child Care (OCC) identify the technical assistance needs to support the implementation of the child care stabilization grants. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 20 minutes per grantee response, including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and reviewing the collection of information. These questions will be asked at monthly meetings over a 6-month period, so the total estimated time per grantee is 2 hours. This is a voluntary collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB # is 0970-0531 and the expiration date is XX/XX/XXXX. If you have any comments on this collection of information, please contact Dawn Ramsburg, Office of Child Care by email at [email protected].   

Questions for all states:

• How much of your ARP Stabilization funds have been obligated? As of when?

  • If less than 100%: What is your plan for obligating the remainder of funds by September 30, 2022?

• What percentage of your state’s allocated Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) funds has your state obligated?

  • If less than 100%: What is your plan for obligating the remainder of funds by September 30, 2022?

• Did your state implement strategies to direct ARP stabilization grant funds toward the workforce? If yes, describe.

  • If yes, how much funding was directed to the workforce?

    • Wages, bonuses/stipends, benefits, scholarships?

  • If yes, how many staff were impacted?

  • If no, do you have plans to?

Questions for all states:

• How many providers have received ARP Stabilization funds? As of when?

  • What percentage of eligible providers have received ARP stabilization funds? As of when?

• How much ARP Stabilization funding has been distributed to providers? That is, how much has been dispersed/liquidated? As of when?

  • If less than 100%: What is your plan to achieving 100% spend down?

  • What is the average grant amount?

  • What are the range of grant amounts?

• Are you currently distributing payments to providers?

  • If yes: How often are providers receiving ARP Stabilization funds? (e.g., monthly, quarterly, one-time) ONLY ASK IF WE DON’T HAVE THIS INFORMATION FOR CURRENT ROUND

  • If yes: When will payments end?

  • If no: Do you have plans to distribute more payments in the future?

• Is your stabilization application currently open?

  • If yes: How long will it remain open?

  • If no: Do you plan to reopen the application?

• Do you plan to offer future rounds of funding for providers (e.g., clean up round)?

  • If yes: Will new providers be eligible to apply?

  • If yes: How often will providers be paid?

• When do you anticipate ARP stabilization provider payments will be completed?

• Once stabilization funds are exhausted, do you plan to continue stabilization payments to providers using an alternate funding source (e.g., state funds, CRRSA, ARP Supplemental, etc.)?

Questions for sub-set of states that have yet to release applications:

• What have been the barriers to getting the application released?

• What support is needed to get to the application release phase?

• When do you anticipate releasing the application?

• After releasing the application, when do you expect funds will start going out to providers?

• What do you foresee as challenges to getting the funding out to providers quickly?

• What support is needed to get funding out to providers quickly?