On January 22, 2024, the 30-day public comment period opened in the Federal Register for the draft Fiscal Year (FY) 2025—2027 Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Plan Preprint for States and Territories (CCDF Plan Preprint) (PDF). The public comment period ends on February 21, 2024. Please refer to the Federal Register for instructions on how to submit comments to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)/Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).
The revised draft FY 2025—2027 CCDF Plan Preprint reflects input from a variety of contributors via the public comment process. It also reflects feedback from Lead Agencies collected through several engagement opportunities that occurred in conjunction with the initial 60-day public comment period and throughout the CCDF Plan cycle. Lead Agencies stated the CCDF Plan is both a compliance document and a planning tool for working with partners in their states and territories to implement the CCDF program and reflect their priorities. Lead Agencies requested clarity on how the questions within the CCDF Plan Preprint address the document's two purposes. The Office of Child Care (OCC) analyzed the information gathered through the public comments and previous CCDF Plans to evaluate how well the questions address those purposes of the CCDF Plan. OCC also evaluated CCDF implementation status and revised the CCDF Plan Preprint to more clearly identify implementation goals and expectations for CCDF requirements. This CCDF Plan Preprint is a key part of the overall framework OCC is using to align the CCDF Plan, monitoring, and technical assistance supports to effectively achieve the CCDF policy goals and a CCDF child care program that meets the needs of the children and families it serves. A summary of key changes to the CCDF Plan Preprint is below.
Overview of FY 2025—2027 CCDF Plan Preprint
The FY 2025—2027 State and Territory CCDF Plan Preprint requires Lead Agencies to describe how they effectively administer the program to meet the needs of children and families in alignment with CCDF requirements. OCC has refined and restructured the FY 2025—2027 CCDF Plan Preprint to do the following:
- Reduce burden on Lead Agencies by asking fewer and more direct questions, simplifying question structure, and aligning purpose and information collection across CCDF Plan, monitoring, and other reporting requirements.
- Prioritize and highlight key child care policy priorities.
- Provide a mechanism for states and territories to communicate their implementation action plans to address areas of non-compliance.
This notice is required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), which requires federal agencies to request approval from OMB for any information collection that will ask the same question of 10 or more individuals including grantees. This 30-day notice is the second step in the PRA process. The final step is OMB review prior to OMB approval of the information collection.