Kentucky Out-of-School Alliance

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Advocacy

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Advocating for school-age needs during the FY 2025-2027 CCDF planning process

 by Stephanie Barker
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All states must submit a Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Plan every three years to receive federal child care funding, which helps low-income families access high-quality child care (including afterschool and summer programs) for their children aged 0-13 and states improve program quality.

From now until July 1, 2024, state administrative agencies will continue drafting their 2025-2027 CCDF Plans. These plans determine how each state will spend its federal CCDF dollars over the next three years, beginning on October 1, 2024. Stakeholder feedback is required as part of the process. See our Key Considerations, Take-Action Tips for School-Age Providers and Advocates, and Resources below to learn more about current state-level needs and how you can get involved.

The current CCDF planning cycle presents an exciting opportunity for state afterschool networks, school-age child care providers, and advocates to thoroughly review and assess current systems and requirements, including licensing and training requirements, quality improvement systems, grants and contracts, and professional development supports. Plans must also broadly address how they intend to spend a mandatory 9 percent of their total CCDF allocation on quality investments. This 9 percent is in addition to another 3 percent quality set aside that must be spent on infants and toddlers specifically.

In Kentucky, where nearly half (41%) of all children served through CCDF subsidies are school-aged (5 through 12 years old), there is a strong case for targeting resources towards things that will ultimately encourage and expand access to quality school-age care environments.

As outlined in Kentucky’s Roadmap to Quality School-Age Child Care for All (2023-2025), which includes a summary of all of our current school-age child care legislative and administrative priorities, this should include:

  1. Updating Kentucky All STARS to include evidence-based school-age quality metrics under each domain.
  2. Training licensors to work in school-age environments and to understand what safe, quality, school-age environments look like.
  3. Investing in partnerships that enable the Lead Agency to offer relevant and ongoing training and professional development opportunities to school-age providers and staff that are aligned with the requirements of Kentucky’s new School-Age Youth Development (SAYD) Credential and Digital Badge.

Key Considerations

  • The current federal CCDBG appropriation for FY 2024 is around $12 billion ($8.7B discretionary and $3.5B mandatory).
  • The FY 2024 CCDBG discretionary appropriation of $8.7 billion represented an increase of 9 percent, or $725 million, above the previous year’s discretionary funding. This means Kentucky will receive $14 million more in CCDBG discretionary funds in FY 2024 than in the last year.
  • Working parents have a critical need for child care to maintain full-time employment, which does not end on the first day of kindergarten. In 2022, 69% of elementary school-age children (ages 6-12) had all available parents in the labor force.
  • Nearly half of all CCDF subsidy recipients in Kentucky are school-age or between the ages of 5 and 13.
  • Demand for programs is at an all-time high. Currently, for every child in Kentucky in an afterschool program, 4 more are waiting to get in.

Take-Action Tips for School-Age Providers and Advocates

Because we know time is limited, we’ve made it easy for school-age providers and advocates to engage in the process. Below are five things you can do to get involved:

  1. Sign up for our monthly newsletter so you don’t miss out on important announcements from us related to the current CCDF planning cycle.
  2. Bookmark the 2024 State CCDF Plans Hearing Tracker from Child Care Aware, organized by state, to ensure you stay informed on where Kentucky is at in the current CCDF planning process.
  3. Share this video from NCASE on social media channels to remind decision-makers and the public why affordable, quality school-age child care is so important for kids, families, and communities.
  4. Plan to attend a public hearing, either virtually or in person. Information will be added to our Events Calendar as soon as it becomes available.
  5. Plan to submit a public comment letter (template provided) after Kentucky’s draft 2025-2027 CCDF Plan is out.

Resources

Additional CCDF planning resources from us and our national partners are available below.