2014 Child Care Reauthorization and Opportunities for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Programs

The Office of Child Care and the Office of Family Assistance published an Information Memorandum (IM) on opportunities for coordinating the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs. In particular, the IM focuses on how the 2014 CCDF reauthorization offers new ways for the two programs to align.

The CCDF and TANF programs are linked in federal legislative history and, in many states, through the daily operations of both programs. In fiscal year 2014, states spent approximately $2.6 billion of federal TANF funds on child care, either directly or through a transfer to the CCDF program. Coordination between the two programs is a key part of two-generation strategies that can address the needs of children and their parents together along with the goal of improving the entire family’s overall economic security. The implementation efforts for CCDF reauthorization provide an opportunity to take even greater advantage of the benefits of this kind of partnership.