This Dear Colleague Letter, addressed to ACF Grantees and interested parties, requests that ACF grantees raise awareness of the child tax credit for working families which takes effect on July 15, 2021. The letter identifies that families can learn about the credit at www.childtaxcredit.gov and that non-tax filer parents can also qualify for the tax credit by using the IRS’s Child Tax Credit Non-filer Sign Up Tool to apply for benefits. The letter also highlights different ways to engage with working families and raise awareness of this significant benefit.

This one-pager lists locations and addresses of IRS Tax Assistance Centers (TAC) nationwide where the IRS will host AdvCTC (Child Tax Credit) Free Tax Prep Days in July 2021 to help families file 2020 tax returns so they are eligible to receive advance payments of the 2021 Child Tax Credit. Most families are eligible to receive monthly payments of up to $250 per child ages 6-17 and $300 per child under age 6.

The post-COVID-19 economic recovery presents challenges for governors and state leaders seeking to identify and address barriers that keep the workforce from returning to work and filling job vacancies. This National Governors Association report examines state actions to address these barriers, increase labor force participation among low-income populations, and engage employers to address hiring challenges. The report highlights initiatives that provide monetary incentives to return to work, ensure access to affordable child care, reinstitute job search requirements, utilize TANF waivers, and address hesitancy to return to workplaces due to health and safety concerns.

This Office of Child Care dataset identifies the Grant Year (GY) 2021 discretionary base, discretionary per child, and total base allocations under the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) for tribes, listed by tribe for each state. The table also presents other supplemental funding allocations for tribes.

This Office of Child Care dataset identifies the Grant Year (GY) 2021 allocations by state and territory for the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF). The table also notes the state share for matching funds and state maintenance of effort (MOE) levels, as well as other relevant data on appropriations.

This blogpost illustrates findings of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Resident Opportunity and Self-Sufficiency Service Coordinator program (ROSS-SC). ROSS-SC provides funding to local public housing authorities to support public housing residents—primarily seniors, persons with disabilities, and very low-income families. The blogpost identifies how ROSS-SC helped residents to access food and transportation, deal with health emergencies, address domestic violence, and access child care.

(See also Resources on "intimate partner violence" in the Resource Library)

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report explores different measures of child care access and uses a multi-dimensional, family-centric definition to assess center-based and non-relationship home-based child care. Using 2012 National Survey of Early Care and Education data, the report provides national estimates of families’ local access against the four identified dimensions of this broader understanding of child care. The report illustrates gaps in child care access beyond a “slot to tot” analysis and the persistence of low child care availability for families with infants and toddlers.

Second of a two-part series, this research-to-practice brief identifies the components and lessons learned from implementing the virtual coaching model within the Detroit Early Learning Coaching Initiative. Components include participant recruitment, program orientation to coaching, coaching strategies, program observations of early childhood educators, coaching topics offered to participants, and coaching supervision. Lessons learned include recruitment of teachers and providers; training for coaches, teachers, and providers specific to virtual activities using an online coaching platform; video observations of early childhood educators; and one-on-one goal setting with teachers and providers.

First of a two-part series, this research-to-practice brief examines the shift from in-person to virtual coaching as part of the Detroit Early Learning Coaching Initiative (DELCI). The brief discusses the origins and goals of the DELCI model, which offers instructional coaching to early childhood education (ECE) center teachers and home-based child care providers as well as state-approved curriculum and assessment resources. The DELCI model states that coaching should be goal-focused, data-informed, and practice-based to support the needs of early childhood educators and children. Also, the brief reviews the preparation undertaken in response to COVID-19 and ECE program closures to ensure that relationships were maintained and initial supports offered to early childhood education teachers and providers virtually.

The 2018 Family First Prevention Services Act supports funding for effective, evidence-based kinship navigator programs. This brief illustrates how kinship navigator programs operate and identifies common challenges in program evaluation. These challenges include defining the program models, selecting a comparison group, determining the sample size for the evaluation, and selecting appropriate reliable and valid measures. The brief also offers potential solutions to address these methodological problems in evaluation.