Abstract:

In 2005, child care administrators from every state and the District of Columbia were asked to provide information on every child care quality-improvement initiative with at least $1,000 from CCDF in FFY 2004. Thirty-five states submitted information on each eligible child care quality initiative, for a total of 339 initiatives. The on-line survey asked for information for each initiative in four substantive areas: (1) objectives; (2) target populations; (3) funding levels and sources; and (4) data collection.

This report finds that although state child care agencies have broad flexibility under the block grant to implement activities to improve the quality of child care, states have chosen to focus activities on achieving a relatively small set of objectives that research suggests can contribute to child care quality. The confluence of objectives among states indicates that while there is variation in state initiatives in keeping with particular contexts and needs, state child care agencies are systematically investing quality funding to achieve a delimited set of goals that research has found to be linked with quality.