Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Strengthening State Child Care Policies: The Role of Research-Policy Partnerships

(Family and Child Policy)

The Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act provides funding to states to assist low-income families with the costs of child care. The CCDBG reauthorization of 2014 makes many changes to requirements for state receipt of funds, including more family-friendly assistance eligibility policies and a focus on activities to improve child care quality. In addition, the CCDBG Act of 2014 emphasizes the use of research to inform state policies. This required connection between policy and research demands strong partnerships between state-level policymakers and researchers to make government more effective for the children and families served under this law. However, tensions around information privacy, data availability, budgeting, and timeliness of research findings pose significant challenges for meaningful partnerships between policymakers and researchers. The goal of this panel is to highlight examples of policy-research partnerships that have demonstrated success in shaping state-level policy and encouraging effective use of funds allocated to states through the CCDBG Act. In addition, each of the papers utilizes rigorous research strategies and together contribute to understanding how CCDBG funds contribute to child care quality and subsidy experiences of individual families. Participants on this panel will share research findings and partnership experiences from Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Oregon. As a partnership with over 25 years of continuous collaboration, examples of research shaping child care policy in Oregon will set the stage for presentations from the other three states by discussing a series of changes to child care subsidy and payment policies, development of a workforce registry data system, and engagement with the state’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). Next, findings from a partnership with Maryland using administrative data on families’ subsidy receipt will highlight how research was used to restructure administration of the state’s subsidy program. The third paper will continue the discussion of subsidy instability and demonstrate early findings from an emerging partnership between researchers and policymakers in Massachusetts. Finally, findings from a research-policy partnership in Delaware will return to the discussion began in the presentation from Oregon around QRIS. More specifically, this paper will focus on findings from administrative data and focus groups that are being used to inform how the state supports QRIS participation among family child care providers. The panel discussant, a policy administrator with experience at the both state and federal levels, will provide perspective on the role of research in shaping timely decision-making and planning of state initiatives. In addition, the discussant will speak to key elements of successful partnerships as well as the challenges inherent in integrating research and policy and how the federal government can support states to develop and sustain research partnerships.