CCDF Flexibility Restoration (Rescission of 2024 Requirements)

Current understanding

HHS/ACF has issued a final rule rescinding several Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) regulatory requirements adopted in the prior rulemaking cycle, including the 7%-of-income cap on family co-payments, mandates to deliver some direct services via grants/contracts, and requirements for prospective and enrollment-based (rather than attendance-based) provider payments. For states and territories (lead agencies), this reduces administrative and compliance obligations; for families, the co-payment ceiling is no longer federally required; for providers, payment-practice mandates are relaxed. Status: final rule.

Evidence log

• 2023-02-09 — Child Care for Every Community Act: cross-connection with child-care-for-every-community-act-hr953: HR953 would layer a new universal HHS program on top of (or alongside) the existing CCDF structure whose 2024 requirements — including a 7% co-pay cap similar to HR953’s — were recently rescinded by final rule, illustrating divergent legislative and regulatory directions on affordability standards. (novelty: 2)
• 2026-05-12 — Restoring Flexibility in the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF): cross-connection with head-start-performance-standards-wage-rollback: Both are ACF/HHS deregulatory actions in early childhood — rescinding CCDF cost and payment-practice requirements alongside proposed rollback of Head Start workforce standards — indicating a coordinated reduction in federal early-childhood mandates on states and grantees. (novelty: 2)

Open questions

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