Evaluations of Practices for Program Integrity and Fraud Prevention

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Early Childhood Development is offering the Evaluations of Practices for Program Integrity and Fraud Prevention funding opportunity under Federal Assistance Listing 93.575. The program supports partnerships between Child Care and Development Fund, or CCDF, Lead Agencies and research organizations. Its purpose is to identify promising strategies and approaches for preventing fraud and waste, rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of those efforts, strengthen the use of data and evidence in child care policymaking, and share promising practices with states, territories, and tribes. The program is intended to improve CCDF program integrity, accountability, and faithful administration while also strengthening state, territory, and tribal data systems and the evidence base available to the child care field. Projects must evaluate a new or existing promising practice for program integrity and fraud prevention and assess its effectiveness in reducing intentional fraud. Potential practices may concern internal controls, agency structure or governance, fiscal management, payment practices, risk assessment, eligibility, enrollment, attendance, monitoring, records reviews, provider audits, training, technical assistance, or other strategies aimed at reducing fraud, waste, and abuse. Evaluations must have a clearly defined theory of change and logic model, clearly stated research questions, appropriate data, and rigorous and feasible qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods. When conclusions about program efficacy are examined, the study design should include a comparison group through a randomized controlled trial or quasi-experimental design. Projects must protect human subjects and confidential information, engage relevant community, programmatic, policy, and research experts, participate in consortium activities, preregister the evaluation, and disseminate findings in accessible formats. ACF expects approximately 12 cooperative agreement awards from total program funding of 5100000. The minimum award for the first budget period is 125000 and the maximum is 425000. The planned project period is four years, consisting of four one-year budget periods, with recipients completing a non-competing continuation application to receive each subsequent year of funding. Phase 1, Year 1, is a foundational period for activities such as solidifying partnerships, refining evaluation plans, assessing data sources and systems, conducting preliminary analyses and pilot studies, and sharing initial findings. Phase 2 covers Years 2 through 4 and focuses on implementing and completing the evaluation and reporting preliminary, emerging, and final findings. There is no required cost sharing. Construction, purchase of real property, and major renovation are prohibited. Indirect costs may be charged using an approved negotiated rate or, when applicable, a de minimis rate of up to 15 percent of modified total direct costs. Salary limitations and other federal cost requirements also apply. Eligible applicants include city or township governments, county governments, public housing and Indian housing authorities, independent school districts, special district governments, eligible nonprofit organizations, small businesses, other for-profit organizations, private institutions of higher education, public and state controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal organizations, and federally recognized tribal governments. However, the applicant must specifically be either the CCDF Lead Agency responsible for setting the relevant subsidy policies or a research partner organization approved to apply by that CCDF Lead Agency. Research partners must be institutions of higher education, organizations within state, territory, or tribal agencies, research organizations, or other organizations with demonstrated capacity to conduct rigorous policy research. Individuals, including sole proprietorships, federal entities, and foreign entities are not eligible. Faith-based and community organizations may participate if they otherwise satisfy the eligibility requirements. Required eligibility evidence includes documentation establishing the Lead Agency relationship and written evidence that research is a primary organizational activity of the research partner. Applications must be submitted through Grants.gov unless ACF has approved an exemption for paper submission. Applicants need active SAM.gov and Grants.gov registrations and a Unique Entity Identifier. The application consists of two files plus required Grants.gov forms. File one contains the table of contents, one-page project summary, project narrative, and line-item budget and budget narrative. File two contains applicable attachments, including the ACF priorities alignment attestation, indirect cost agreement when applicable, legal status documentation, additional eligibility documentation, organizational capacity information, third-party agreements, letters of support, and Protection of Human Subjects certification. Standard forms include the Project Abstract Summary, SF-424, SF-424A, SF-424B, Key Contacts, Grants.gov Lobbying form, SF-LLL when applicable, and SF-P/PSL. Files one and two have a combined 100-page limit. The project narrative must follow the required headings and address the approach, background and significance, research partnership, research design and methods, analytic plan, human protections, active engagement, consortium participation, timeline and milestones, organizational capacity, award oversight, sensitive information protection, and dissemination. Applications passing initial responsiveness review are evaluated by a merit review panel using criteria totaling 110 points. Research design and methods carries the greatest weight at 35 points, followed by research partnership at 15 points. Background and significance, active engagement, organizational capacity, dissemination plan, and ACF priority alignment are each worth 10 points. Participation in the research consortium and cross-project collaboration is worth 5 points, and the line-item budget and budget narrative are worth 5 points. Applicants should demonstrate that the proposed strategy is ready for rigorous evaluation, provide technically sound methods and adequate data access, establish a genuine and functional partnership, provide a feasible project timeline, and explain how results will inform policy and practice. ACF may fund applications in whole or in part, make awards below requested amounts, or make no awards. Successful applicants receive an official Notice of Award electronically. Applications are due September 8, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time for electronic submissions. An optional notice of intent is due August 24, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time and may be emailed to IntegrityEval@icf.com, but it is not required to apply and does not control advancement. The expected project start date is September 30, 2026. No recurring application cycle is stated. The program contact is Krystal Bichay-Awadalla at IntegrityEval@icf.com or 877-350-5913. The grants management contact is Telina Bennett-Reed at Telina.bennett@acf.hhs.gov or 202-401-4609. After award, recipients must submit performance and financial reports semiannually and comply with the Notice of Award, applicable federal regulations, HHS grants policies, and ACF requirements.

Address program integrity and fraud prevention directly and show the selected strategy is ready for rigorous evaluation; provide a clear theory of change and detailed logic model; make research questions and methods technically rigorous and feasible, with sufficient sample size and appropriate data access; demonstrate genuine CCDF Lead Agency and research partner collaboration; plan for preliminary findings by the end of Year 2; budget for required consortium and conference participation; follow the required headings, formatting, two-file structure, and 100-page combined limit because excess or noncompliant pages may be removed before merit review; emphasize substance and measurable outcomes; align with applicable ACF priorities; provide a comprehensive plain-language dissemination and preregistration plan.