Childcare funding glossary — Childcare Grant Guide

CACFP (Child and Adult Care Food Program): A USDA program that reimburses providers for qualifying meals and snacks. It is reimbursement, not a grant — year-round revenue most family child care providers under-use. Home providers join through a sponsoring organization.
CACFP sponsoring organization: A local agency that enrolls home providers in CACFP, trains them on meal patterns, reviews records, and passes reimbursement through. Centers can participate directly or via a sponsor.
CCDBG (Child Care and Development Block Grant): The annually appropriated, discretionary piece of CCDF — $8.831 billion for FY2026. It's the 'regular' federal childcare fund, distinct from the one-time ARPA stabilization money that ended.
CCDF (Child Care and Development Fund): The main federal childcare funding stream. It combines the discretionary block grant (CCDBG) and a mandatory entitlement, and it flows to states — not directly to providers. Your state turns it into the programs you actually apply to.
CCDF Lead Agency: The single state agency that receives CCDF money and runs the state's childcare programs — licensing, subsidy, quality grants. It's the place to search first; everything provider-facing traces back to it.
CCR&R (Child Care Resource & Referral): Local agencies that support providers and often administer quality micro-grants and training. Your CCR&R is the best phone call for confirming whether a grant is real and open.
EHS-CCP (Early Head Start–Child Care Partnerships): A model where a local Early Head Start grantee partners with childcare providers — including family child care homes — to serve low-income infants and toddlers, adding funding plus coaching and supplies. You partner with a grantee; you don't apply to the federal government.
EIN (Employer Identification Number): A free federal tax ID from the IRS. It lets a home provider avoid handing out a Social Security number and is required for most grant applications and W-9s. Applying is free and immediate — any site charging for one is a scam.
Licensed vs. license-exempt: Whether your state formally licenses or approves you to operate. Nearly every funding stream requires a license; license-exempt providers are locked out of most of it. Getting licensed is the highest-leverage funding move you can make.
Mixed delivery: When publicly funded pre-K is offered through community childcare programs, not just public schools. It's a major revenue stream for small centers; participation by family child care homes is legally possible in some states but still rare.
QRIS (Quality Rating and Improvement System): Your state's system for rating childcare quality. Ratings unlock money: tiered (higher) reimbursement, bonuses, achievement grants, and scholarships. Climbing tiers raises your per-child revenue without raising tuition.
Quality set-aside: The share of CCDF a state must spend on quality — at least 9%, plus 3% for infant/toddler quality. This is the pot that becomes provider micro-grants, startup grants, and QRIS incentives.
Section 45F: The federal employer-provided child care tax credit, expanded and effective for tax year 2026. It gives local employers a reason to contract with a licensed provider — the provider doesn't claim the credit but is the facility the employer pays.
Subsidy (voucher) reimbursement: Payment from the state for serving children whose families qualify for childcare assistance. Not a grant — it's ongoing revenue, and enrolling as a subsidy provider is the gateway to most other funding.
Time-Space Percentage: The formula home providers use to figure out what share of household expenses (rent, utilities, etc.) is a deductible business cost, based on the time and space used for child care. Central to family child care taxes — ask a tax pro who knows the rules.

Childcare funding has its own alphabet soup — CCDF, CACFP, QRIS, EHS-CCP. Here’s the plain-English version of the terms you’ll actually run into.

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