Report Materials
Why OIG Did This Audit
- The American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021 appropriated $24 billion for child care stabilization grants with the goal of providing financial relief to child care providers to help pay for costs associated with the COVID-19 public health emergency and stabilize the child care market.
- States were required to use most of their ARP grant funding to award subgrants to child care providers. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) must review and monitor States’ child care stabilization grant programs for compliance with ARP and other Federal requirements.
- This audit identified how 15 selected States used ARP-funded child care stabilization grants and included a review of ACF’s oversight activities related to these funds.
What OIG Found
- The selected States varied in their determination of subgrant award amounts, frequency of provider payments, and allowable use of funds. Also, States reported experiencing challenges in implementing subgrant programs such as developing application systems and State-specific challenges.
- ACF conducted monitoring activities to oversee States’ ARP child care stabilization grant programs, including monthly interviews with State officials and collecting and reviewing State subgrant award data; however, not all ARP provisions were monitored by these activities. In addition, ACF did not require States to develop internal controls to ensure integrity and accountability of their ARP child care stabilization grant programs.
- ACF used State-reported program data to publish fact sheets on States’ subgrant programs that were not always reliable or accurate.
What OIG Recommends
We made three recommendations to ACF, including that it develop a written plan to effectively monitor States’ compliance with requirements for future child care emergency assistance programs. The full recommendations are in the report. ACF concurred with our recommendations and provided information on actions it has taken or plans to take to address them.
25-A-02-110.01 to ACF - Open Unimplemented
Update expected on
02/26/2026
We recommend that the Administration for Children and Families develop a written plan that can be quickly tailored to fit the circumstances, in the event of future funding of new, emergency, or temporary CCDF programs that includes procedures to identify the key compliance provisions of the authorizing and appropriating legislation, effectively monitor compliance with key provisions, and assess and update the plan as program risk areas are identified.
25-A-02-110.02 to ACF - Open Unimplemented
Update expected on
02/26/2026
We recommend that the Administration for Children and Families strengthen its procedures to assess the reliability of State-reported program data, collected for emergency, or temporary CCDF programs, prior to publishing such data.
25-A-02-110.03 to ACF - Open Unimplemented
Update expected on
02/26/2026
We recommend that the Administration for Children and Families establish requirements that States develop internal controls and identify areas of risk for future emergency, or temporary CCDF programs.
View in Recommendation Tracker
Notice
This report may be subject to section 5274 of the National Defense Authorization Act Fiscal Year 2023, 117 Pub. L. 263.