So many people have this question!
Today we got asked:
When are the Early Head Start Child Care grants going to be released?
Truthfully, we don’t exactly know. We expect that the funding opportunities will follow the (sort of) standard Office of Head Start format:
You may know that OHS has, for the last couple of years, been really focused on the Designation Renewal Systems grants. Right now they are in the middle of their 3rd round – so we can look back on rounds one and two to anticipate how they might release the EHS-CC funding.
In the first two rounds of DRS, the first step on the timeline was an announcement in the Department of Health and Human Services’ grants forecast webpage. How would you know about the forecast? It is not completely obvious so we’d like to share our process.
Everyday, we lot onto the DHHS grants forecast page: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/hhsgrantsforecast/ (first red arrow) and then we click on our Agency (second red arrow, middle blue box): ACF (Administration for Children and Families).
Now, start at the right arrow and ask it to search on 93.600 (Head Start programs), then go to the left arrow and ask it to show 100 records (25 is the default ), and finally, the middle arrow, sort by last updated. You have to click on this twice – first it will show the most historical but when you click it a second time the most recent updates will be at the top.
Then you’ll see that the last modified (left circle) have the status ‘forecasted’. That means then have NOT been posted to grants.gov. We just expect that they will be, at some point.
So – in OHS’s most recent funding cycles (Rounds 1 and 2 of DRS) this is where we got the first real clue that the FOAs (funding opportunity announcements = the official word that money is available) were on the way. We recommend that you keep an eye on this, too.
Also, sign up to follow this blog – we’ll let you know about these things.
Thank you.
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Whether your agency might apply to be an EHS-CC Partnership grantee or your child care program is a solid partnership candidate, there’s a lot to consider. We can help analyze the opportunity, prepare a competitive grant proposal, or design and implement a high quality 18-month start-up plan. If we can’t, we will connect you with the right resources to support your efforts. Give us a call to discuss your situation: 703-599-4329 or [email protected]