Total Expenditures
o In Fiscal Year1 (FY) 2018, total spending (from all grant years) increased from $8.6 billion in FY 2017 to $9.2 billion in FY 20182.
o Total FY 2018 CCDF expenditures compared to FY 2017 increased by about $594 million. Spending increased in direct services, quality activities, administrative activities, and infant-toddler activities. Spending decreased in non-direct services. Other factors contributing to changes in expenditures include:
- In Grant Year (GY) 2018, states and territories received a $2.37 billion increase in Discretionary funds over GY 2017 Discretionary funds, which was released to states in the third quarter (May) of FY 2018. States show large unobligated funds because of the time needed to pass state legislation and upgrade systems with the increased funds. See the U.S. Government and Accountability Office (GAO) report describing how states plan to use these funds (https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-19-222R ); and
- States transferred more TANF money to CCDF in FY 2018, approximately $1.5 billion compared to $1.28 billion in FY 2017.
o In FY 2018, approximately $42 million in federal Matching funds were not drawn down and thus reallocated to other states in FY 2019: Idaho released $2.4 million; Kansas released $5.8 million; New Hampshire released $223,000; and Tennessee released $33.7 million. This is about $6 million less than the amount of federal Matching funds that was not drawn down in FY 2017.
o In FY 2018, child care expenditures of TANF Direct funds were maintained at $1.5 billion from FY 2017 to FY 2018. This information is reported on the ACF 196 and is not included in the CCDF Expenditure Data tables.
Categorical Expenditures3
o Spending on quality activities, not including infant and toddler quality spending, stayed level at about $1.1 billion in FY 2018 (12% of total spending). In FY 2017, quality spending was $1.1 billion (12% of total spending). States were required to spend 7% of funds on quality in GY 2016 and GY 2017, and 8% of funds on quality in GY 2018.
o In FY 2018, states spent $324 million (4% of total spending) on activities to improve supply and quality of care for infants and toddlers, an increase from the $132 million spent in FY 2017. In GY 2016, states were congressionally mandated to target discretionary funds towards infant and toddler quality activities. Starting in GY 2017, states are required to spend 3% on quality activities for infants and toddlers.
o In FY 2018, $6.9 billion was spent on direct services (75% of total spending). In FY 2017, direct services spending was $6.4 billion (74% of total spending).
o Spending on administrative activities increased from $269 million (3% of total spending) in FY 2017 to $302 million (3% of total spending) in FY 2018. States may not spend more than 5% of funds on administrative activities.
o Non-direct services ($592 million or 6%) activities decreased by $142 million in FY 2018.
GY 2016 Award Summary4
- As of September 30, 2018, cumulative GY 2016 expenditures totaled approximately $8.75 billion. The breakdown of expenditures is:
- 76% ($6.6 billion) on direct services;
- 12% ($1 billion) on quality activities;
- 8% ($665 million) on non-direct services; and
- 3% ($287 million) on administrative activities.
1 Fiscal Year (FY) refers to the period from October 1 through September 30, during which states and territories may spend funds awarded in the current and prior years. Grant Year (GY) refers to the year the funds were awarded, although states and territories may liquidate some CCDF funding streams in later fiscal years
2 These amounts include approximately $29 million in excess state-only expenditures reported as CCDF Match and MOE above the amounts required to drawdown the full CCDF grant award.
3 In FY 2015 and prior years, states were congressionally mandated to target discretionary funds towards quality expansion, infants and toddlers, and resource and referral and school age care. Only targeted discretionary funding for infants and toddlers was required in GY 2016, though the ACF-696 allowed reporting on all three of these categories for GY 2018, GY 2017, and GY 2016. For the purposes of this summary, quality expansion and resource and referral and school age care targeted discretionary spending were collapsed into Quality Activities and spending on infant and toddler discretionary targeted funds were collapsed into Infant and Toddler Quality Activities.
4 GY 2016 is the most recent grant award that has been completely spent down.