USDA, Food and Consumer Service, Contract Management Branch, 3101 Park Center Drive, Room 914, Alexandria, VA 22302

B -- FDCHS LEGISLATIVE CHANGES STUDY SOL FCS97-016TRB POC Tonia Bloss, Contract Specialist (703)305-1532 The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Service (FCS) intends to solicit competitive proposals for advisory and assistance services to conduct the Family Day Care Homes (FDCHs) Legislative Changes Study. FCS is Congressionally mandated to study the response of the child component of the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) to changes in the way reimbursements are made to family day care homes. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 will introduce means testing to family day care homes, changing the way meal reimbursements are made. The FDCHs Legislative Changes Study will describe CACFP participation, program characteristics and operations, meal quality, and participating children's family incomes before and after means testing takes effect in homes. The information produced by this study will allow FCS to report to Congress on how CACFP sponsors and homes have responded to changes in meal reimbursements. The Early Childhood and Child Care Study, conducted in 1995, will provide much of the baseline data for comparisons with the post means testing data collected by this study. The base contract will describe participation rates and program operations. Option 1 will look at meal quality in a subset of homes, making comparisons to 1995. Option 2 will investigate reasons homes dropped out of CACFP following the introduction of means testing. Option 3 will look at meal quality in homes that dropped out of CACFP, making comparisons to 1995. Option 4 will estimate family incomes of children in homes, making comparisons to 1995. Option 5 will determine the accuracy of sponsors' classifications of (a) Tier 1 homes and (b) low-income children in Tier 2 homes. The FDCHs Legislative Changes Study will use FCS administrative data and other extant data. It will collect data from FDCH sponsors in CACFP, homes in CACFP, and families with children in CACFP. The estimated period of performance is 46 calendar months from date of award. The RFP will be issued on or aboutJune 9, 1997. All requests for the RFP/solicitation package must be in writing and must include four (4) self-addressed mailing labels. Requests should be submitted to Tonia Bloss, USDA Food and Consumer Service, Contract Management Branch, 3101 Park Center Drive, Room 914, Alexandria, VA 22302. Telephone requests will not be honored. This solicitation is subject to receipt of USDA departmental clearance and approval for Advisory and Assistance services. No award may be made prior to receiving this clearance. When the Request for Proposal is released, interested parties may view the text (excluding forms) on the FCS Home Page at the following address: http://www.usda.gov/fcs/contract.htm (0140)

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