Early Childhood Developmental Health System: Implementation in a High Need State | HRSA 17 125

Opportunity Information: Apply for HRSA 17 125

The Early Childhood Developmental Health System: Implementation in a High Need State grant opportunity (HRSA 17-125) is a federally funded effort from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), designed to strengthen child health outcomes by building and testing a statewide system for early childhood developmental screening and intervention. The program centers on the idea that many developmental concerns can be identified earlier, addressed more effectively, and prevented from becoming more severe when a state has a coordinated, high-quality process for screening young children and linking families to appropriate services. The opportunity aligns with priorities described in the Joint Explanatory Statement accompanying the FY 2017 Consolidated Appropriations Act, signaling that Congress intended HRSA to support work that can demonstrate measurable improvements and generate lessons other jurisdictions can apply.

A defining feature of this opportunity is its focus on a "high need" state, meaning the funded project is expected to operate in a setting where children face elevated risks that tend to correlate with poorer developmental and health outcomes. The description specifically points to risk factors such as high poverty rates among children under age five, high rates of low birthweight infants, and low rates of early childhood developmental screenings. These indicators matter because they often track with barriers like limited access to consistent primary care, fewer community-based early intervention resources, transportation and scheduling challenges for families, and gaps in coordination between health, education, and social service systems. In practical terms, the grant is meant to help a state move from fragmented or inconsistent screening practices to a more reliable and equitable approach that reaches more children and connects them to help sooner.

The program is structured as a cooperative agreement, which typically means HRSA expects to have substantial involvement in the project beyond simply issuing funds. While the summary does not list the specific forms of involvement, cooperative agreements often include ongoing technical assistance, required reporting, collaborative planning, and active federal participation in shaping evaluation and dissemination. The intent is not only to run a program, but to implement it in a way that produces credible evidence about what works, for whom, and under what conditions.

The work supported under this opportunity has three major thrusts. First, the state is expected to implement a high-quality statewide early childhood developmental health system, with an emphasis on screening and interventions. This implies building or strengthening the infrastructure needed to make routine developmental screening more common and more consistent across pediatric and family medicine settings, and to ensure that positive screens lead to timely referrals, follow-up, and services. A "system" in this context typically means the state is expected to address coordination and pathways across multiple programs and settings rather than relying on isolated clinics or local pilots.

Second, the opportunity explicitly funds an evaluative study focused on best practices, policies, and innovations, with the goal of producing findings that can serve as a model for other high-need states. That makes the project as much about learning and generating transferable knowledge as it is about delivering services. The evaluation component suggests attention to outcomes at the population level, such as increases in screening rates, improvements in follow-through on referrals, earlier identification of developmental delays, and potentially longer-term indicators tied to child health and readiness. It also implies documenting implementation strategies, policy levers, and operational details that help explain why the system succeeds or struggles, so that other states can replicate effective approaches rather than starting from scratch.

Third, the grant includes development and use of an early childhood cross-systems workforce program. This speaks to a common challenge in early childhood developmental health: even when screening increases, families can get lost between health care providers, early intervention programs, schools, and community supports. A cross-systems workforce approach usually aims to build shared competencies and coordination across professionals who touch a child's developmental pathway, potentially including clinicians, nurses, care coordinators, early intervention specialists, home visiting staff, and others who help families navigate services. The focus is on ensuring the workforce is prepared to operate within an integrated statewide system, communicate effectively across agencies and disciplines, and reduce gaps between identification and intervention.

Administratively, the opportunity was listed as discretionary funding with a health activity category and CFDA number 93.110. The agency anticipated making a single award (ExpectedAwards: 1), indicating a competitive selection process intended to concentrate resources in one state-level effort rather than spreading smaller awards across multiple sites. The listing shows an award ceiling of 0, which commonly indicates the ceiling was not specified in the summary field and would need to be confirmed in the full funding announcement. The opportunity was created July 19, 2017, with an original closing date of August 18, 2017. Eligibility is noted as "Others" with clarification referenced in an additional eligibility section, meaning applicants would have needed to consult the full announcement for the exact eligible entity types (for example, whether eligibility included state agencies, universities, nonprofits, or partnerships).

Overall, this grant opportunity is best understood as a combined implementation-and-learning initiative: it funds the build-out of a statewide developmental screening and intervention system in a high-need environment, requires rigorous evaluation of the strategies and policies used, and invests in a workforce approach that bridges traditionally separate systems. The broader federal goal is not only to improve outcomes within the funded state, but also to produce practical, evidence-informed models that other states facing similar risks can adopt to improve early childhood developmental health at scale.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Early Childhood Developmental Health System: Implementation in a High Need State" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.110.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jul 19, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 18, 2017. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for HRSA 17 125

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