This project’s overarching goal is to develop a research plan for a rigorous evaluation of the implementation and outcomes of subsidy payment rate and family co-payment policies and practices on families’ access to quality care in the District of Columbia. The project team will employ elements of community-engaged methods to engage child care providers and families along with quantitative analyses during the planning grant period to: understand subsidy implementation from the perspective of OSSE stakeholders and subsidy case workers, understand subsidy policies from the perspective of child care providers, document families’ perspectives, and document baseline conditions about the provider sector. Expected products from the planning grant include: a detailed four-year plan to evaluate the implementation and outcomes of changes in child care subsidy policy that will include technical details about the samples and measures used to collect data from child care subsidy case workers, providers, and families, including measures and scales we will use in coordination with other researchers; presentations at the Child Care and Early Education Research Partnership Conferences (CCEEPRC); and a brief and blog post summarizing key findings from the planning grant.(author abstract)