Administration for Children and Families – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of Head Start, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), is proposing to collect data for a new evaluation of a trauma-informed care program that will include a small randomized controlled trial across 10 sites within Head Start Region V. The goals of the project are to identify the implementation supports and methods needed to enable teachers to effectively implement Trauma-Informed Care in early care and education programs, and to evaluate its outcomes. Information collected will be used to inform ongoing training and technical assistance (TTA) work provided by the Head Start Centers, particularly decisions regarding allocation of TTA resources. More generally, results may inform OHS guidance around social-emotional programming.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is proposing to continue use of a coronavirus (COVID- 19) screening tool for unaccompanied children (UC) program staff and visitors at ORR care provider facilities.

Pursuant to section 814 of the Native American Programs Act of 1974 (NAPA), as amended, ANA is required to provide members of the public an opportunity to comment on proposed changes in interpretive rules and general statements of policy and to give notice of the proposed changes no less than 30 days before such changes become effective. On February 19, 2021, ANA published a Notice of Public Comment (NOPC) in the Federal Register regarding its proposed interpretive rules and general statements of policy relative to its six FY 2021 Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs): Environmental Regulatory Enhancement (HHS-2021-ACF-ANA-NR-1907); Native American Language Preservation and MaintenanceEsther Martinez Immersion (HHS-2021-ACF-ANA-NB-1958); Native American Language Preservation and Maintenance (HHS-2021-ACF-ANA-NL-1924); Social and Economic Development Strategies (HHS-2021-ACF-ANA-NA-1906); Social and Economic Development StrategiesAlaska (HHS-2021-ACF-ANA-NK-1902); and Social and Economic StrategiesGrowing Organizations (HHS-2021-ACF- ANA-NN-1918). This Notice of Issuance responds to the public comments received from the NOPC.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), is requesting the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve the Intergovernmental Reference Guide (IRG), with content revisions, for an additional three years. The IRG contains state and tribal child support information that assists child support enforcement (CSE) agencies in the administration of their respective programs. The current OMB approval expires on January 31, 2022.

The Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), is requesting the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approve the ``Child Support Portal Registration,'' with revisions, for an additional three years. OCSE's Child Support Portal (``Portal'') contains applications to assist state child support agencies with administering their programs. Authorized Portal users must register with OCSE to access Portal applications and provide OCSE with certain preferences. The current OMB approval expires on February 28, 2022.

This is a new request for data collection for the Study of Disability Services Coordinators and Inclusion in Head Start. The study aims to provide a nationally representative picture of the Early Head Start (EHS) and Head Start (HS) Disability Services Coordinator (DSC) workforce, as well as services provided to children with disabilities and their families within these programs and how EHS/HS collaborates with services in the community, including health providers, Local Education Agencies, and Part C. This is the first study of the HS/EHS DSC workforce and will contain three waves of data collection using surveys and qualitative interviews.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is requesting approval for a new information collection: National Human Trafficking Hotline (NHTH) Performance Indicators.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), plans to request from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) an extension to complete data collection for a two-wave COVID-19 Follow-up data collection currently underway as part of the National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE). The objective of the NSECE COVID-19 Follow-up is to document the nation's current supply of early care and education services (that is, home-based providers, center-based providers, and the center-based provider workforce). There are no changes proposed.

ACF, ORR, announces the issuance of one OPDIV-Initiated Supplement to BCFS HHS, San Antonio, Texas in the amount of up to $475,868,102. ORR has been identifying additional capacity to provide shelter for potential increases in apprehensions of UAC at the Southwest Border. Planning for increased shelter capacity is a prudent step to ensure that ORR is able to meet its responsibility, by law, to provide shelter for UAC referred to its care by the Department of Homeland Security. To ensure sufficient capacity to provide shelter to UAC referred to HHS, ORR is requesting that BCFS HHS continue the use of up to 1008 hard-sided beds at Carrizo Springs, Texas.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeks approval to collect new information to use in testing measures of the implementation and costs of high-quality early care and education as part of the project, Assessing the Implementation and Cost of High-Quality Early Care and Education (ECE-ICHQ). The study received approval for a field test to validate and improve the psychometric properties of these measures in November 2019. This request is to add a measure to the approved field test to help further assess the associations between measures of implementation, cost, and quality.

The Office of Community Services (OCS) requests a three-year extension of the forms Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) State Plan, CSBG Eligible Entity Master List, and the American Customer Survey Index (ACSI) (OMB #0970-0382, expiration 6/30/2021). There are minimal changes requested to the State Plan and the Master List. No changes are proposed to the ACSI.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Child Care (OCC) is requesting a 3-year extension of the Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program: Guidance for Submitting an Annual Report to the Secretary (OMB #0970- 0409; expiration 9/30/2021). There are minor updates to the annual guidance which reflects a change in timing for the due date of the final report.

The Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is requesting the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approve the ``State SNAP Agency NDNH Matching Program Performance Report,'' with minor revisions, for an additional three years. State agencies administering their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provide the annual performance report to OCSE in accordance with the computer matching agreement between state SNAP agencies and OCSE. The current OMB approval expires on February 28, 2022.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is proposing a new information collection to assess the implementation of Project Connect, a comprehensive home visitation intervention that provides home-based services and treatment to child welfare-involved, substance-affected families with children and adolescents ages 0 to 17.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) seeks approval for a revision to an existing information collection, requesting Refugee Support Services (RSS) grantees and RSS Set Aside grantees to provide the agency name, city, state, website, and funding amount for each contracted sub-grantee. Additionally, ORR seeks approval to have the option to make this information public. This would enhance the accessibility of refugee service provider information to eligible clients in support of the service referral responsibilities of the State Refugee Coordinators. Similar information for ORR's discretionary grants is currently made public.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is requesting a three-year extension of the ORR Cash and Medical Assistance (CMA) Program Quarterly Report on Expenditures and Obligations (ORR-2) (OMB #0970-0407, expiration 8/31/2021). There are no changes requested to the form.

The Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) Program provides healthcare occupational training for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients and other low-income people. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved various data collection activities for the National and Tribal Evaluation of the 2nd Generation of HPOG (HPOG 2.0 National and Tribal Evaluation) under OMB #0970-0462. Due to the profound effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the U.S. economy, on families nationwide and on HPOG 2.0 programs, the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) is considering surveying study participants who applied to the HPOG Program after the onset of the pandemic. This notice provides a summary for public review and comment of the use and burden associated with a new information collection for this ``COVID Cohort'' Survey.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) proposes to extend data collection under the existing overarching Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery (OMB #0970-0401). There are no changes to the proposed types of information collection or uses of data, but ACF is requesting an increase to the estimated number of respondents.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is requesting reinstatement of the activities associated with the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSR) collection (OMB #0970-0214). Revisions have been made to the forms to clarify instructions and incorporate new guidance. The activities associated with the Title IV-E Foster Care Eligibility Reviews and Anti-Discrimination Enforcement Corrective Action Plans have been removed from this collection.

The Division of Program Innovation (DPI), Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is requesting a 3-year extension of the Access and Visitation Survey: Annual Report (OMB #0970-0204, expiration 10/31/2021). There are no changes requested to the form.

The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is requesting a 3-year extension with changes to continue collecting data for the study Variations in Implementation of Quality Interventions (VIQI). In addition to extending data collection, OPRE proposes to update burden estimates to accommodate a different sample size of centers, administrators, teachers, and coaches; to revise data collection instruments and activities for the impact evaluation and process study in line with lessons learned during the pilot study; to add a second timepoint of data collection for the teacher reports to questions about children; to provide one new instrument to collect parent report of children's skills and behaviors; and to provide one new instrument in anticipation of COVID-19 necessitating further information gathering to contextualize findings from the impact evaluation and process study.

The Office of Community Services (OCS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is requesting expedited review of an information collection request from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and is inviting public comments on the collection of data for the new Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) CARES Act Supplemental and CSBG Disaster Supplemental funding. This information is collected through modified versions of the currently approved CSBG Annual Report (OMB #0970-0492, expiration 5/31/2021).

Notice is hereby given, pursuant to the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) and the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, that a meeting of the National Advisory Committee on the Sex Trafficking of Children and Youth in the United States (Committee) will be held on May 5 and 6, 2021. The purpose of the meeting is for the Committee to discuss state efforts in implementing the recommendations described in its interim report, ``Best Practices and Recommendations for States,'' progress in states responding to the Committee's State Self-Assessment Survey, and plans for the Committee's final report. The members of the Committee request any examples and comments from the public to inform their work and have also requested input pertaining to the recommendations in its interim report, as well as the State Self-Assessment Survey. Please submit your examples and/or comments to NAC@nhttac.org with the subject ``NAC Comments'' as soon as possible and before May 1, 2021.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is requesting a 3-year extension of the Interstate Administrative Subpoena and Notice of Interstate Lien forms (OMB #0970-0152, expiration 7/31/ 2021). There are no changes requested to these forms.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is requesting approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for a new data collection. The Supporting Youth to be Successful in Life study (SYSIL) will build evidence on how to end homelessness among youth and young adults with experience in the child welfare system by continuing work with an organization who conducted foundational work as part of the Youth At-Risk of Homelessness project (OMB Control Number: 0970-0445). SYSIL will provide important information to the field by designing and conducting a federally led evaluation of a comprehensive service model for youth at risk of homelessness.