Administration for Children and Families February 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Administration for Children and Families published a document in the Federal Register of February 17, 2015, concerning a request for comments on a proposed information collection. The document contained an incorrect citation.

Pursuant to the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007, Public Law 110-134, notice is hereby given of one 1-day Tribal Consultation Session to be held between the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Head Start leadership and the leadership of Tribal Governments operating Head Start (including Early Head Start) programs. The purpose of this Consultation Session is to discuss ways to better meet the needs of American Indian and Alaska Native children and their families, taking into consideration funding allocations, distribution formulas, and other issues affecting the delivery of Head Start services in their geographic locations [42 U.S.C. 9835, Section 640(l)(4)].

This rule will ensure the neediest children and families in our country benefit from Head Start services first.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) proposes to amend the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) regulations. This notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) builds on an earlier proposed rule, published January 11, 2008 that addressed the requirements for State title IV-E agencies to collect and report data to ACF on children who are in out-of-home care and in subsidized adoption or guardianship arrangements with the State and AFCARS penalty requirements of the Adoption Promotion Act of 2003. This NPRM proposes many of the same changes and additions as the earlier NPRM and includes several new modifications to address changes made by the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, such as collecting and reporting data related to the title IV-E guardianship assistance program, sibling placement, the extension of title IV-E assistance to children age 18 or older, educational stability plans and transition plans for children in foster care and the inclusion of Tribal title IV-E agencies. Additionally, modifications were made to address new requirements in the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, which was enacted on September 29, 2014 to include information on: Victims of sex trafficking, children in foster care who are pregnant or parenting, and children in non-foster family settings.

The Voluntary Agencies Matching Grant Program was created by Congress in 1979. The program is intended to work in consort with the Refugee and Cuban & Haitian Entrant Reception and Placement (R&P) programs. Thus, competition under the Voluntary Agency Matching Grant Program has historically been limited to those voluntary agencies providing R&P services through cooperative agreements with the Department of State or the Department of Homeland Security. Congress confirmed this approach to the program in the 1986 Refugee Assistance Extension Act. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has determined that using the solicited single-source application process is in the best interest of the government as it will achieve the same result and is more cost effective than the published Funding Opportunity Announcement process.