Administration for Children and Families November 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

As required by section 423(c) of the Social Security Act, the Department is publishing the allotment percentage for each State under the Title IV-B Subpart 1, Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services Program. Under section 423(a), the allotment percentages are one of the factors used in the computation of the Federal grants awarded under the Program.

In October 2014, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) published a notice in the Federal Register (79 FR 61241) with the final plan to replace the statewide data indicators used to determine a state's substantial conformity with titles IV-B and IV-E of the Social Security Act through the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs). In May 2015, ACF published a notice in the Federal Register (80 FR 27263) to correct some of the calculations and language used in the October 2014 notice. After the May 2015 notice, additional technical errors in the syntax and formulation of the statewide data indicators were identified. Some of those errors were discovered by states and other interested parties that operationalized the indicators for continuous quality improvement. Based on the amount of time required to complete a comprehensive review of the syntax, make revisions and validate the accuracy of the calculations; the Children's Bureau (CB) decided to suspend use of the indicators in determinations of substantial conformity during the third round of CFSRs. In October 2016, CB published CFSR Technical Bulletin #9 to inform states of the decision to limit use of the CFSR statewide data indicators and national performance to context information for round three of CFSRs. Since then, CB has thoroughly reviewed, revised, tested, and obtained independent review and validation of the syntax used to perform data quality checks and calculate state performance on the statewide data indicators. Before CB finalizes the revised syntax, and publishes revised performance results for all states and revised national standards, we invite state child welfare agencies, partner organizations, and the public to review, test, and provide comments on the revised syntax used to perform data quality checks and calculate observed performance on the statewide data indicators.

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 (NAC) on the Sex Trafficking of Children and Youth in the United States (Committee) will be held on December 10, 2018. The purpose of the meeting is for the Committee to discuss its duties and information for a draft outline on recommended best practices for States to follow in combating the sex trafficking of children and youth based on multidisciplinary research and promising, evidence-based models and programs. The Committee members will remain in Washington, DC, on December 11, 2018, to conduct internal subcommittee meetings and a fact-finding site visit.

Pursuant to the Native American Programs Act of 1974 (NAPA), as amended, the Administration for Native Americans (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 final adoption of such changes no less than 30 days before such changes become effective. In accordance with notice requirements of NAPA, ANA herein describes proposed interpretive rules and general statements of policy that relate to ANA's funding opportunities beginning in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019. Changes to FY 2019 Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) will be based on the following previously published programs: Environmental Regulatory Enhancement (ERE), HHS-2018-ACF-ANA-NR-1344; Native American Language Preservation and Maintenance-Esther Martinez Immersion (EMI), HHS-2018-ACF-ANA-NB- 1343; Native American Language Preservation and Maintenance (P&M), HHS- 2018-ACF-ANA-NL-1342; Social and Economic Development Strategies (SEDS), HHS-2018-ACF-ANA-NA-1339; Social and Economic Development Strategies-Alaska (SEDS-AK), HHS-2018-ACF-ANA-NK-1340; and Native Youth Initiative for Leadership, Empowerment, and Development (ILEAD), HHS- 2018-ACF-ANA-NC-1341.