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

This document corrects the Regulatory Identification Number (RIN) that appeared in the heading of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published in the Federal Register of March 15, 2018. Through that document, the Children's Bureau proposed to delay the compliance and effective dates in the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) 2016 final rule for title IV-E agencies to comply with agency rules for an additional two fiscal years.

Pursuant to the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007, notice is hereby given of six 1-day Tribal Consultation Sessions to be held between the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Head Start (OHS) leadership and the leadership of tribal governments operating Head Start (including Early Head Start) programs. The purpose of these consultation sessions 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.

The Children's Bureau proposes to delay the compliance and effective dates in the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) 2016 final rule for title IV-E agencies to comply with agency rules for an additional two fiscal years. We propose to delay the compliance and effective dates at the same time we seek public comment through an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM), published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register, on suggestions to streamline the AFCARS data elements and remove any undue burden related to reporting AFCARS.

ACF, ORR, announces the issuance of one OPDIV-Initiated Supplement to BCFS Health and Human Services, San Antonio, TX in the amount of $15,000,000. ORR has been identifying additional capacity to provide shelter for potential increases in apprehensions of Unaccompanied Children at the U.S. Southern 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 Unaccompanied Alien Children referred to its care by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). To ensure sufficient capacity to provide shelter to unaccompanied children referred to HHS, BCFS proposed to provide ORR with 450 beds in an expedited manner.

OHS issues this request for comments to invite public feedback on information we inadvertently omitted from the ``CLASS Condition of the Head Start Designation Renewal System,'' request for comments, published on December 8, 2017. The document withdrawing the ``CLASS Condition of the Head Start Designation Renewal System'' request for comments is published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register. This request for comments is similar to the withdrawn publication in that it invites the public to comment on specific changes OHS is considering for the CLASS condition, as well as other Designation Renewal System (DRS) conditions and processes more broadly. Additionally, OHS seeks comments on ways it can: Incentivize robust competition to include new applicants, facilitate smooth transitions when there is a new grantee as a result of competition, and improve the DRS processes. The comment period is 30 days to allow for the public to address the additional issues in this reissued request for comments. We will consider comments submitted under the ``CLASS Condition of the Head Start Designation Renewal System'' request for comments.