(a) The State plan shall provide for the establishment or designation of a single and separate organizational unit to administer the IV-D plan. Such unit is referred to as the IV-D agency. Under this requirement:

(1) The IV-D agency may be:

(i) Located in any other agency of the State; or,

(ii) Established as a new agency of the State.

(2) The IV-D agency shall be responsible and accountable for the operation of the IV-D program. Except as provided in §303.20 of this part, the agency need not perform all the functions of the IV-D program so long as it insures that all these functions are being carried out properly, efficiently, and effectively;

(3) If the IV-D agency delegates any of the functions of the IV-D program to any other State or local agency or official, or any official with whom a cooperative agreement as described in §302.34 has been entered into or purchases services from any person or private agency pursuant to §304.22 of this part, the IV-D agency shall have responsibility for securing compliance with the requirements of the State plan by such agency or officials.

(b) The State plan shall describe the structure of the IV-D agency and the distribution of responsibilities among the major divisions within the unit, and if it is located within another agency, show its place in such agency. If any of the IV-D program functions are to be performed outside of the IV-D agency then these functions shall be listed with the name of the organization responsible for performing them.

(Approved by the Office of Management and Budget under control number 0960-0253)

[40 FR 27159, June 26, 1975, as amended at 51 FR 37731, Oct. 24, 1986; 64 FR 6247, Feb. 9, 1999]