Link to an amendment published at 81 FR 90569, Dec. 14, 2016.

This amendment was delayed until Oct. 1, 2020, at 83 FR 42225, Aug. 21, 2018.

This amendment was further delayed until Oct. 1, 2022, at 85 FR 28410, May 12, 2020.

(a) Scope. State and tribal title IV-E agencies must follow the requirements of this section and appendices A through E of this part until September 30, 2022. As of October 1, 2022, state and tribal title IV-E agencies must comply with §§1355.41 through 1355.47.

(b) Scope of the data collection system.

(1) Each title IV-E agency which administers or supervises the administration of titles IV-B and IV-E must implement a system to collect data. The data reporting system must meet the requirements of §1355.40(c) and electronically report certain data regarding children in foster care and adoption. The foster care data elements are listed and defined in Appendix A to this part and the adoption data elements are listed and defined in Appendix B to this part.

(2) For the purposes of foster care reporting, each data transmission must include all children in foster care for whom the title IV-E agency has responsibility for placement, care, or supervision. This includes American Indian children covered under the assurances in section 422(b)(8) of the Act on the same basis as any other child. For children in care less than 30 days, only a core set of information will be required, as noted in Appendix A to this part. For children who enter foster care prior to October 1, 1995 and who are still in the system, core data elements will be required; in addition, the title IV-E agency also will be required to report on the most recent case plan goal affecting those children. For children in out-of-State placement, the State placing the child and making the foster care payment submits and continually updates the data. For children in the Tribal title IV-E agency's placement and care responsibility who are placed outside of the Tribal service area, the Indian Tribe placing the child and making foster care payments submits and continually updates the data for each such child.

(3) For the purposes of adoption reporting, data are required to be transmitted by the title IV-E agency on all adopted children who were placed by the title IV-E agency, and on all adopted children for whom the agency is providing adoption assistance (either ongoing or for nonrecurring expenses), care or services directly or by contract or agreement with other private or public agencies. Full adoption data as specified in appendix B to this part are required only for children adopted after the implementation date of October 1, 1994. For children adopted prior to October 1, 1994, who are continuing to receive title IV-E subsidies, aggregate data are to be reported. For a child adopted out-of-State, the title IV-E agency which placed the child submits the data. Similarly, the Tribal title IV-E agency which placed the child outside of the Tribal service area for adoption submits the data.

(c) Foster care and adoption reporting requirements.

(1) The title IV-E agency shall transmit semi-annually, within 45 days of the end of the reporting period (i.e., by May 15 and November 14), information on each child in foster care and each child adopted during the reporting period. The information to be reported consists of the data elements found in appendices A and B to this part. The data must be extracted from the data system as of the last day of the reporting period and must be submitted in electronic form as described in appendix C to this part and in record layouts as delineated in appendix D to this part.

(2) For foster care information, the child-specific data to be transmitted must reflect the data in the information system when the data are extracted. Dates of removal from the home and discharge from foster care must be entered in accordance with paragraph (d)(1) of this section. The date of the most recent periodic review (either administrative or court) must be entered for children who have been in foster care for more than nine months. Entry of this date constitutes title IV-E agency certification that the data on the child have been reviewed and are current.

(3) Adoption data are to be reported during the reporting period in which the adoption is legalized or, at the title IV-E agency's option, in the following reporting period if the adoption is legalized within the last 60 days of the reporting period. For a semi-annual period in which no adoptions have been legalized, the title IV-E agency must report such an occurrence.

(4) A summary file of the semi-annual data transmission must be submitted and will be used to verify the completeness of the title IV-E agency's detailed submission for the reporting period.

(5) A variety of internal data consistency checks will be used to judge the internal consistency of the semi-annual detailed data submission. These are specified in Appendix E to this part.

(d) Missing data standards.

(1) The term “missing data” refers to instances where no data have been entered, if applicable, for a particular data element. In addition, all data elements which fail a consistency check for a particular case will be converted to missing data. All data which are “out of range” (i.e., the response is beyond the parameters allowed for that particular data element) will also be converted to missing data. Details of the circumstances under which data will be converted to missing data are specified in appendix E to this part. Data elements with responses of “cannot be determined” or “not yet determined” are not considered as having missing data.

(2) Substantial noncompliance occurs when missing data exceed 10 percent for any one data element.

(e) Timeliness of foster care data reports. Ninety percent of the subject transactions must have been entered into the system within 60 days of the event (removal from home or discharge from foster care) or the title IV-E agency will be found in substantial noncompliance.

(f) Substantial noncompliance. Failure by a title IV-E agency to meet any of the standards described in paragraphs (b) through (e) of this section is considered a substantial failure to meet the requirements of the title IV-E plan.

(This requirement has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget under OMB Control Number 0980-0267. In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.)

[58 FR 67924, Dec. 22, 1993, as amended at 60 FR 40507, Aug. 9, 1995; 65 FR 4084, Jan. 25, 2000; 66 FR 58676, Nov. 23, 2001; 77 FR 932, Jan. 6, 2012; 81 FR 90569, Dec. 14, 2016; 83 FR 42227, Aug. 21, 2018; 85 FR 28424, May 12, 2020]