[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 45, Volume 4]
[Revised as of October 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 45CFR1355.40]

[Page 271-273]
 
                        TITLE 45--PUBLIC WELFARE
 
CHAPTER XIII--OFFICE OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH 
                           AND HUMAN SERVICES
 
PART 1355--GENERAL--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 1355.40  Foster care and adoption data collection.

    (a) Scope of the data collection system. (1) Each State which 
administers or supervises the administration of titles IV-B and IV-E 
must implement a system that begins to collect data on October 1, 1994. 
The first transmission must be received in ACF no later than May 15, 
1995. The data reporting system must meet the requirements of 
Sec. 1355.40(b) 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 State's data 
transmission must include all children in foster care for whom the State 
title IV-B/IV-E agency has responsibility for placement, care, or 
supervision. This includes American Indian children covered under the 
assurances in section 422(b)(10) 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, 
States will also 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.
    (3) For the purposes of adoption reporting, data are required to be 
transmitted by the State on all adopted children who were placed by the 
State title IV-B/IV-E agency, and on all adopted children for whom the 
State 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 State which placed the child submits the data.
    (b) Foster care and adoption reporting requirements. (1) The State 
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

[[Page 272]]

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 
State 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 State'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, States 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 State'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.
    (c) 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) For missing data in excess of 10 percent for any one data 
element, the penalty will be applied.
    (3) The penalties for missing data are specified in paragraph (e) of 
this section.
    (d) Timeliness of foster care data reports. (1) For each child, a 
computer generated transaction date must reflect the actual date of data 
entry and must accompany the date of latest removal from the home and 
the date of exit from foster care. 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).
    (2) Penalties shall be invoked as provided in paragraph (e) of this 
section.
    (e) Penalties. (1) Failure by a State to meet any of the standards 
described in paragraphs (a) through (d) of this section is considered a 
substantial failure to meet the requirements of the title IV-E State 
plan. Penalties for substantial noncompliance will be assessed semi-
annually against a State's title IV-E administrative cost reimbursement 
in an amount that is equal to no more than 10 percent of the State's 
annual share of title IV-B funds above the base appropriation of $141 
million. The amount of incentive funds, section 427 of the Act, against 
which a penalty can be assessed will remain the same as the amount 
promulgated as being available to the States as of June 30, 1993, the 
date of issuance of the amount of section 427 funds for fiscal year 1993 
(see Appendix F to this part). The penalties will be calculated and 
applied regardless of any determination of compliance with the 
requirements of section 427, and regardless of whether any State has 
withdrawn its certification with respect to section 427. Years One 
through three (October 1, 1994 through September 30, 1997) will be three 
penalty-free years of operation. Year Four (October 1, 1997 through 
September 30, 1998) will be at half penalty and Year Five (October 1, 
1998 through September 30, 1999) and thereafter will be at full penalty. 
The maximum annual penalty is 20 percent.

[[Page 273]]

    (2) Penalties will be assessed semi-annually against a State's title 
IV-E administrative cost reimbursement for the period in which the 
noncompliance occurred and any subsequent period of noncompliance. 
Following a decision sustaining ACYF's proposed action, funds will be 
recovered until the State demonstrates, by submitting an acceptable 
report, that it will no longer fail to comply.
    (3) Half of the maximum allowable assessed penalty for a given 
reporting period is applicable to foster care reporting and half to 
adoption reporting.
    (4) The penalty for foster care reporting will be applied for any 
semi-annual period when a State fails to meet one or more of the 
following criteria:
    (i) Fails to submit the report within 45 days of the end of the 
reporting period as specified in paragraphs (b)(1) and (b)(2) of this 
section; or
    (ii) There is one or more element which exceeds the level of 
tolerance for missing data as specified in paragraphs (c)(1) and (c)(2) 
of this section; or
    (iii) Fails to meet the timeliness standards as specified in 
paragraph (d)(1) of this section.
    (5) The penalty for adoption reporting will be applied for any semi-
annual period when a State fails to meet one or more of the following 
criteria:
    (i) Fails to submit the report within 45 days of the end of the 
reporting period as specified in paragraphs (b)(1) and (b)(3) of this 
section; or
    (ii) There is one or more element which exceeds the level of 
tolerance for missing data as specified in paragraphs (c)(1) and (c)(2) 
of this section.

(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]