45 CFR 1357.15 – Comprehensive child and family services plan requirements
(a) Scope. (1) The CFSP provides an opportunity to lay the groundwork for a system of coordinated, integrated, culturally relevant family focused services. This section describes the requirements for the development, implementation and phase-in of the five-year comprehensive child and family services plan (CFSP). The State’s CFSP must meet the requirements of both of the following programs. The Indian Tribe’s CFSP must meet the requirements of one or both of the following programs depending on the Tribe’s eligibility:
(i) Child welfare services under title IV-B, subpart 1; and
(ii) Family preservation and family support services under title IV-B, subpart 2.
(2) For States only, the CFSP also must contain information on the following programs:
(i) The independent living program under title IV-E, section 477 of the Act; and
(ii) The Child Abuse and Neglect State grant program (known as the Basic State Grant) under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) (42 U.S.C. § 5101 et. seq.).
(3) States must meet all requirements of this section except those that apply only to Indian Tribes. Indian Tribes must meet the requirements of this section only as specified.
(4) States and eligible Indian Tribes have the option to phase-in the requirements for a consolidated CFSP. The consolidated CFSP requirements must be in place by June 30, 1997 and meet the requirements of 45 CFR 1357.16.
(b) Eligibility for funds. (1) In order to receive funding under title IV-B, subparts 1 and 2, each State and eligible Indian Tribe must submit and have approved a consolidated, five-year Child and Family Services Plan (CFSP) and a CFS-101, Budget Request and Estimated Expenditure Report that meets the requirements under 45 CFR 1357.16.
(2) States and Indian Tribes that are consolidating the requirements for a CFSP in FY 1995, in accordance with § 1357.15(a), must submit the CFSP and a CFS-101 for FY 1995 and 1996 by June 30, 1995.
(3) States and eligible Indian Tribes choosing to phase-in the requirements for a consolidated CFSP in FY 1996 and 1997 must submit the CFSP, the CFS-101 for FY 1995 for subpart 1 and 2, and the CFS-101 for subpart 2 for FY 1996 by June 30, 1995.
(4) The CFSP will be approved only if the plan was developed jointly by ACF and the State (or the Indian Tribe), and only after broad consultation by the State (and the Indian Tribe) with a wide range of appropriate public and non-profit private agencies and community-based organizations with experience in administering programs of services for children and families (including family preservation and support services).
(5) By June 30, 1996, each grantee must submit and have approved the first Annual Progress and Services Report and a CFS 101 for FY 1997 that meets the statutory and regulatory requirements of title IV-B, subparts 1 and 2.
(6) The Annual Progress and Services Report will be approved if it was developed jointly by ACF and the State (or the Indian Tribe) and if it meets the requirements of 45 CFR 1357.16.
(7) The five-year CFSP for FYs 1995-1999 may be submitted in the format of the State’s or the Indian Tribe’s choice and must be submitted no later than June 30, 1995, to the appropriate ACF Regional Office.
(c) Assurances. The following assurances will remain in effect on an ongoing basis and will need to be re-submitted only if a significant change in the State or the Indian Tribe’s program affects an assurance:
(1) The State or Indian Tribe must assure that it will participate in any evaluations the Secretary of HHS may require.
(2) The State or Indian Tribe must assure that it will administer the CFSP in accordance with methods determined by the Secretary to be proper and efficient.
(3) The State or Indian Tribe must assure that it has a plan for the training and use of paid paraprofessional staff, with particular emphasis on the full-time or part-time employment of low-income persons, as community service aides; and a plan for the use of nonpaid or partially paid volunteers in providing services and in assisting any advisory committees established by the State or Tribe.
(4) The State or Indian Tribe must assure that standards and requirements imposed with respect to child care under title XX shall apply with respect to day care services, if provided under the CFSP, except insofar as eligibility for such services is involved.
(d) The child and family services plan (CFSP): general. The State and the Indian Tribe must base the development of the CFSP on a planning process that includes:
(1) broad involvement and consultation with a wide range of appropriate public and non-profit private agencies and community-based organizations, parents, including parents who are involved or have experience with the child welfare system, and others;
(2) coordination of the provision of services under the plan with other Federal and federally assisted programs serving children and families, including youth and adolescents; and
(3) collection of existing or available information to help determine vulnerable or at-risk populations or target areas; assess service needs and resources; identify gaps in services; select priorities for targeting funding and services; formulate goals and objectives; and develop opportunities for bringing about more effective and accessible services for children and families.
(e) State agency administering the programs. (1) The State’s CFSP must identify the name of the State agency that will administer the title IV-B programs under the plan. Except as provided by statute, the same agency is required to administer or supervise the administration of all programs under titles IV-B and IV-E of the Act and the social services block grant program under title XX of the Act. (See the definition of “State agency” in 45 CFR 1355.20.)
(2) The CFSP must include a description of the organization and function of the State agency and organizational charts as appropriate. It also must identify the organizational unit(s) within the State agency responsible for the operation and administration of the CFSP, and include a description of the unit’s organization and function and a copy of the organizational chart(s).
(f) Indian Tribal organization administering the program(s). (1) The Indian Tribe’s CFSP must provide the name of the Indian Tribal organization (ITO) designated to administer funds under title IV-B, subpart 1, child welfare services and/or under subpart 2, family preservation and family support services. If the Indian Tribe receives funds under both subparts, the same agency or organization must administer both programs.
(2) The Indian Tribe’s CFSP must include a description of the organization and function of the office responsible for the operation and administration of the CFSP, an organizational chart of that office, and a description of how that office relates to Tribal and other offices operating or administering services programs within the Indian Tribe’s service area (e.g., Indian Health Service.)
(g) Vision Statement. The CFSP must include a vision statement which articulates the grantee’s philosophy in providing child and family services and developing or improving a coordinated service delivery system. The vision should reflect the service principles at section 1355.25.
(h) Goals. The CFSP must specify the goals, based on the vision statement, that will be accomplished during and by the end of the five-year period of the plan. The goals must be expressed in terms of improved outcomes for and the safety, permanency and well-being of children and families, and in terms of a more comprehensive, coordinated, and effective child and family service delivery system.
(i) Objectives. (1) The CFSP must include the realistic, specific, quantifiable and measurable objectives that will be undertaken to achieve each goal. Each objective should focus on outcomes for children, youth, and/or their families or on elements of service delivery (such as quality) that are linked to outcomes in important ways. Each objective should include both interim benchmarks and a long-term timetable, as appropriate, for achieving the objective.
(2) For States and Indian Tribes administering the title IV-B, subpart 1 program, the CFSP must include objectives to make progress in covering additional political subdivisions, reaching additional children in need of services, expanding and strengthening the range of existing services, and developing new types of services.
(j) Measures of progress. The CFSP must describe the methods to be used in measuring the results, accomplishments, and annual progress toward meeting the goals and objectives, especially the outcomes for children, youth, and families. Processes and procedures assuring the production of valid and reliable data and information must be specified. The data and information must be capable of determining whether or not the interim benchmarks and multiyear timetable for accomplishing CFSP goals and objectives are being met.
(k) Baseline information. (1) For FY 1995, the State and the Indian Tribe must base the development of the CFSP vision, goals, objectives, and funding and service decisions on an analysis of available baseline information and any trends over time on indicators in the following areas: the well-being of children and families; the needs of children and families; the nature, scope, and adequacy of existing child and family and related social services. Additional and updated information on service needs and organizational capacities must be obtained throughout the five-year period to measure progress in accomplishing the goals and objectives cited in the CFSP. A description of how this process will continue to be carried out must be included in the CFSP, and any revisions should be provided in the Annual Progress and Services Report.
(2) The State must collect and analyze State-wide information on family preservation and family support services currently available to families and children, including the nature and scope of existing public and privately funded family support and family preservation services; the extent to which each service is available and being provided in different geographic areas and to different types of families; and important gaps in service, including mismatches between available services and family needs as identified through baseline data and the consultation process. Other services which impact on the ability to preserve and support families may be included in the assessment. The Indian Tribe must collect and analyze information on family preservation and family support services currently available within their service delivery area including the information in this paragraph as appropriate. An Indian Tribe may submit documentation prepared to satisfy the requirements of other Federal child welfare grants, or contracts (such as the section 638 reporting form), along with a descriptive addendum addressing specifically the family preservation and family support services available.
(3) The CFSP must include a summary of the information used in developing the plan; an explanation of how this information and analysis were used in developing the goals, objectives, and funding and service decisions, including decisions about geographic targeting and service mix; a description of how information will be used to measure progress over the five-year period; and how this information will be used to facilitate the coordination of services.
(l) Consultation. (1) The State’s CFSP must describe the internal and external consultation process used to obtain broad and active involvement of major actors across the entire spectrum of the child and family service delivery system in the development of the plan. The description should explain how this process was coordinated with or was a part of other planning processes in the State; how it led or will lead to improved coordination of services.
(2) The Indian Tribe’s CFSP must describe the consultation process appropriate to its needs and circumstances used to obtain the active involvement of major actors providing child and family services within the Tribe’s area of jurisdiction.
(3) For States and Indian Tribes, the consultation process must involve:
(i) All appropriate offices and agencies within the State agency or within the Indian Tribal service delivery system (e.g., child protective services (CPS), foster care and adoption, the social services block grant, reunification services, independent living, and other services to youth;)
(ii) In a State-supervised, county-administered State, county social services and/or child welfare directors or representatives of the county social services/child welfare administrators’ association;
(iii) A wide array of State, local, Tribal, and community-based agencies and organizations, both public and private nonprofit with experience in administering programs of services for infants, children, youth, adolescents, and families, including family preservation and family support services;
(iv) Parents, including birth and adoptive parents, foster parents, families with a member with a disability, children both in and outside the child welfare system, and consumers of services from diverse groups;
(v) For States, representatives of Indian Tribes within the State;
(vi) For States, representatives of local government (e.g., counties, cities, and other communities, neighborhoods, or areas where needs for services are great;)
(vii) Representatives of professional and advocacy organizations (including, for example foundations and national resource centers with expertise to assist States and Indian Tribes to design, expand, and improve the delivery of services); individual practitioners working with children and families; the courts; representatives or other States or Indian Tribes with experience in administering family preservation and family support services; and academicians, especially those assisting the child and family service agency with management information systems, training curricula, and evaluations;
(viii) Representatives of State and local agencies administering Federal and federally assisted programs which may include: Head Start; the local education agency (school-linked social services, adult education and literacy programs, Part H programs); developmental disabilities; nutrition services (Food Stamps, Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC)); Title IV-A; runaway youth, youth gang, juvenile justice programs and youth residential and training institutions; child care and development block grant (CCDBG) and respite care programs; domestic and community violence prevention and services programs; housing programs; the health agency (substance abuse, Healthy Start, maternal and child health, Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT), mental health, and public health nursing); law enforcement; Children’s Trust Funds; Community-Based Family Resource Programs, and new Federal initiatives such as the Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities Program; and
(ix) Administrators, supervisors and front line workers (direct service providers) of the State child and family services agency.
(4) The CFSP must describe the ongoing consultation process that each grantee will use to ensure the continued involvement of a wide range of major actors in meeting the goals and objectives over the five-year operational period of the plan and developing the Annual Progress and Services Report.
(m) Services coordination. (1) States must include in the ongoing coordination process representatives of the full range of child and family services provided by the State agency as well as other service delivery systems providing social, health, education, and economic services (including mental health, substance abuse, developmental disabilities, and housing) to improve access and deliver a range of services to children and their families.
(2) The State’s CFSP must describe how services under the plan will be coordinated over the five-year period with services or benefits under other Federal or federally assisted programs serving the same populations to achieve the goals and objectives in the plan. The description must include the participants in the process and examples of how the process led or will lead to additional coordination of services (e.g., integrated service models, improved accessibility, use of a consolidated application or intake form, inter-disciplinary training, coordinated case management for several programs, pooled resources through blended financing, shared information across services providers and compatible and linked automated information systems, co-location of several services or programs.)
(3) The Indian Tribe must include in the coordination process representatives of other Federal or federally assisted child and family services or related programs. The Indian Tribe’s CFSP must describe how services under the plan will be coordinated over the five-year period with services or benefits under other Federal or federally assisted programs serving the same populations to achieve the goals and objectives in the plan. The descriptions must include the participants in the process and any examples of how the process led or will lead to additional coordination of services.
(n) Services. (1) The State’s CFSP must describe the publicly funded child and family services continuum: child welfare services (including child abuse and neglect prevention, intervention, and treatment services; and foster care); family preservation services; family support services; and services to support reunification, adoption, kinship care, independent living, or other permanent living arrangements.
(2) The Indian Tribe’s CFSP must describe the child welfare services (including child abuse and neglect prevention, intervention, treatment services and foster care) and/or the family support and family preservation services to be provided.
(3) For each service described, the CFSP must include the following information, or it must be listed on the CFS-101, Part II:
(i) The population(s) to be served;
(ii) The geographic area(s) where the services will be available;
(iii) The estimated number of individuals and/or families to be served;
(iv) The estimated expenditures for these services from Federal, State, local, and donated sources, including title IV-B, subparts 1 and 2, the CAPTA program referenced in paragraph (a) of this section, and the independent living program.
(o) Family preservation and family support services and linkages to other social and health services. (1) The State’s CFSP must explain how the funds under title IV-B, subpart 2 of the Act, will be used to develop or expand family support and family preservation services; how the family support and family preservation services relate to existing family support and family preservation services; and how these family support and preservation services will be linked to other services in the child and family services continuum.
(2) The State’s CFSP must explain whether and/or how funds under the CAPTA and independent living programs are coordinated with and integrated into the child and family services continuum described in the plan.
(3) The State’s CFSP must describe the existing or current linkages and the coordination of services between the services in the child and family services continuum and the services in other public services systems (e.g., health, education, housing, substance abuse, the courts), and other Federal and non-federally funded public and nonprofit private programs (e.g., Children’s Trust Funds, Community-Based Family Resource Programs, private foundations.)
(p) Services in relation to service principles. The CFSP must describe how the child and family services to be provided are designed to assure the safety and protection of children as well as the preservation and support of families, and how they are or will be designed to be consistent with the other service principles in 45 CFR 1355.25.
(q) Services in relation to permanency planning. For States administering both title IV-B programs (subparts 1 and 2), the CFSP must explain how these services will help meet the permanency provisions for children and families in sections 422(b)(9) and 471 of the Act (e.g., preplacement preventive services, reunification services, independent living services.) The CFSP must describe the arrangements, jointly developed with the Indian Tribes within its borders, made for the provision of the child welfare services and protections in section 422(b)(9) to Indian children under both State and Tribal jurisdiction.
(r) Decision-making process: selection of family support programs for funding. The State’s CFSP must include an explanation of how agencies and organizations were selected for funding to provide family support services and how these agencies and organizations meet the requirement that family support services be community-based.
(s) Significant portion of funds used for family support and family preservation services. With each fiscal year‘s budget request, each State must indicate the specific percentage of family preservation and family support funds (title IV-B, subpart 2) that the State will expend for community-based family support and for family preservation services, and the rationale for the decision. The State must have an especially strong rationale if the request for either percentage is below 25 percent. It must also include an explanation of how this distribution was reached and why it meets the requirements that a “significant portion” of the service funds must be spent for each service. Examples of important considerations might include the nature of the planning efforts that led to the decision, the level of existing State effort in each area, and the resulting need for new or expanded services.
(t) Staff training, technical assistance, and evaluation. (1) The State’s CFSP must include a staff development and training plan in support of the goals and objectives in the CFSP which addresses both of the title IV-B programs covered by the plan. This training plan also must be combined with the training plan under title IV-E as required by 45 CFR 1356.60(b)(2). Training must be an on-going activity and must include content from various disciplines and knowledge bases relevant to child and family services policies, programs and practices. Training content must also support the cross-system coordination consultation basic to the development of the CFSP.
(2) The State’s CFSP must describe the technical assistance activities that will be undertaken in support of the goals and objectives in the plan.
(3) The State’s CFSP must describe any evaluation and research activities underway or planned with which the State agency is involved or participating and which are related to the goals and objectives in the plan.
(u) Quality assurance. The State must include in the CFSP a description of the quality assurance system it will use to regularly assess the quality of services under the CFSP and assure that there will be measures to address identified problems.
(v) Distribution of the CFSP and the annual progress and services report. The CFSP must include a description of how the State and the Indian Tribe will make available to interested parties the CFSP and the Annual Progress and Services Report. (See 45 CFR 1355.21(c) and 45 CFR 1357.16(d)). State agencies and Indian Tribal organizations within the State must exchange copies of their CFSPs and their annual services reports.