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Child Care and Development Fund

ACF-801 Clarifications

Technical Bulletin #8r, Revised September, 2009

Printable versions are available in Word (696 KB) and PDF (172 KB) format.

I. Introduction

The purpose of this Bulletin is to clarify a number of issues surrounding the ACF-801 reporting requirements. This Bulletin has been updated to address new requirements and clarify other information. Section II provides guidance related to definitions of specific data elements and data element response options. Section III contains contact information if you have questions, and changes in reporting information on the revised ACF-801 Summary Record are provided in Appendix I.

Throughout this document we use the word “States” to mean State and Territory grantees.

II. Data Element Definitions and Response Options

General:

1. Question: Should the reporting population be based on the month the service was provided or on the month that the payment was made?
   Answer: States need to base their ACF-801 report on those families for whom services actually were provided in the reporting month, irrespective of when payment is made for those services. Some States may identify monthly services provided by using their payments database to locate services for which a payment has been made. Regardless of the source of the information, the ACF-801 should reflect services that were provided during the month for which the report is being prepared.
2. Question: Our State “pools” funds from a variety of sources in order to administer our child care program. In our data system, we are not able to identify or track children served only with CCDF funds. What population of children should be reported on the ACF-801 report?
   Answer: If a State is pooling funds to administer their child care program and is not able to track children served only with CCDF funds, the State should report the entire population of families and children receiving services on the ACF-801 report. On the ACF-800 report, the State will report the percentage of the total child care budget represented by CCDF funds on the ACF-800 report. The CCB will use this information to estimate the number of families and children served using only CCDF funds.
3. Question: Sometimes a family may decline to report some information such as ethnicity, race, or SSN. What should we do in such a case?
   Answer: If a family does not report information such as ethnicity or race, leave the field blank as "missing" data for those that refused to report. This is the same way “unknown” is reported.
   
   

   If a family does not report SSN (data element #3) leave the field blank. In any such case, the State is then required to report data element #2 (Unique Identification Case Number). Note that if a family does provide an SSN, the State is required to include the SSN on the ACF-801 report.

4. Question: Unique reporting situations require us to provide footnotes to explain unusual reporting circumstances. How often should we provide footnotes and when should they be removed.
   Answer: Footnotes provided on the ACF-801 should be reviewed and updated on a monthly basis to ensure that they remain accurate and relevant to the data reported. Refer to Technical Bulletin #4: ACF-801 Case-Level File Format for detailed instruction on the proper way to format footnotes.

Family Record:

5. Question: What is the exact definition of "Head of Family Receiving Assistance"? Is this the same as "Head of Household?"
   Answer: The "Head of Family Receiving Assistance" is generally the applicant and therefore, is the person for whom eligibility is determined.

   If the head of the family is the child receiving assistance (e.g., some protective services cases), then all elements refer to child. When a child is reported as the head of the household (code 9 for data element #5), the reason for care is protective services (code 4 or 9 for data element #6) and the family size must equal one (enter “1” for data element #16).
6. Question: Why is CCB interested in the marital status of the head of the family receiving services?
   Answer: CCB wants to know how many adults are legally/financially responsible for the care of the child(ren) receiving subsidized services. This may be different from “marital status.” For ACF-801 reporting purposes, the definition of Element #5 (Single Parent) is:

   Single parent: Only one parent living with a child who is legally/financially responsible for the child and there is no other adult legally/financially responsible for the child in that eligible family. If there is someone else in the household, who does not have legal/financial responsibility for the child, then the legally/financially responsible applicant is still considered a single parent.
7. Question: Families are sometimes determined eligible for a subsidy for reasons other than work, training, or protective services. Can I report these cases indicating some “other” reason for care?
   Answer: According to Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) regulations, only those families who are working, in a training program, or in protective services are eligible to receive a child care subsidy.

   Effective October 1, 2010, the response categories “5—Other” and “0—Federal Declared Emergency and Other” will be eliminated from data element #6 on the ACF-801, and you must report using only the remaining categories. States/Territories should report responses that correspond to the State’s definitions of “working”, “attending”, “job training and educational program”, and “protective services” that are included in its approved CCDF Plan. For example, if job search is included in the State/Territorial definition of “working” in the CCDF Plan, then job search activity should also be reported on the ACF-801 Report as “working” and footnoted as such. Implementation of this modification is effective on October 1, 2010. After this date, any values of “0” or “5” are considered invalid.
8. Question: In our State, parents of foster children must be working in order to receive a child care subsidy. What guidance can the CCB provide on how to report children who are in the care of Protective Services (PS) or are in Foster care or other out-of-home placements?
   Answer: States and Territories have considerable latitude when defining criteria that determine eligibility to receive a CCDF subsidy. States and Territories also have considerable latitude when defining how to report the families and children receiving child care services that are supported with a CCDF subsidy as long as the state meets broad Federal guidelines.

   The primary factor that should be used to determine how to report a specific family/child is the “reason for care” – i.e. what it is that makes this family or child eligible to receive a CCDF subsidy.

   For unique circumstances when a child may be in the legal care of the State, is in a Protective Services (PS) status, and/or is living with a foster family who would not otherwise meet CCDF eligibility requirements (income limits, working or in training), the CCB designated a separate reporting category for that child. In such cases, a State may report the child as an independent “family,” with a family size of one, and with a reason for care being PS.  There would not be any income or other family demographic information associated with this child.

Using the “reason for care” (i.e. eligibility criteria) as the foundation for decisions about how to record specific families/children, the following examples may be illustrative:

 

 

9. Question: Effective FFY2007, CCB added additional response categories to the “Reason for Care” data element.  These options referred to Federally declared emergencies.  What exactly is CCB trying to learn with these new options, and what guidelines are available for using the emergency options to indicate reason for care?
   Answer: As detailed in Information Memorandum ACYF-IM-CC-05-03: Flexibility in Spending CCDF funds in Response to Federal or State Declared Emergency Situations (http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ccb/law/guidance/current/im0503/im0503.htm), states have broad flexibility to operate the CCDF program within some general Federal requirements.
   
   

   CCB created three additional response categories to provide states with a way to document the provision of child care subsidies to families impacted by a Federally declared emergency in order to help capture the impact of the emergency on the child care program.

Clarifications for some specific questions about using these newly defined categories are included below.

10. Question: Please provide a definition for Element #12 (State Program for Which State Spending is Counted Towards TANF MOE).
    Answer: Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) Maintenance of Effort (MOE) programs are State-funded initiatives which provide cash assistance to very low income or at risk families. States should consult with their TANF program to determine which if any programs are used for TANF MOE in their State, since these programs differ from State to State.
11. Question: Are States to report all income or just income used for determining eligibility?
    Answer: In Element #9 (Total Monthly Eligibility Income), States report only the income used when calculating eligibility for child care. This is the total monthly dollar amount that is received by the family seeking assistance, prior to any deductions that may be allowed. The income each State uses to determine eligibility should be defined in and part of, the approved State Plan.
    
    

    In Elements #10-15, States must report each family income source even if the State does not include that specific income for eligibility determination.

12. Question: In our State, if you receive TANF, you are automatically eligible for child care. We do not conduct income eligibility determinations in those cases. Do we still need to report income?
    Answer: Yes, report any TANF cash assistance payment and any other income counted towards TANF eligibility. Do not include income disregarded in TANF eligibility determination. (Reminder: States must ensure that all children meet CCDF eligibility, regardless of other categorical eligibility.)

Child Record:

13. Question: Some families report ethnicity for the children receiving services, but may not report the child’s race or vice versa. How should a State report these data elements if information about the Child’s ethnicity or race is not given?
    Answer : Effective FFY2000, race and ethnicity are two different elements and should be reported separately. If the client reports only the ethnicity of the child and refuses to report race, report the ethnicity information and leave the race fields blank as "missing" data. If the client reports only the race of the child, refusing to report ethnicity, report the race of the child and leave the ethnicity field blank as “missing” data. Reporting missing data as blank is the same way “unknown” is reported.

Setting Record:

14. Question: Can the definition of "relative provider" be changed? In our State we do not require providers to be 18 years old, so the relative definition does not work for us since a sibling could be less than 18 and caring for the child. Can we use our own State's definition of "relative provider"?
    Answer: In the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act and CCDF regulations, the definition of eligible provider includes a requirement that a relative provider be at least age 18 in order for the State to have the option of exempting the provider from health and safety requirements. In other words, a relative under 18 cannot be exempt by the State from meeting health and safety standards. For CCDF administrative data reporting purposes, a relative provider is defined as being the grandparent, great-grandparent, aunt or uncle, or sibling (living outside of the child’s home) of the child in care. There is no reference to an age requirement for purposes of data reporting. Therefore, any relative providers included in the definition, regardless of age, should be reported as a relative provider.
15. Question: What is the difference between licensed/regulated and legally operating? Does the definition hinge upon "monitoring" capabilities of the State or is it based on the "enforcement capacity"?
    Answer: For reporting purposes, the terms “licensed/regulated” and “legally-operating” are intentionally broad to recognize that grantees operate differently.  The term “regulated” is used because not all grantees define “licensed” in the same way, or even use the term consistently.  Some grantees have processes that they call “certification” or “registration”. The “licensed/regulated provider” category is intended to encompass any of these regulatory processes.

    On the other hand, the “legally operating provider” category is intended to include providers who would not otherwise be subject to any regulatory standards (licensing, certification, registration, etc), were it not for the fact that the provider is participating in the subsidy program.  A number of States exempt certain family child care homes from regulation--most typically relative providers or providers caring for small numbers of children.  Some States also exempt certain centers (e.g., faith-based providers) from regulation.  These are the providers that would be reported as “legally operating” or “no license category available”.  Note that these providers must still meet CCDF health and safety standards.

16. Question: Should Element #27 (Total Amount Paid to Provider) include the parental co-pay?
    Answer: Effective October 1, 2010, element #27 should not include the assigned parental payment (co-pay). It should only include any government-funded subsidy and any payment differential that the State makes to the providers based on achievement of defined quality standards. It should not include any other amount the provider might charge the parent over and above the approved payment rate. Prior to October 1, 2010, element #27 should include the child’s co-payment.
17. Question: In my State, we make provider payments based on authorized service hours. This may be different than the actual hours of care that a child received. Should we report the authorized hours for which I pay the full cost of care or the actual hours of care that the child received?
    Answer: The CCB is interested in knowing the number of hours a child spends in care each month. Although a state may pay for all authorized hours of care, they should report the actual hours of care that the child received.

III. Contact

This bulletin has clarified some definitional questions for the ACF-801. If you have any other questions, please contact the Child Care Automation Resource Center for assistance:

Toll Free Help Line: 1-877-249-9117
E-Mail: ccarc@childcaredata.org

APPENDIX 1:

Revised Monthly Summary Record
Revised 6/15/09: Revisions in bold

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The Monthly Summary Record:
Each month’s data begins with a record containing the following data:

Data Element Description	Format1	Length	Comment
Delimiter	M	1	This delimiter identifies the following record as a monthly summary record.
Report Period	YYYYMM	6	This data element identifies the month being reported. For example, if the report covers April 2009, this element would be “200904”.
Families Receiving Subsidized Child Care	Number	7	The number of families receiving subsidized child care in your State for the reported month. The number should be right-justified within the field and padded with zeros. For example, 25,387 would be formatted as “0025387”.
Filler (formerly Number of children in Pre-K Child Care)	Number	7	Effective immediately, a Pre-K count no longer will be reported on the ACF-801.  Rather than make format changes to their data reporting systems, Lead Agencies should report a filler in what was formerly the Pre-K count data element.  The filler should be seven zeros:  “0000000”.
Delimiter	#	1	Identifies the following data as contact information.
State Contact Name	Character	No limit	The name of the State child care contact who is designated to receive the data reports.
Delimiter	#	1	Identifies the following data as contact information.
State Contact Telephone Number	Character	No limit	The telephone number of the State child care contact.
Delimiter	#	1	Identifies the following data as contact information.
State Contact Fax Number	Character	No limit	The fax number of the State child care contact.
Delimiter	#	1	Identifies the following data as contact information.
State Contact E-mail Address	Character	No limit	The e-mail address of the State child care contact
Record Delimiter	$	1	This delimiter indicates the end of the record.

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1Key for Format Codes:
Character	Any alphanumeric character.
Number	Digits from 0-9.
M,F,C,S,N,#,$,%%,&	These italicized characters are literals; the character as it appears should be included in the file.
YYYYMM	Format for dates, indicating that dates should be reported as a four digit year and a two digit month such as ‘200904’ for April, 2009.

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Child Care Automation Resource Center

Posted October, 2009

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