ACF News

Recently, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in collaboration with The Raikes Foundation launched the National Prevention Learning Collaborative on Youth Homelessness.

New law provisions give Head Start programs additional flexibility to serve children in Tribal communities and children of farmworkers. Both of these new provisions ensure Head Start programs can more effectively serve the families for whom they were designed.

The Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF) call to action on Thursday, March 21, which yielded over 800 participants, reinforced its commitment to ensure the advancement of equity within the administration and delivery of human services. 

This report (PDF) provides an analysis of the largest survey documenting rates, arrears, disconnections and fees in one dataset in the country. As ACF prepares to celebrate World Water Day 2024 this month, the release of this report intends to fill a gap in current knowledge related to water and wastewater affordability in the United States.

Today, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) announced newly released Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) data. 

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), announced a final rule that helps child support programs during states of emergency. The rule allows the ACF Office of Child Support Services (OCSS) to provide temporary relief to states from certain child support program performance standards and penalties when states are affected by natural disasters and other calamities.

Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), announced a new rule that will reduce costs for families that receive child care subsidies and improve options for families. This final rule delivers on the Executive Order on Increasing Access to High-Quality Care and Supporting Caregivers, signed by President Biden in April 2023, which directed HHS to reduce child care costs and improve child care payment practices.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and U.S. Department of Education (ED) today issued a joint letter to state school and early childhood leaders to collaborate on a mixed delivery approach to preschool and leverage federal funding to improve access to preschool. 

The Children's Bureau's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) would require that state child welfare agencies collect and report data elements on: (1) whether the state inquired with named entities as to whether the child is an Indian child as defined in ICWA and when the agency first discovered information indicating that the child is or may be an Indian child as defined in ICWA; (2) information on court determinations that ICWA applies for the child, and whether the testimony of one or more qualified expert witnesses was included for voluntary and involuntary terminations of parental rights, and removals; (3) whether the child’s parent or Indian custodian was sent notice in accordance with ICWA; (4) information on requests to transfer cases to tribal court; (5) information on meeting the placement preferences under ICWA; and (6) whether the court determined there was active efforts.

On February 13, 2024, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra participated in the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (PITF) meeting where he announced the HHS National Human Trafficking Prevention Framework, a resource for organizations, communities and governments seeking to strengthen efforts to prevent human trafficking.