8.   TITLE IV-E

No. Longstanding Federal policy has been to consistently exclude third party in-kind contributions from qualifying as the State share under Federal matching requirements for the title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Program.

Similarly, we exclude donated funds for matching purposes to the extent that these funds are donated on a restricted basis as to the type of activity for which the funds may be used or if they revert to the organization providing the service.

No. Third party in-kind contributions may not be used by a State to meet Federal cost-sharing requirements under the title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Program.

The Departmental Appeals Board concluded in Decision No. 1737 (July 14, 2000) that longstanding agency policy permitted States to claim Federal financial participation (FFP) for allowable costs paid with funds donated to support specific activities. The State must take into consideration the following conditions in order for a State to use donated funds to meet Federal cost-sharing requirements and claim FFP:

1) The donated funds must be used to pay for allowable title IV-E costs.

2) The donor may specify the activities to be supported with its donations but cannot be a sponsor or operator of a program to provide such activities.

3) The donor may specify the geographic area in which the activity is to be provided.

States should note, however, that only funds donated from a public source that satisfy the above criteria may be used to match title IV-E training expenditures pursuant to 45 CFR 1356.60(b)(3).

Yes. Funds that are donated from a private source to the State's general funds or treasury and then appropriated by the State legislature to the State child welfare agency are considered public funds and, therefore, may be used as the State's share in claiming FFP for title IV-E training at the 75 percent rate. However, private funds that merely are transferred from the private source to the State cannot be used to match the State?s training costs under title IV-E foster care or adoption assistance.

No. DAB Decision No. 1737 did not address matching funds for training under section 474(a)(3)(A) and (B) of the Social Security Act (the Act). Therefore, ACF regulations and policy which permit only public funds to be used as match for title IV-E training at the 75% rate are applicable. As specified in the Child Welfare Policy Manual at Section 8.1F question 3, only public funds may be used to match title IV-E training expenditures. The regulations at 45 CFR 1356.60(b)(3) on Federal matching funds for State and local training for foster care and adoption assistance under title IV-E cross reference to 45 CFR 235.63 through 235.66(a) which, among other things, permit public funds to be used as match. The regulation does not cross reference to 45 CFR 235.66(b) which permit funds donated from private sources to be used as match.