1355.35—Program improvement plans.
(a) Mandatory program improvement plan.
(1)
States found not to be operating in substantial conformity shall develop a program improvement plan. The program improvement plan must:
(iii)
Set forth the goals, the action steps required to correct each identified weakness or deficiency, and dates by which each action step is to be completed in order to improve the specific areas;
(iv)
Set forth the amount of progress the statewide data will make toward meeting the national standards;
(v)
Establish benchmarks that will be used to measure the State's progress in implementing the program improvement plan and describe the methods that will be used to evaluate progress;
(vi)
Identify how the action steps in the plan build on and make progress over prior program improvement plans;
(vii)
Identify the technical assistance needs and sources of technical assistance, both Federal and non-Federal, which will be used to make the necessary improvements identified in the program improvement plan.
(2)
In the event that ACF and the State cannot reach consensus regarding the content of a program improvement plan or the degree of program or data improvement to be achieved, ACF retains the final authority to assign the contents of the plan and/or the degree of improvement required for successful completion of the plan. Under such circumstances, ACF will render a written rationale for assigning such content or degree of improvement.
(b) Voluntary program improvement plan.
States found to be operating in substantial conformity may voluntarily develop and implement a program improvement plan in collaboration with the ACF Regional Office, under the following circumstances:
(1)
The State and Regional Office agree that there are areas of the State's child and family services programs in need of improvement which can be addressed through the development and implementation of a voluntary program improvement plan;
(3)
No penalty will be assessed for the State's failure to achieve the goals described in the voluntary program improvement plan.
(c) Approval of program improvement plans.
(1)
A State determined not to be in substantial conformity must submit a program improvement plan to ACF for approval within 90 calendar days from the date the State receives the written notification from ACF that it is not operating in substantial conformity.
(2)
Any program improvement plan will be approved by ACF if it meets the provisions of paragraph (a) of this section.
(3)
If the program improvement plan does not meet the provisions of paragraph (a) of this section, the State will have 30 calendar days from the date it receives notice from ACF that the plan has not been approved to revise and resubmit the plan for approval.
(4)
If the State does not submit a revised program improvement plan according to the provisions of paragraph (c)(3) of this section or if the plan does not meet the provisions of paragraph (a) of this section, withholding of funds pursuant to the provisions of § 1355.36 of this part will begin.
(d) Duration of program improvement plans.
(1)
ACF retains the authority to establish time frames for the program improvement plan consistent with the seriousness and complexity of the remedies required for any areas determined not in substantial conformity, not to exceed two years.
(2)
Particularly egregious areas of nonconformity impacting child safety must receive priority in both the content and time frames of the program improvement plans and must be addressed in less than two years.
(3)
The Secretary may approve extensions of deadlines in a program improvement plan not to exceed one year. The circumstances under which requests for extensions will be approved are expected to be rare. The State must provide compelling documentation of the need for such an extension. Requests for extensions must be received by ACF at least 60 days prior to the affected completion date.
(4)
States must provide quarterly status reports (unless ACF and the State agree upon less frequent reports) to ACF. Such reports must inform ACF of progress in implementing the measures of the plan.
(e) Evaluating program improvement plans.
Program improvement plans will be evaluated jointly by the State agency and ACF, in collaboration with other members of the review team, as described in the State's program improvement plan and in accordance with the following criteria:
(1)
The methods and information used to measure progress must be sufficient to determine when and whether the State is operating in substantial conformity or has reached the negotiated standard with respect to statewide data indicators that failed to meet the national standard for that indicator;
(2)
The frequency of evaluating progress will be determined jointly by the State and Federal team members, but no less than annually. Evaluation of progress will be performed in conjunction with the annual updates of the State's CFSP, as described in paragraph (f) of this section;
(3)
Action steps may be jointly determined by the State and ACF to be achieved prior to projected completion dates, and will not require any further evaluation at a later date; and
(4)
The State and ACF may jointly renegotiate the terms and conditions of the program improvement plan as needed, provided that:
(i)
The renegotiated plan is designed to correct the areas of the State's program determined not to be in substantial conformity and/or achieve a standard for the statewide data indicators that is acceptable to ACF;
(ii)
The amount of time needed to implement the provisions of the plan does not extend beyond three years from the date the original program improvement plan was approved;
(f) Integration of program improvement plans with CFSP planning.
The elements of the program improvement plan must be incorporated into the goals and objectives of the State's CFSP. Progress in implementing the program improvement plan must be included in the annual reviews and progress reports related to the CFSP required in 45 CFR 1357.16.
[65 FR 4080, Jan. 25, 2000, as amended at 66 FR 58675, Nov. 23, 2001]