Updated Instructions 0970-0473

Description:

ACF proposes to add new reporting requirements related to the Consumer Education Website to enforce existing regulatory provisions around interstate background checks.

Without this information, states and territories will lack the critical information needed to initiate and respond to interstate background check requests in a timely manner. States and territories will need to periodically update their websites to ensure that the requested information is current and accurate. The Consumer Education Website information collection will be ongoing. The Consumer Education Website information collection does not involve a federal form.

Consumer Education Website: State and Territory Interstate Background Check Processes

The Office of Child Care (OCC) is proposing to revise the Consumer Education Website information collection requirement to ease the burden of having to locate other state and territories’ contacts and instructions needed to initiate and carry out the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) interstate background check requirement.

The reporting requirement described in Section 45 CFR 98.43 of the Final Rule provided general guidelines around the type of background check related information that State and Territory Lead Agencies must include on their Consumer Education Websites. OCC’s proposed revision to this Consumer Education Website reporting requirement will define the specific information elements that State and Territory Lead Agencies will need to include on their websites to satisfy this requirement.

Instructions:

State and Territory Lead Agencies will now be required to designate one page of their existing Consumer Education Website as a landing page for all interstate background check related processes and procedures pertaining to their own state. The purpose of having a dedicated interstate background check web page on the Lead Agency Consumer Education Website is to help state and territories implement the interstate background check requirements of the CCDBG Act.

Compliance with the CCDBG Act and Section 45 CFR 98.43(a)(1)(iii) and 98.43(g) of the Final Rule will be determined in part through the review of information provided on State and Territory Lead Agency Consumer Education Websites.

States and Territories will have flexibility regarding how to implement this information collection provision (i.e. web page format, providing links to existing sources), but the web page must include the following elements for each type of interstate check (see page 2).

Interstate Criminal Background Check

• Agency Name

• Address

• Phone Number

• Email

• Fax

• Website

• Instructions (e.g. Does a portal/system account need to be created to make a request, types of identification needed, types of payment accepted, appeals, how will forms be accepted, FAQs)

• Forms

• Fees

• National Fingerprint File (NFF) State (Yes/No)

• National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact State (Yes/No)

Interstate Sex Offender Registry (SOR) Check

• Agency Name

• Address

• Phone Number

• Email

• Fax

• Website

• Instructions (e.g. Does a portal/system account need to be created to make a request, types of identification needed, types of payment accepted, appeals, how will forms be accepted, FAQs)

• Forms

• Fees

Interstate Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN) Registry Check

• Agency Name

• County Administered Registry or Centralized Registry (Describe)

• Address

• Phone Number

• Email

• Fax

• Website

• Instructions (e.g. Does a portal/system account need to be created to make a request, types of identification needed, types of payment accepted, appeals, how will forms be accepted, FAQs)

• Forms

• Fees

• Description of information that may be included in a response to a CAN registry check (including substantiated instances of child abuse and neglect accompanied by the State’s definition of “substantiated” instances of child abuse and neglect.