HHS Guidance

A Letter from the Children's Bureau on the use of federal funds to assist with the purchase of cell phones and plans to facilitate and maintain contact, and to purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE) as an allowable cost.

This Information Memorandum provides information on best practices, resources, and recommendations for using foster care as a support for families to mitigate the trauma of removal, expedite safe and successful reunification, and improve parent and child well-being outcomes.  It emphasizes the importance of kinship placements and the need to  build and support relationships between resource families and parents to facilitate improved engagement of parents, promote timely reunification, build protective capacities in parents, and strengthen overall child and family well-being, while ensuring child safety. 

Program Instruction that provides information about flexibility in Title IV-E program requirements that are available under the Stafford Act regarding the extension of foster care to 19, 20, or 21;  suspension of work and education requirements for extended foster care; allowance for unaccredited residential treatment centers to bill as QRTPs, provided they meet all other statutory requirements, if they are unable to meet accreditation standards during the crisis; and the ability of IV-E agencies to claim Title IV-E reimbursement for provisionally licensed families if the disaster precludes completion of the licensing process.