Regional Partnership Grants to Increase the Well-Being of, and to Improve the Permanency Outcomes for, Children Affected by Substance Abuse

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The Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau, announces the availability of competitive grant funds authorized by the Promoting Safe and Stable Families program. These targeted grants will be awarded to regional partnerships that provide, through interagency collaboration and integration of programs and services, activities and services that are designed to increase the well-being of, improve permanency outcomes for, and enhance the safety of children who are in out-of-home placements or are at risk of being placed in out-of-home placements as a result of a parent's or caretaker's substance abuse. The Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act (Pub. L. 112-34) includes a new targeted grants program (section 437(f) of the Act), which directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to reserve a specified portion of the appropriation for regional partnership grants to improve the well-being of children affected by substance abuse. The State child welfare agency that is responsible for the State plan under title IV-B or title IV-E of the Social Security Act must be included in the regional partnership. If your regional partnership consists of a county that is located in a State that is State-supervised, county-administered, the county child welfare agency satisfies the "administration of the State plan" requirement. In such a partnership, the State agency that is ultimately responsible for State Plan compliance under title IV-B or title IV-E is not required to be a partner in the regional partnership, but also is not precluded from participating as a member of the regional partnership. In a State-administered system, a local office of the State child welfare agency can participate in the partnership and satisfy this statutory requirement. As required by the legislation, if an Indian Tribe or tribal consortium enters into a regional partnership, the Indian Tribe may (but is not required to) include the State child welfare agency as a partner in the collaborative agreement. If the partnership is an Indian Tribe or tribal consortia, it may not enter into a collaborative agreement only with Tribal child welfare agencies (or a consortium of such agencies). Any member of the regional partnership is eligible to be a lead applicant provided that (1) the partner is one of the eligible entities described previously and (2) the member agency or organization has the capacity to sufficiently monitor program activities or services, funding, and reporting requirements described in the announcement. While either the State child welfare agency that is responsible for the State plan under title IV-B or title IV-E of the Social Security Act or an Indian Tribe or tribal consortium must be a member of a regional partnership, it is NOT necessary that either of these entities serve as the lead agency.

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