Prevention Services Data Collection

Section 471(e) of the Social Security Act (the Act) (42 U.S.C. 671) as amended by Public Law 115-123 allows state and tribal child welfare agencies to receive reimbursement for some of the costs of providing prevention services to certain children and their parents or kin caregivers. The Act requires state and tribal child welfare agencies that provide such services to collect and report to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) information on children receiving the prevention and family services and programs. States and tribes must report : • The specific services or programs provided, • The total expenditures for each of the services or programs provided, • The duration of the services or programs provided, and • If the child was identified in a prevention plan as a candidate for foster care: o the child's placement status at the beginning, and at the end, of the 12-month period that begins on the date the child was identified as a candidate for foster care in a prevention plan; and o whether the child entered foster care during the initial 12-month period and during the subsequent 12-month period; and • Basic demographic information (e.g., age, sex, race/Hispanic Latino ethnicity). During the first information collection period the Children’s Bureau (CB) had 48 state and tribal jurisdictions opt into the voluntary Title IV-E Prevention Services Program which included opting in to Prevention Services data collection effort. These states and tribes are in various stages of preparing for data collection and submitting data to the CB. Data submission for these states will continue into future reporting periods. During the next reporting period, CB anticipates that approximately five more states and tribes will opt into the voluntary Title IV-E Prevention Services Program, and as a result, will opt into this information collection effort. These states will then begin preparing for and submitting data to the CB. However, since this program is voluntary, this number could fluctuate depending on the individual priorities of child welfare jurisdictions.

The latest form for Prevention Services Data Collection expires 2028-06-30 and can be found here.