The Children’s Bureau (CB) is planning to conduct a third round of reviews under the Child and
Family Services Reviews (CFSR) regulations, beginning in FFY 2015.1
Federal regulations at 45
CFR 1355.32 (b)(2)(ii) require states that were not in substantial conformity in the second round
of CFSRs to begin a full review two years after approval of their Program Improvement Plan
(PIP). Therefore, given that no state was found to be in substantial conformity on all seven
outcomes and seven systemic factors, this requirement applies to all states, the District of
Columbia and Puerto Rico.
The CB has a history of revising and making improvements to how we conduct our federal
monitoring of state title IV-B and IV-E program requirements. Between rounds one and two of
the CFSR, we sought feedback from state administrators and subsequently instituted a number of
changes. During the second round of reviews, we continued to evaluate the process by gathering
informal feedback from administrators and others involved in the CFSRs on an ongoing basis.
On April 5, 2011, CB issued a Federal Register request for public comment about improvements
to the process for reviewing titles IV-B and IV-E of the Social Security Act through the CFSR
(76 FR 18677). This technical bulletin reflects the revisions we have made to the monitoring
process in advance of the third round of reviews.