The Department of Health and Human Services has withdrawn a foster-care and adoption data proposal that had remained unfinished since 2008.
The withdrawal took effect Aug. 12. It removes the dormant proposal from the rulemaking docket; it does not erase current Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System requirements already established through other final rules.
The January 2008 proposal would have revised the data states report to the Administration for Children and Families about children in out-of-home care and in subsidized adoption or guardianship arrangements.
It also contained provisions implementing AFCARS penalty requirements from the Adoption Promotion Act of 2003. Because the proposal was never finalized, those proposed provisions did not become operative through that docket.
HHS says nearly 20 years passed across multiple administrations without an effort to finalize the rule. The department describes withdrawal as a way to reduce public confusion about current priorities.
A withdrawal is procedurally different from repealing a final regulation. No binding requirement created by the 2008 proposal is being rescinded because the proposal never reached final-rule status.
States still have child-welfare data responsibilities under the statutes and final regulations now in force. Agencies and researchers should use the current Code of Federal Regulations and current ACF technical guidance rather than the withdrawn proposal.
HHS could address similar reporting subjects in a future proposal, but it would need a new record and the applicable notice-and-comment process. This withdrawal makes no commitment about such a future action.