Code of Federal Regulations Title 45. Public Welfare § 45.1355.43 Data reporting requirements

(a) Report periods and deadlines. There are two six-month report periods based on the Federal fiscal year:  October 1 to March 31 and April 1 to September 30. The title IV–E agency must submit the out-of-home care and adoption assistance data files to ACF within 45 days of the end of the report period (i.e., by May 15 and November 14). If the reporting deadline falls on a weekend, the title IV–E agency has through the end of the following Monday to submit the data file.

(b) Out-of-home care data file. A title IV–E agency must report the information required in § 1355.44 pertaining to each child in the out-of-home care reporting population, in accordance with the following:

(c) Adoption and guardianship assistance data file. A title IV–E agency must report the most recent information for the applicable data elements in § 1355.45 that pertains to each child in the adoption and guardianship assistance reporting population on the last day of the report period.

(d) Missing information. If the title IV–E agency fails to collect the information for a data element, the title IV–E agency must report the element as blank or otherwise missing. The title IV–E agency is not permitted to default or map missing information that was not collected to a valid response option.

(e) Electronic submission. The title IV–E agency must submit the required data files electronically and in a format according to ACF's specifications.

(f) Record retention. The title IV–E agency must retain all records necessary to comply with the data requirements in §§ 1355.41 through 1355.45. The title IV–E agency's retention of such records is not limited to the requirements of 45 CFR 92.42(b) and (c).