[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 234 (Tuesday, December 6, 2016)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 87843-87844]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-29183]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families

45 CFR Part 1302

RIN 0970-AC63


Head Start Program

AGENCY: Office of Head Start (OHS), Administration for Children and 
Families (ACF), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

ACTION: Final rule; delay of compliance date.

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SUMMARY: The Office of Head Start will delay the compliance date for 
background checks procedures described in the Head Start Program 
Performance Standards final rule that was published in the Federal 
Register on September 6, 2016. We are taking this action to afford 
programs more time to implement systems that meet the background checks 
procedures and to align with deadlines for states complying with 
background check requirements found in the Child Care and Development 
Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014.

DATES: The compliance date for the background checks procedures 
described in 45 CFR 1302.90(b) is delayed until September 30, 2017.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Colleen Rathgeb, Division Director of 
Early Childhood Policy and Budget, Office of Early Childhood 
Development, [email protected], (202) 358-3263 (not a toll-free 
call). Deaf and hearing impaired individuals may call the Federal Dual 
Party Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339 between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. Eastern 
Standard Time.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Head Start program provides grants to 
local public and private non-profit and for-profit agencies to provide 
comprehensive child development services to economically disadvantaged 
children and families and to help preschoolers develop the skills they 
need to be successful in school. We amended our Head Start program 
performance standards in a final rule that published in the Federal 
Register on September 6, 2016.
    Head Start Program Performance Standards are the foundation for 
Head Start's mission to deliver comprehensive, high-quality 
individualized services to support children from low-income families 
prepare for school. They outline requirements grantees and delegate 
agencies must implement to operate high quality Head Start or Early 
Head Start programs and provide a structure to monitor and enforce 
quality standards.
    Our performance standards highlight child safety as a top priority. 
We strengthen our criminal background checks process at 45 CFR 
1302.90(b), in the final rule, to reflect changes in the Improving Head 
Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 (Act), 42 U.S.C. 9801 et seq., 
and to complement background check requirements in the Child Care and 
Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014, 20 U.S.C. 1431 et seq., 
20.
    In the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of the final rule, we 
provided a table, Table 1: Compliance Table that lists dates by which 
programs must implement specific standards. We list August 1, 2017 as 
the date by which programs must comply with background checks 
performance standards at 45 CFR 1302.90(b)(2), (4), and (5) in the 
final rule.
    Generally, before a person is hired, we require programs to conduct 
a sex offender registry check and obtain either a state or tribal 
criminal history records, including fingerprint checks, or a Federal 
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) criminal history records, including 
fingerprint checks, before a person is hired. This performance standard 
under section 1302.90(b)(1) became effective the date the final rule 
was published. Programs were to have systems in place, by August 1, 
2017, to accommodate this part of the background checks process.
    In sections 1302.90 (b)(2), (4), and (5), we afford programs 90 
days to obtain which ever check they could not obtain before the person 
was hired, as well as child abuse and neglect state registry check, if 
available; we require programs to have systems in place that ensure 
these newly hired employees do not have unsupervised access to children 
until their background process is complete; and we require programs to 
conduct complete background checks that consist of a sex offender 
registry check, state or tribal history records, including fingerprint 
checks and an FBI criminal history records, including fingerprint 
check, as well as a child abuse and neglect state registry check, if 
available, for each employee at least once every five years.
    We believe programs will need more time to implement systems to 
complete the backgrounds checks process listed at sections 
1302.90(b)(2), (4), and (5) in our final rule. Also, we recognize most 
states will have systems that can accommodate our programs' background 
checks requests by September 30, 2017.

[[Page 87844]]

The reason being, Congress requires states that receive CCDBG funds to 
use the same set of comprehensive background checks for all child care 
teachers and staff. These states must have requirements as well as 
policies and procedures to enforce and conduct criminal background 
checks for existing and prospective child care providers by September 
30, 2017. We can minimize burden on programs that operate with both 
Head Start and Child Care Development Funds if we extend the time by 
which our programs must comply with section 1302.90(b) to September 30, 
2017. Until September 30, 2017, the criminal record check requirements 
from section 648A of the Act remain in place.
    We ordinarily publish a notice of proposed rulemaking in the 
Federal Register to provide a period for public comment before the 
provisions of a rule take effect in accordance with section 553(b) of 
the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) (5 U.S.C. 553(b)). However, we 
can waive this notice and comment procedure if the Secretary finds, for 
good cause, that the notice and comment process is impracticable, 
unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest, and incorporates a 
statement of the finding and the reasons therefore in the notice.
    We find good cause to waive public comment under Section 553(b) of 
the Administrative Procedure Act because it is unnecessary and contrary 
to the public interest to provide for public comment in this instance. 
The delayed compliance date poses no harm or burden to programs or the 
public. To have provided a period for public comment would have only 
extended concern in the Head Start community of how they were going to 
comply with the requirement in a different timeframe than that afforded 
the child care program. Programs may voluntarily come into compliance 
at an earlier date if they have the processes already in place.

    Dated: November 22, 2016.
Mark H. Greenberg,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Children and Families.
    Approved: November 30, 2016.
Sylvia M. Burwell,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2016-29183 Filed 12-5-16; 8:45 am]
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