Vol. 79 Monday, 

No. 71 April 14, 2014 

Part V 

Department of Health and Human Services 

Administration for Children and Families 

45 CFR Part 1351 

Runaway and Homeless Youth; Proposed Rule 


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21064 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 71 / Monday, April 14, 2014 / Proposed Rules 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Administration for Children and 

Families 

45 CFR Part 1351 

RIN 0970–AC43 

Runaway and Homeless Youth 

AGENCY: Family and Youth Services 

Bureau (FYSB), Administration on 

Children, Youth and Families (ACYF), 

Administration for Children and 

Families (ACF), Department of Health 

and Human Services (HHS). 

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking. 

SUMMARY: This notice of proposed 

rulemaking would establish program 

performance standards for Runaway and 

Homeless Youth grantees providing 

services to eligible youth and their 

families. It also proposes revisions to 

reflect statutory changes, and to update 

procedures for soliciting and awarding 

grants. The proposed performance 

standards would be newly specified in 

regulation, but would build on 

standards already used by the program 

as priorities in funding opportunity 

solicitations and awards, in technical 

assistance, and in reporting 

requirements. 

DATES: In order to be considered, 

comments on this proposed rule must 

be received on or before June 13, 2014. 

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are 

invited to submit comments on this 

proposed rule either (1) electronically 

via the Internet at http://

www.regulations.gov or (2) by mail to 

the Associate Commissioner, Family 

and Youth Services Bureau, 

Administration for Children and 

Families, 1250 Maryland Ave. SW., 

Washington, DC 20024. If you submit a 

comment, please include your name and 

address, identify the docket number for 

this rulemaking, indicate the specific 

section of this document to which each 

comment applies, and give the reason 

for each comment. You may submit 

your comments and material to the 

government-wide e-rulemaking site 

above, or to the address above, but 

please submit your comments by only 

one means. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Resa 

F. Matthew, Director, Division of 

Adolescent Development and Support, 

Family and Youth Services Bureau, 1– 

800–865–0965, ncfy@acf.hhs.gov. Deaf 

and hearing impaired individuals may 

call the Federal Dual Party Relay 

Service at 1–800–877–8339 between 

8:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. Eastern time. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Statutory Authority 

This proposed regulation is published 

under the authority granted to the 

Secretary of Health and Human Services 

by the Runaway and Homeless Youth 

Act (Title III of the Juvenile Justice and 

Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974), 42 

U.S.C. 5701 et seq. as amended by the 

Reconnecting Homeless Youth Act of 

2008 (Pub. L. 110–378). 

II. Comment Procedures and 

Organization of NPRM 

Pursuant to the Administrative 

Procedures Act, the Department allows 

a period of time for members of the 

public to comment on proposed rules. 

In this case, we will allow 60 days for 

comments. In making any modifications 

to this notice of proposed rulemaking, 

we are not required to consider 

comments received beyond the 60-day 

comment period. To make sure your 

comments are addressed fully, we 

suggest the following: 

• Be specific; 

• Address only issues raised by the 

proposed rule, not the provisions of the 

law itself; 

• Explain reasons for any objections 

or recommended changes; 

• Propose appropriate alternatives; 

and 

• Reference the specific section of the 

notice of the proposed rulemaking being 

addressed. 

The preamble to this proposed rule is 

organized as follows: 

• Background of the proposals. 

• Consultative processes used prior to 

developing the proposed standards. 

• Scope of the rule. 

• Section-by-section analysis and 

explanation of the proposed 

requirements. 

The section-by-section analysis is 

organized to follow the framework of 45 

CFR part 1351. It proposes revisions to: 

• Significant terms used in the 

program; 

• Stated purposes of the program; 

• Eligibility for grants; 

• Priorities for awards; 

• Matching requirements; 

• Project periods; 

• Allowable and non-allowable costs; 

• Application procedures; 

• Funding criteria; 

• Other Federal requirements; and 

• Additional requirements that apply 

to all runaway and homeless youth 

program services grants. 

A new section follows proposing 

program-specific standards, both 

performance standards and other 

standards, for each of the three major 

grant programs authorized under the 

Runaway and Homeless Youth Act. 

III. Background 

The Runaway and Homeless Youth 

Act (‘‘the Act’’) authorizes three major 

grant programs administered by the 

Family and Youth Services Bureau 

(FYSB), Administration on Children, 

Youth and Families (ACYF), 

Administration for Children and 

Families (ACF), in the Department of 

Health and Human Services (HHS). 

These programs support local efforts to 

assist youth who have run away or are 

homeless. The Act also authorizes 

additional activities conducted through 

grants, including grants for research, 

evaluation, and service projects; grants 

for a national communications system to 

assist runaway and homeless youth in 

communicating with their families and 

service providers; and grants for 

technical assistance and training. The 

proposed rule covers all of these 

activities. 

The Basic Center Grant Program 

(hereafter referred to as the Basic Center 

Program) funds grants to communitybased public and private agencies for 

the provision of outreach, crisis 

intervention, temporary shelter, 

counseling, family unification, and 

aftercare services to runaway and 

homeless youth and their families. Basic 

Center projects generally serve youth 

under 18 years of age and can provide 

up to 21 days of shelter. 

The Transitional Living Grant 

Program (hereafter referred to as the 

Transitional Living Program) provides 

grants to public and private 

organizations for community-based 

shelter including group homes, host 

family homes, and supervised 

apartments for youth, ages 16 to under 

22, who cannot safely live with their 

own families. Transitional Living 

projects provide a long-term, safe, 

stable, and nurturing environment for 

up to 21 months. Young people who 

have not yet reached their 18th birthday 

at the end of the 21-month period may 

continue to receive services until they 

turn 18. Services include counseling in 

basic life skills, interpersonal skill 

building, educational advancement, job 

attainment skills, and physical and 

mental health care. These services are 

designed to help youth who are 

homeless develop the skills necessary to 

make a successful transition to selfsufficient living. The Transitional 

Living Program also funds Maternity 

Group Homes, which are specifically 

designed to meet the needs of pregnant 

and parenting youth. 

The Education and Prevention 

Services to Reduce Sexual Abuse of 

Runaway, Homeless and Street Youth 

Program (hereafter referred to as the 


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Street Outreach Program) provides 

grants to public and private 

organizations for street-based outreach 

and education, including treatment, 

counseling, provision of information, 

and referrals for runaway, homeless, 

and street youth 21 years and younger 

who have been subjected to or are at risk 

of being subjected to sexual abuse or 

exploitation. 

The Reconnecting Homeless Youth 

Act of 2008 (hereafter referred to as ‘‘the 

2008 Act’’) (Pub. L. 110–378) 

reauthorized the Runaway and 

Homeless Youth Act through FY 2013, 

and made a number of changes to the 

Act, including a requirement for the 

establishment of rules that specify 

performance standards for public and 

nonprofit private entities and agencies 

that receive grants authorized under 

sections 311, 321, and 351 of the 

Runaway and Homeless Youth Act. 

We have already implemented 

elements of these statutory mandates 

through funding opportunity 

announcements, technical assistance 

and training, and data collection. This 

proposed rule would allow us to 

complete implementation of these 

legislative requirements. In addition, it 

would bring our codified regulations, 

last updated August 17, 2000 (65 FR 

50139), into conformity with existing 

statutory provisions, the administrative 

and managerial procedures we already 

use in accordance with the 2008 Act, 

and previous statutory changes. We 

intend to provide technical assistance to 

grantees that focuses on effective 

implementation of these performance 

standards, and to implement them as 

new budget periods begin, after 

promulgation of a final rule, rather than 

in the middle of an existing budget 

period. 

IV. Consultation and the Development 

of the NPRM 

In keeping with the requirements of 

the statute, the Family and Youth 

Services Bureau (FYSB) sought input 

from grantees and other stakeholders 

prior to the development of this 

proposed rule. In April 2009, FYSB 

conducted a consultation forum that 

brought together forty-four individuals 

including subject experts, technical 

assistance providers, Runaway and 

Homeless Youth grantees, Federal staff, 

persons with extensive program 

monitoring experience, and national, 

regional and statewide youth servicing 

organization representatives. 

Consultation participants represented 

the vast diversity of Runaway and 

Homeless Youth grantees from each 

geographic region and program size. 

Consultation participants also had 

expertise and extensive knowledge of 

the three FYSB Runaway and Homeless 

Youth programs. The three-day forum 

provided an opportunity for exchanges 

of views and ideas from a wide array of 

perspectives. 

FYSB also has obtained stakeholder 

perspectives and other information to 

inform this proposed rule in a number 

of additional ways. Since 2008, we have 

conducted national conferences 

bringing together all stakeholder groups 

and allowing for broad, informal 

exchanges of views. One such 

conference, the 2008 Runaway and 

Homeless Youth Grantee Conference, 

was attended by 442 participants, 

including representatives from 252 

grantee organizations, to share ideas, 

promising approaches, and best 

practices. Participants met in over 30 

different workshops addressing both 

universal issues and specific 

programmatic needs of the three major 

Runaway and Homeless Youth 

programs. Through the Runaway and 

Homeless Youth Training and Technical 

Assistance Centers, we have conducted 

an extensive training, technical 

assistance, and monitoring effort aimed 

not only at assisting grantees, but also 

at obtaining their feedback on 

operational issues. In tandem with these 

efforts, we conducted an in-depth 

review of existing regulatory and subregulatory issuances and developed a 

comprehensive set of on-site review 

materials, in use since February 2009. 

These consultative processes 

provided valuable input that we have 

used in formulating the proposed 

performance and procedural standards. 

Importantly, the input we received 

emphasized that: 

• The standards should promote an 

integrated, holistic approach to service 

delivery. 

• The standards should be responsive 

to the complex social identities (i.e. 

race, ethnicity, nationality, religion/

spirituality, gender identity/expression, 

sexual orientation, socioeconomic 

status, physical ability, language, 

beliefs, values, behavior patterns, or 

customs) of clients. 

• The standards should serve as 

models for program quality and 

encourage programs to strive for 

excellence. 

• The standards should achieve a 

balance between clarity and precision of 

regulatory intent and regulatory 

flexibility so that programs can be most 

responsive to local needs, settings, and 

circumstances. 

• The standards should place 

emphasis on family-focused aspects of 

the program by strengthening links with 

local community providers, and helping 

families identify and address 

individualized goals. 

• Standards of any kind—whether 

performance or procedural—should 

facilitate rather than impede local 

flexibility in creating and operating 

effective programs that respond to local 

needs and priorities. 

• Standards should not unnecessarily 

impose burdensome requirements that 

would divert local resources away from 

service. 

We agree that ‘‘Regular measurement 

of progress toward specified outcomes is 

a vital component of any effort at 

managing-for-results’’ (Harry P. Hatry, 

Performance Measurement, Urban 

Institute Press, 2006). That said, we 

recognize that effective, workable, and 

successful performance standards are 

extremely difficult to formulate. Among 

the difficulties involved, some of the 

most important goals may be qualitative 

rather than quantitative. Near-term 

results may not correctly signal longterm effects. Measurement and appraisal 

may reduce the resources available for 

services. Not only may local 

circumstances vary, but also achieving a 

lower absolute result in some settings 

may actually reflect superior 

performance over other settings because 

difficulties were greater. There are 

challenges in establishing performance 

measures. However, they hold promise 

with regard to driving performance and 

assuring accountability. Despite these 

difficulties, in recent years some Federal 

programs, including the Runaway and 

Homeless Youth Program, have 

increasingly incorporated performance 

measures and standards into their 

ongoing operations because they can 

drive program improvement and help 

assure accountability. The standards 

and measures proposed in this rule 

represent what we believe are 

appropriate and realistic, consistent 

with the underlying complexity of the 

problems and processes involved in 

serving homeless and runaway youth. 

We welcome comments on whether our 

proposed standards strike the proper 

balance in meeting the objectives stated 

above, including measuring the most 

important program goals that are 

feasible to measure, preserving 

flexibility to grantees, and minimizing 

unnecessary burden. We welcome 

suggestions, particularly those 

supported by research or evaluative 

evidence, for improvements in the 

proposed standards. 

We also seek in this proposed rule to 

update program requirements that are 

important to successful implementation 

of the program. For example, as 

discussed in the section-by-section 

analysis, we propose to continue the 


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requirement that grantees coordinate 

their activities with the 24-hour 

National Toll-free Communication 

System and that grantees submit 

statistical reports. We propose to 

include in the text of the regulation a 

number of statutory requirements that 

are currently used in program 

administration. For example, we 

propose to continue the implementation 

of a statutory requirement that Basic 

Center grantees shall have an intake 

procedure that is available 24 hours a 

day, 7 days a week, to all youth seeking 

services and shelter and that addresses 

and responds to immediate needs for 

crisis counseling, food, clothing, shelter, 

and health care services. Additionally, 

we want to underscore the importance 

of grantees coordinating with and 

working with other providers of services 

to homeless individuals, and strongly 

encourage grantees to collaborate with 

their local Continuum of Care, with the 

goal of ending youth homelessness. 

In developing this proposed rule, we 

considered a large number of potential 

process and procedural requirements, 

some of which were generated by our 

public consultative process. We propose 

to codify a targeted number of these in 

order to minimize burden on grantees 

and to provide grantees flexibility in 

meeting their performance standards 

and in dealing with unique 

circumstances in their communities. 

Moreover, we believe that there are 

many effective practices that are best 

handled through technical assistance 

and training rather than established as 

regulatory standards. 

V. Scope of the Proposed Rule 

This rule proposes Runaway and 

Homeless Youth Program Performance 

Standards to help assess the quality and 

effectiveness of the Runaway and 

Homeless Youth Program nationally by 

providing indicators of successful 

outcomes for youth. The performance 

standards will be used to monitor 

individual project performance in 

achieving the purposes of the Act. 

Projects will also be subject to other 

requirements including other applicable 

regulations (e.g., civil rights 

regulations), and those cited in funding 

opportunity announcements. 

This proposed rule also makes largely 

technical changes to existing program 

rules to conform to current law and to 

correct outdated provisions. Equally 

important, it proposes to revise our 

regulatory provisions on making awards 

to reflect the performance standards and 

to reflect onsite review and monitoring 

procedures that have been in place for 

a number of years. 

All grantees will be expected to 

comply with newly imposed standards 

when final rules are issued and become 

effective. We propose, however, to delay 

applicability of the new performance 

standards until the beginning of the next 

budget period (typically October 1) after 

the effective date of the final rule. This 

will allow existing grantees time to 

come into compliance with the new 

standards, provide time for us to assist 

grantees, and avoid any confusion that 

may result from changing standards in 

the middle of budget periods as well as 

provide new grantees advance notice of 

expectations. To assist grantees, we will 

provide them with guidance on best 

practices for implementing the 

standards. We also plan to conduct 

additional technical assistance to help 

grantee agencies understand and 

implement the new standards. We 

intend for the proposed rule to 

complement our existing efforts to 

strengthen Runaway and Homeless 

Youth monitoring and to improve the 

overall program. 

VI. Section-by-Section Discussion of the 

Regulatory Provisions 

Subpart A. Definition of Terms 

We propose to update the definitions 

of significant terms in § 1351.1 to reflect 

current statutory terminology and 

operating practice. We propose to revise 

a number of existing definitions, to add 

a number of definitions, to delete a few 

definitions that we do not believe are 

useful or necessary, and to change the 

format of the definitions. We request 

comment on each new or revised 

definition. For the most part, the 

additions and revisions are intended to 

reflect both recent changes to the statute 

and important practices in the 

administration of the program. The 

definitions section applies to all grants 

under the Act. Each individual 

definition only applies as it is 

applicable to each type of grant. The 

consultative process assisted in our 

proposed revisions because, as noted by 

many participants, the current 

regulations do not focus on some of the 

most important purposes and services of 

the programs operated under the statute. 

We add or clarify definitions to help 

achieve this goal. 

We propose to add a definition of Act 

to read: Act means the Runaway and 

Homeless Youth Act as amended. 

We propose to revise the definition of 

Aftercare to read: Aftercare means 

additional services provided beyond the 

period of residential stay that offer 

continuity and supportive follow-up to 

youth served by the program. This 

would simplify the current definition 

for clarity but operationally constitutes 

no change. 

We propose to delete the term ‘‘area’’ 

because a precise definition is not 

required for the purposes of the 

program. 

As discussed later in the preamble, 

we propose to add a requirement for 

background checks of project staff and 

volunteers who come into contact with 

children and youth served or proposed 

to be served by the agency, and thus 

propose to add a definition to read: 

Background check means the review of 

an individual employee’s or 

employment applicant’s personal 

information, which shall include 

verification of educational credentials 

and employment experience, as well as 

a national examination of the 

individual’s criminal records, and an 

examination of the individual’s driving 

records, licensing records, and child 

abuse or neglect history. Volunteers 

who come into contact with children 

and youth served or proposed to be 

served by the agency must also undergo 

a background check. The purpose of 

such a background check is to protect 

both the grantee and the clients from 

potential harm from an employee or 

volunteer whose history presents a 

serious risk. 

Because a budget period is an 

essential element of project funding, we 

propose to add a definition to read: 

Budget period means the interval of 

time into which a multi-year period of 

assistance (project period) is divided for 

budgetary and funding purposes. 

Case management is a central concept 

in serving client youth, and we propose 

to add a definition to read: Case 

management means assessing the needs 

of the client and, as appropriate, 

arranging, coordinating, monitoring, 

evaluating, and advocating for a package 

of services to meet the specific needs of 

the client. 

Similarly, we propose to define the 

term client to read: Client means a 

runaway, homeless, or street youth, or 

youth at risk of running away or 

becoming homeless, who is served by a 

program grantee. This definition covers 

the full range of youth served under the 

program as it operates today. 

We propose to delete the definition of 

‘‘Coordinated networks of agencies’’ 

because the term is self-explanatory and 

is not used in any substantive provision 

of the regulations. 

We propose to add definitions for 

congregate care, drop-in center, host 

family home, and supervised 

apartments to distinguish among 

different types of center models. These 

definitions distinguish centers that 

provide or use referrals for the full range 


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of services provided in the Basic Center 

Program, Transitional Living Program, 

and/or Street Outreach Program as 

appropriate from alternative models that 

provide more limited services. We 

propose congregate care to read: 

Congregate care means a shelter type 

that combines living quarters and 

restroom facilities with centralized 

dining services, shared living spaces, 

and access to social and recreational 

activities. We propose drop-in center to 

read: Drop-in center means a place 

operated and staffed for runaway or 

homeless youth that clients can visit 

without an appointment to get advice or 

information, to receive services or 

service referrals, or to meet other 

runaway or homeless youth. We 

propose host family home to read: Host 

family home means a family or single 

adult home that provides shelter to a 

homeless youth. And we propose 

supervised apartments to read: 

Supervised apartments means a type of 

shelter setting using building(s) with 

separate residential units where client 

supervision is provided on site or on 

call 24 hours a day. Supervised 

apartments can be scattered throughout 

the community, but they must be 

supervised. 

Core competencies are essential in 

providing services that lead to improved 

outcomes for clients. We propose to add 

a definition for core competencies of 

youth worker to read: Core 

competencies of youth worker means 

the ability to demonstrate skills in all of 

six domain areas: (1) Professionalism 

(including, but not limited to, consistent 

and reliable job performance, awareness 

and use of professional ethics to guide 

practice), (2) applied positive youth 

development approach (including, but 

not limited to, skills to develop a 

positive youth development plan and 

identifying the client’s strengths in 

order to best apply a positive youth 

development framework), (3) cultural 

and human diversity (including, but not 

limited to, gaining knowledge and skills 

to meet the needs of clients of a 

different race, ethnicity, nationality, 

religion/spirituality, gender identity/

expression, sexual orientation), (4) 

applied human development (including, 

but not limited to, understanding the 

needs of those at risk and with special 

needs), (5) relationship and 

communication (including, but not 

limited to, working with clients in a 

collaborative manner), and (6) 

developmental practice methods 

(including, but not limited to, utilizing 

methods focused on genuine 

relationships, health and safety, 

intervention planning). 

We propose to revise the definition of 

counseling services to include runaway 

prevention and intervention related 

services as follows: Counseling services 

means the provision of guidance, 

support, referrals for services including, 

but not limited to, health services, and 

advice to runaway or otherwise 

homeless youth and their families, as 

well as to youth and families when a 

young person is at risk of running away. 

These services are designed to alleviate 

the problems that have put the youth at 

risk of running away or contributed to 

his or her running away or being 

homeless. 

We propose to delete the definition of 

‘‘Demonstrably frequented by or 

reachable’’. The definition is 

unnecessary. 

Drug abuse intervention and 

prevention services are important, and 

are defined under that term in the Act 

(section 387(1)). We propose to broaden 

the substance of the statutory definition 

in regulatory text to read: Drug abuse 

intervention and prevention services 

means services to prevent or reduce 

drug and/or alcohol abuse by runaway 

and homeless youth, and may include 

(i) individual, family, group, and peer 

counseling; (ii) drop-in services; (iii) 

assistance to runaway and homeless 

youth in rural areas (including the 

development of community support 

groups); (iv) information and training 

relating to drug and/or alcohol abuse by 

runaway and homeless youth to 

individuals involved in providing 

services to such youth; and (v) activities 

to improve the availability of local drug 

and/or alcohol abuse prevention 

services to runaway and homeless 

youth. Our reason for the broadening of 

this definition is two-fold: (1) We note 

that the RHY statute explicitly 

contemplates services to address alcohol 

abuse in section 387(5); (2) the inclusion 

of alcohol abuse in addition to drug 

abuse is standard practice in the 

substance abuse field as is demonstrated 

in the definition used by the Substance 

Abuse and Mental Health Services 

Administration that ‘‘substance abuse 

means the abuse of alcohol or other 

drugs.’’ 

We add a proposed definition of 

health care services to read: Health care 

services include physical, mental, 

behavioral, and dental health services 

and, in the case of Maternity Group 

Homes, are provided to the child of the 

youth and are included in the proposed 

performance standards. Additionally, 

the statute requires that in the case of 

home-based services under Part A, a 

youth’s family (including unrelated 

individuals in the family households) 

shall receive counseling and 

information related to mental and 

physical health care services. Therefore, 

the proposed definition also includes, 

where applicable and allowable within 

a program, family or household 

members of the youth shall receive 

information on appropriate health 

related services. 

We propose to follow the substance of 

the statutory definition (section 387(2)) 

of home-based services to read as 

follows: Home-based services means 

services provided to youth and their 

families for the purpose of (i) preventing 

such youth from running away or 

otherwise becoming separated from 

their families and (ii) assisting runaway 

youth to return to their families. It 

includes services that are provided in 

the residences of families (to the extent 

practicable), including intensive 

individual and family counseling and 

training relating to life skills and 

parenting. 

Homeless youth is an essential 

definition because it identifies 

individuals eligible to be served under 

the Act. The current regulatory 

definition is obsolete and we propose to 

replace it to read as follows, 

paraphrasing the Act (section 387(3)): 

Homeless youth means an individual 

who cannot live safely with a parent, 

guardian or relative, and who has no 

other safe alternative living 

arrangement. For purposes of Basic 

Center Program eligibility, a homeless 

youth must be less than 18 years of age 

(or higher if allowed by a State or local 

law or regulation that applies to 

licensure requirements for child- or 

youth-serving facilities). For purposes of 

Transitional Living Program eligibility, 

a homeless youth cannot be less than 16 

years of age and must be less than 22 

years of age (unless the individual 

commenced his or her stay before age 

22, and the maximum service period has 

not ended). 

Intake services are essential functions 

under the Act. We propose to define 

intake to read: Intake means a process 

for gathering information to assess 

eligibility and the services required to 

meet the immediate needs of the client. 

Extremely important in this program 

are interfaces between Runaway and 

Homeless Youth projects and juvenile 

justice facilities, including any location 

a youth is placed by order of the court 

for a set period of time. We propose to 

expand the existing definition of 

juvenile justice systems to read: Juvenile 

justice systems, institutions, or 

authorities means agencies that include, 

but are not limited to, juvenile courts, 

correctional institutions, detention 

facilities, law enforcement, training 

schools, or agencies that use probation, 


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parole, and/or court ordered home 

confinement. We note that grantees 

under the RHY programs are not obliged 

to serve youth who are under probation 

or parole. The RHY program was created 

as an alternative to involving runaway 

and homeless youth in the law 

enforcement, child welfare, mental 

health, and juvenile justice system. 

Indeed, as discussed later in the 

preamble we propose to add a programwide requirement that grantees not 

provide services that substitute for those 

that juvenile justice, child welfare, or 

other systems are legally responsible for 

providing to youth who have not been 

released from their supervision. 

There are two definitions in the 

current regulations that are unnecessary, 

and accordingly we propose to delete: 

‘‘law enforcement structure’’, and ‘‘a 

locality.’’ 

For runaway and homeless youth who 

are pregnant or who have children, 

congregate or scattered-site maternityrelated services are essential. 

Accordingly, we propose to define a key 

service: Maternity group home means a 

community-based, adult-supervised 

transitional living arrangement where 

client oversight is provided on site or 

on-call 24 hours a day and that provides 

pregnant or parenting youth and their 

children with a supportive environment 

in which to learn parenting skills, 

including child development, family 

budgeting, health and nutrition, and 

other skills to promote their long-term 

economic independence and ensure the 

well-being of their children. 

We propose to add a definition for 

outreach to read as follows: Outreach 

means finding runaway, homeless, and 

street youth, as well as youth at risk of 

running away or becoming homeless, 

who might not use services due to lack 

of awareness or active avoidance, 

providing information to them about 

services and benefits, and encouraging 

the use of appropriate services. 

Outreach includes low-barrier services 

such as food packs and personal 

hygiene packs. 

We include risk and protective factors 

under the list of technical assistance or 

short-term training that may be 

determined as necessary by HHS as a 

condition of funding. Therefore, we 

propose a definition of risk and 

protective factors to read: Risk and 

protective factors mean those factors 

that are measureable characteristics of a 

youth that can occur at multiple levels, 

including biological, psychological, 

family, community, and cultural levels, 

that precede and are associated with an 

outcome. Risk factors are associated 

with a higher likelihood of problem 

outcomes, and protective factors are 

associated with a lower likelihood of 

problem outcomes. 

Another core statutory term is 

runaway youth. We propose to update 

the existing definition to reflect the Act 

(section 387(4)), to read: Runaway youth 

means an individual under 18 years of 

age who absents himself or herself from 

home or place of legal residence without 

the permission of a parent or legal 

guardian. 

We propose to revise the definition of 

runaway and homeless youth project to 

reflect the current scope of services 

under the Act. The revised definition 

would read: Runaway and homeless 

youth project means a community-based 

program outside the juvenile justice and 

child welfare systems that provides 

runaway prevention, outreach, shelter, 

and transition services to runaway, 

homeless, or street youth or youth at 

risk of running away or becoming 

homeless. 

The expectation for Basic Center 

projects is that they effectively stabilize 

the youth over a short period of time 

while working with the youth to 

strengthen family relationships, 

assisting the youth in determining their 

best future course of action, and, to the 

extent appropriate, reunifying the youth 

with their families. The expectation for 

Transitional Living projects is that they 

effectively provide longer term housing 

support while working with the youth 

to develop skills and competencies that 

lead to self-sufficiency, improving 

family relationships, and planning for 

future education, employment and 

independent living. Certain exit 

outcomes align with these goals 

(including, but not limited to, 

reunification with family, residing in a 

private residence or residential program 

where rent is paid, residing in a 

program with a structured educational/ 

vocational training program), while 

others are contrary to these goals. 

Therefore, we propose to add a 

definition of Safe and Appropriate 

Settings When Exiting Basic Center 

Program Services or Transitional Living 

Program Services. The definition would 

read: Safe and Appropriate Settings 

When Exiting Basic Center Program 

Services or Transitional Living Program 

Services means settings that reflect 

achievement of the intended purposes 

of the Basic Center and Transitional 

Living programs as outlined in section 

382(a) of the Act. Safe and Appropriate 

Settings When Exiting Basic Center 

Program Services or Transitional Living 

Program Services are not exits: 

• To another shelter; 

• To the street; 

• To a private residence, other than a 

youth who is staying stably with family, 

if the youth is not paying rent; 

• To another residential program if 

the youth is not paying rent or if the 

youth’s transition to the other 

residential program was unplanned; 

• To a correctional institute or 

detention center if the youth became 

involved in activities that lead to this 

exit after entering the program; 

• To an unspecified other living 

situation; or 

• To a living situation that is not 

known. 

By defining ‘‘Safe and Appropriate 

Settings,’’ our intent is to move the field 

beyond just finding a place for the youth 

to stay. Basic Center projects must also 

work toward: (A) Alleviating the 

problems of runaway and homeless 

youth; (B) if applicable or appropriate, 

reuniting such youth with their families 

and encouraging the resolution of intrafamily problems through counseling and 

other services; (C) strengthening family 

relationships and encouraging stable 

living conditions for such youth; and 

(D) assisting such youth in deciding on 

a future course of action. 

The ultimate goal of Transitional 

Living projects is to provide those 

services that lead to self-sufficiencies. 

Beyond housing, Transitional Living 

projects are to address the following to 

meet the standard: (A) The number and 

characteristics of homeless youth served 

by such projects; (B) the types of 

activities carried out by such projects; 

(C) the ability of such projects to 

alleviate the problems of homeless 

youth; (D) the ability of such projects to 

prepare homeless youth for selfsufficiency; (E) the ability of such 

projects to assist homeless youth to 

decide on future education, 

employment, and independent living; 

(F) the ability of such projects to 

encourage the resolution of intra-family 

problems through counseling and 

development of self-sufficient living 

skills; and (G) activities and programs 

planned by such projects for the 

following fiscal year. 

We include screening and assessment 

under the list of technical assistance or 

short-term training that may be 

determined as necessary by HHS as a 

condition of funding as well as within 

some of the proposed program 

standards. Therefore, we propose a 

definition of screening and assessment 

to read: Screening and assessment 

means standardized instruments and 

practices used to validly and reliably 

identify each youth’s individual 

strengths and needs across multiple 

aspects of health, wellbeing and 

behavior in order to inform appropriate 


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1Whitbeck, LB; Johnson, KD; Hoyt, DR & Cauce, 

AM. (2004). Mental disorder and comorbidity 

among runaway and homeless adolescents. Journal 

of Adolescent Health. 35(2): 132. 

2Cauce, AM, et al. (2000). The characteristics and 

mental health of homeless adolescents. Journal of 

Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. 8(4):230. 

3Whitbeck, LB; Chen, X; Hoyt, DR; Tyler, KA & 

Johnson, KD. (2004). Mental disorder, subsistence 

strategies, and victimization among gay, lesbian, 

and bisexual homeless and runaway adolescents. 

The Journal of Sex Research. 41(4):329. 

4 Greene, JM; Ennet, ST & Ringwalk, CL. (1999). 

Prevalence and correlates of survival sex among 

runaway and homeless youth. American Journal of 

Public Health. 89(9):1406. 5Clark, R. & Robertson, M.J. (1996). Surviving for 

the Moment: A Report on Homeless Youth in San 

Francisco. Berkeley: Alcohol Research Group. 6Taylor-Seehafer, MA. (2004). Positive youth 

development: Reducing the health risks of homeless 

youth. MCN, American Journal of Maternal Child 

Nursing. 29(1):36. 

service decisions and provide a baseline 

for monitoring outcomes over time. 

Screening involves brief instruments, 

for example with trauma and health 

problems, which can indicate certain 

youth for more thorough diagnostic 

assessments and service needs. 

Assessment, which is used here to mean 

assessment more broadly than for the 

purposes of diagnosis, involves 

evaluating multiple aspects of social, 

emotional, and behavioral competencies 

and functioning in order to inform 

service decisions and monitor 

outcomes. 

We also propose to define a service 

plan, sometimes called a treatment plan, 

to read: Service plan or treatment plan 

means a written plan of action based on 

the assessment of client needs and 

strengths and engaging in joint problemsolving with the client that identifies 

problems, sets goals, and describes a 

strategy for achieving those goals. To the 

extent possible, the plan should 

incorporate the use of evidence-based or 

evidence-informed interventions. It 

should also include safety planning. 

We propose to retain the definition of 

short-term training as the provision of 

local, State, or regionally-based 

instruction to runaway or otherwise 

homeless youth service providers in 

skill areas that will directly strengthen 

service delivery. 

From the Act (section 387(6)), we 

propose to define street youth to read: 

Street youth means an individual who 

is a runaway youth or an indefinitely or 

intermittently homeless youth who 

spends a significant amount of time on 

the street or in other areas that increase 

the risk to such youth for sexual abuse, 

sexual exploitation, prostitution, or drug 

and/or alcohol abuse. For purposes of 

this definition, youth means an 

individual who is age 21 or less. 

We propose to retain the definition of 

State under the current rule, which 

defines State as any State of the United 

States, the District of Columbia, the 

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the 

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 

Islands, and any territory or possession 

of the United States. 

We propose to retain the definition of 

technical assistance as the provision of 

expertise or support for the purpose of 

strengthening the capabilities of grantee 

organizations to deliver services. 

Finally, we propose to update the 

definition of temporary shelter to read: 

Temporary shelter means all shelter 

settings in which runaway and 

homeless youth are provided room and 

board, crisis intervention, and other 

services on a 24-hour basis for up to 21 

days. If a youth stays at a facility for 

longer than 21 days, the agency must 

utilize other funding sources when 

providing services and shelter for the 

extra days. 

Subpart B—Runaway and Homeless 

Youth Program Grants 

The existing rule contains a number 

of sections dealing with the purposes of 

the program, eligibility for grants, 

priority for grants, matching 

requirements, the period of grant 

awards, allowable costs, application 

procedures, criteria for grant funding 

decisions, and additional information 

for grantees. We propose revisions to all 

of these sections as well as to the title 

of the subpart to be Runaway and 

Homeless Youth Program Grants. These 

sections apply to all grants under the 

program. 

Purpose 

Currently, § 1351.10 asks, ‘‘What is 

the purpose of the Runaway and 

Homeless Youth Program grant?’’ We 

propose to re-title this section ‘‘What is 

the purpose of Runaway and Homeless 

Youth Program grants?’’ This change in 

title reflects the growth of the program 

over time from the core Basic Center 

Program to a broader range of grant 

types and purposes. Relatedly, we 

propose to amend the statement of 

purpose to emphasize not only 

transitional living services and other 

services added in recent years, but also 

the increasing emphasis on prevention 

and on the vulnerability of these youth. 

Under the proposal, the purpose of 

Runaway and Homeless Youth program 

grants would be to establish or 

strengthen community-based projects to 

provide runaway prevention, outreach, 

shelter, and transition services to 

runaway, homeless, or street youth or 

youth at risk of running away or 

becoming homeless. Youth who have 

become homeless or who leave and 

remain away from home without 

parental permission are 

disproportionately subject to serious 

health, behavioral, and emotional 

problems.1 2 They lack sufficient 

resources to obtain care and may live on 

the street for extended periods, unable 

to achieve stable safe living 

arrangements and at times putting 

themselves in danger.3 4 Many are 

urgently in need of temporary shelter 

and services,5 including services that 

are linguistically appropriate, 

responsive to their complex social 

identities (i.e., race, ethnicity, 

nationality, religion/spirituality, gender 

identity/expression, sexual orientation, 

socioeconomic status, physical ability, 

language, beliefs, values, behavior 

patterns, or customs), and acknowledge 

the environment they come from. 

Services should take a positive youth 

development approach that ensures a 

young person a sense of safety and 

structure; belonging and membership; 

self-worth and social contribution; 

independence and control over one’s 

life; skills to develop plans for the 

future and set goals; and, closeness in 

interpersonal relationships.6 To make a 

successful transition to adulthood, 

runaway youth, homeless youth, and 

other street youth also need 

opportunities to complete high school 

or earn a general equivalency degree, 

learn job skills, and obtain employment. 

HHS operates three programs to carry 

out these purposes through direct local 

services: The Basic Center Program, the 

Transitional Living Program (including 

Maternity Group Homes), and the Street 

Outreach Program. HHS operates three 

additional activities to support 

achievement of these purposes: 

research, evaluation, and service 

projects; a national communications 

system to assist runaway and homeless 

youth in communicating with service 

providers; and technical assistance and 

training. The proposed rule covers all of 

these activities. 

Eligibility for Grants 

The existing rule asks in § 1351.11 

‘‘Who is eligible to apply for a Runaway 

and Homeless Youth program grant?’’ 

The eligibility requirements of the 

program have not changed significantly 

over the years but we propose changes 

to this section to conform the regulatory 

language to the current statute. We 

propose to state that all public (State 

and local) and private non-profit 

entities, and coordinated networks of 

such entities, are eligible to apply for a 

Runaway and Homeless Youth Program 

grant unless they are part of the law 

enforcement structure or the juvenile 

justice system. While specific regulatory 


TKELLEY on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS5
21070 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 71 / Monday, April 14, 2014 / Proposed Rules 

language is not needed, we wish to 

point out that most faith-based 

organizations meet the regulatory 

definition of non-profit. 

Priority for Awards 

The existing regulation addresses 

priority for awards in § 1351.12. We 

propose significant changes to the 

language regarding grant award 

priorities. We reference the new 

performance standards, we propose to 

raise the priority award level on the 

amounts available for award to $200,000 

(from $100,000 in the current 

regulations), and we propose to raise the 

priority threshold on total project 

budgets, taking into account the funding 

from all sources, to $200,000 (from 

$150,000 in the current regulations). 

The change to the priority for grantees 

requesting awards for the Basic Center 

Program, the Transitional Living 

Program (including Maternity Group 

Homes), and the Street Outreach 

Program under a certain dollar level 

reflects inflation since the regulation 

was last revised. We also have indicated 

that future funding opportunity 

announcements may adjust these 

thresholds to account for inflation. We 

specifically state that we will give 

higher priority to those existing grantees 

that have performed better than other 

existing grantees in allocating funds, 

and to new applicants who are more 

likely to meet all applicable 

requirements than other new and/or 

existing grantees. For clarity, we 

specifically reference both performance 

standards and other requirements. This 

language allows new applicants to 

demonstrate a likelihood of meeting 

applicable performance and other 

regulatory or funding opportunity 

standards, without requiring prior 

experience. Of course, an applicant with 

prior experience may be more likely to 

demonstrate its capabilities, but we 

propose changing the existing rule to 

indicate prior experience shall be 

weighed along with performance. While 

the statute is clear about preference for 

prior experience, new requirements for 

performance standards makes clear that 

experience must be weighed along with 

performance. These procedures and 

priorities apply to all types of grantees, 

but only as applicable (e.g., we do not 

establish performance standards for 

research or demonstration projects.) 

We call attention to the phrase 

‘‘performed highly in comparison to 

other agencies.’’ We are not proposing 

that meeting every particular 

requirement, including performance 

standards, is a prerequisite for funding, 

although there may be cases where such 

a determination would be made (e.g., for 

conforming to civil rights laws or 

conducting background checks). We are 

proposing that applicants must compete 

for funds with other agencies, and that 

relative performance will be a factor in 

making award decisions among existing 

grantees. 

In discussing priorities, we do not 

specifically address geographic area(s) 

to be served. That will typically be 

addressed in funding opportunity 

announcements and may, depending on 

the type of grant, be national. We 

assume that either new applicants or 

existing grantees can compete for 

awards in the same geographic area. For 

example, a grantee already serving one 

city could apply for a grant to serve an 

additional city. As discussed later in 

this preamble in the performance 

standards section, we also do not 

propose to give specific numeric 

weights to failures to meet particular 

standards, whether performance 

standards or others. This allows for 

funding decisions that take into account 

unique local circumstances that favor or 

impede high performance, and for 

evidence that an applicant is both able 

and willing to correct a deficiency. This 

also allows for increases or decreases in 

grant awards to reward or penalize 

grantees whose performance is 

particularly high or modestly weak, 

without making the award decision ‘‘all 

or nothing.’’ Finally, it allows us to take 

into account availability of funds and 

other factors such as State allotment 

requirements. We note that the $200,000 

priority award level on grant awards is 

unrelated to the statutory requirement 

that each State has an allotment of not 

less than $200,000. There may be, and 

usually are, multiple awards in each 

State. The statutory requirement simply 

means that the total of such awards in 

any State be at least $200,000 (and 

$70,000 for territories). 

We request comments on these 

proposed priorities and on ways to 

improve or refine them. 

Matching Requirements 

We propose a change to § 1351.13 

regarding matching share. The current 

regulatory language conflicts with the 

statute on the amount of funding 

required by grantees to satisfy the match 

requirement. The current language 

requires a non-Federal match amount of 

10 percent of the Federal share. To align 

the statute and the regulations, we 

propose that the Federal share reflect 90 

percent, thus the remaining 10 percent 

represents the match cost, cash or inkind contributions. 

We note that the language of the 

statute is phrased in terms implying an 

exact 10 percent matching share, but the 

Department has always taken the 

position that the language should not be 

interpreted to prevent grantees from 

spending additional funds from their 

own resources. 

Project Period 

We have not proposed changes to 

§ 1351.14, providing that the period for 

which a grant will be awarded is 

generally one year, renewable annually. 

The existing rule says that the project 

period during which the project will not 

have to re-compete for funds will not 

exceed five years and we see no reason 

to change this limit. Of course, we may 

specify a shorter project period in our 

program solicitations, and currently do 

so for the Basic Center Program and the 

Street Outreach Program, where the 

project period is generally three years. 

Supportable Costs 

We propose minor changes to update 

the language under § 1315.15 to more 

fully describe costs allowed under 

Runaway and Homeless Youth grants. 

Costs that can be supported include, but 

are not limited to, staff training and core 

services such as outreach, intake, case 

management, data collection, temporary 

shelter, transitional living arrangements, 

referral services, counseling services, 

and aftercare services. We retain the 

existing prohibition against acquisition 

or renovation costs that exceed 15 

percent of the grant award, subject to 

potential waiver. We also propose 

adding language that clarifies that 

research and evaluation, 

communications, and technical 

assistance grants are allowed costs that 

pertain to their unique purposes. 

Costs Not Allowable 

We propose a change to the language 

under § 1351.16 that currently states 

only that capital costs for new facilities 

are not allowed under Runaway and 

Homeless Youth grants. We propose 

retaining this prohibition and also 

explicitly prohibiting payment for the 

operating costs of existing community 

centers or other facilities that are used 

partially or incidentally for services to 

runaway or homeless youth clients. This 

does not mean that a reasonable fraction 

of utility or other overhead costs could 

not be charged to our grant when a 

facility provides multiple services, but it 

does mean that such fraction would 

have to be based on a reasonable cost 

allocation method approved by HHS, 

such as proportion of square footage 

devoted exclusively to each service in 

the facility. Separable costs of the 

runaway and homeless youth project 

are, of course, fully reimbursable. The 

reason for this clarification is that we 


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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 71 / Monday, April 14, 2014 / Proposed Rules 21071 

have seen proposed project budgets that 

include disproportionate allocations of 

facility-wide or overhead costs to 

runaway and homeless youth projects 

that use only a small portion of the 

facility. 

Application Procedures 

Current rules under § 1351.17 provide 

that HHS will publish program 

announcements of availability of grant 

funds annually in the Federal Register, 

and includes specific but outdated 

procedures for obtaining 

announcements and submitting 

applications. We propose to change 

§ 1351.17 to address three changes since 

the rule was last revised. First, proposed 

paragraph (a) recognizes that we now 

rely primarily on the Internet (rather 

than the Federal Register) for 

publication of our funding opportunity 

announcements. Second, under 

proposed paragraph (b) we now allow 

for electronic submission of completed 

grant applications through the Federal 

government’s http://www.grants.gov 

Web site. We continue to allow for 

paper applications for grants. Third, our 

proposed language says that we publish 

such announcements periodically rather 

than annually. The timing and 

frequency varies by type of grant and 

has changed over time. 

Funding Criteria 

Under existing § 1351.18 we list a 

number of criteria that we use for 

deciding which grant applications to 

fund. We propose small technical 

changes to these criteria. 

Under paragraph (a) we propose to 

retain the criteria that proposed projects 

meet funding priorities. We also add a 

clause making specific reference to our 

use of funding opportunity 

announcements to establish specific 

details of the broad requirements, 

standards, and evaluation criteria 

contained in this proposed rule. Under 

the proposal, in reviewing applications 

HHS will take into consideration factors 

including whether the grant application 

meets the particular priorities, 

requirements, standards, or evaluation 

criteria established in funding 

opportunity announcements. We 

renumber these criteria accordingly. 

In paragraph (b), we propose to 

modify and combine the current 

requirements of paragraphs (b) and (c) 

for demonstrating ‘‘need’’ to require that 

the likely estimated number of unserved 

runaway and homeless youth in the area 

exceeds the capacity of existing 

services. That is, we do not require a 

census-like count of such youth, but 

merely a reasonable estimate that the 

number of such youth exceeds the 

capacity of existing services. We 

welcome comment on these proposed 

changes. 

Under proposed paragraph (c), we 

propose to retain the existing 

requirement that runaway and homeless 

youth centers maintain a minimum 

residential capacity of 4 and a 

maximum of 20 (except where the 

applicant assures that the State where 

the center or locally controlled facility 

is located has a State or local law or 

regulation that requires a higher 

maximum to comply with licensure 

requirements for child and youth 

serving facilities) for all youth residing 

at the shelter on any given night. We 

propose to clarify that the capacity 

standards apply only to grants that 

include such centers. We also propose 

to revise the regulation to require 

centers to have the number of staff 

sufficient to assure adequate 

supervision of and treatment for the 

number of clients served rather than a 

mandatory ratio of staff to clients. This 

change is for consistency with the 

statute at section 321(b)(2)(B). While we 

are not aware of any objective or agreedupon basis for establishing such a ratio, 

an agency would refer to State laws and 

licensing regulations as they pertain to 

runaway and homeless youth shelters 

for guidelines. If no runaway and 

homeless youth shelter laws and 

licensing regulations have been 

established in a State, the agency would 

refer to State child welfare laws and 

regulations for youth. Agencies would 

be required to cite the guidelines they 

are following for the staff ratios they 

deem to be appropriate. 

Under paragraph (d) we propose to 

slightly modify the criteria under 

current paragraph (e) removing the 

language concerning the 72 hour 

timeframe from admission for the 

program to make contact with family. 

The requirement is contained in Subpart 

C at new section 1351.21(e) and in 

proposed new Subpart D at 

§ 1351.30(a)(1). 

We propose to retain the language in 

current paragraphs (f)–(h) and renumber 

them (e)–(g). 

We further propose to add a new 

paragraph (h) to include past 

performance in a RHY grant, including 

but not limited to programs standards. 

Current paragraphs (i) and (j) would be 

unchanged. A new paragraph (k) is 

proposed to include other factors as 

outlined in the funding opportunity 

announcements. 

We welcome comment on all these 

proposed changes to the Funding 

Criteria and ask that commenters 

proposing alternatives provide, if 

possible, research evidence in support 

of those alternatives. In this context, and 

throughout this proposed rule, we 

specifically ask commenters to 

distinguish between desirable best 

practices and minimum requirements 

that demonstrably preclude an applicant 

from providing an effective program. 

Other Federal Requirements and 

Program Policies 

Under the current rule, § 1351.19 

contains a list of other rules and 

regulations that apply to applicants for, 

or recipients, of program funds. These 

include, for example, regulations 

concerning civil rights obligations of 

recipients and regulations concerning 

fraud, waste, and abuse. The existing 

text lists only five such rules. We 

propose amending it to include 

additional rules that also are specifically 

intended to apply to all HHS grantees 

or, in some cases, to all Federal 

grantees. The expanded list under 

proposed paragraph (a) includes rules 

related to civil rights requirements, to 

other client protections, to 

administrative requirements in HHS 

grant programs, and to preventing fraud 

or abuse. This expanded list does not 

attempt to list all the Federal laws and 

regulations (e.g., provisions of the 

Internal Revenue Code regarding nonprofit status) that pertain to 

organizations that may be grant 

applicants or awardees. The provisions 

we list here are not all administered 

through either the Administration for 

Children and Families or its Runaway 

and Homeless Youth Program (though 

the agency may in some instances assist 

in their enforcement), but are for the 

most part administered by other HHS 

components or by other Federal 

agencies that set the conditions and 

enforcement mechanisms that apply to 

those provisions, and that determine 

whether and in what circumstances 

grant-related penalties may apply. For 

example, the HHS Office for Civil Rights 

enforces civil rights protections. This 

section already contains in paragraph 

(b) several additional provisions, mainly 

client confidentiality protections, that 

we do not propose to change. In 

paragraph (c), we propose to update our 

reference to the Act as defined in this 

proposed rule. We also propose to 

amend the title of the section to include 

‘‘other Federal Requirements’’ in the 

title. 

Subpart C—Additional Requirements 

That Apply to All Runaway and 

Homeless Youth Program Local Services 

Grants 

Subpart C of the existing rule contains 

three crosscutting program-wide 

requirements that apply to all local 


TKELLEY on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS5
21072 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 71 / Monday, April 14, 2014 / Proposed Rules 

services grants, at § 1351.20(a), (b), and 

(c). At the time the rule was last revised, 

certain types of grants, such as those 

under the Street Outreach Program, 

were not part of the overall Runaway 

and Homeless Youth Program. We 

propose to amend this section to make 

clear that it applies to the three major 

types of local services grants. It does 

not, however, apply to grants for 

research, evaluation, demonstration and 

service projects; grants for a national 

communications system to assist 

runaway and homeless youth in 

communicating with service providers; 

and grants for technical assistance and 

training. 

We propose a substantial expansion of 

regulatory provisions under Subpart C. 

We are aware that a myriad of 

additional provisions could be 

considered. For example, we considered 

including specific board composition 

and governance requirements for all 

grantees, and specific standards for 

counseling clients and for the condition 

of residential centers and shelters. We 

also considered specific planning 

requirements for determination of 

project-specific priorities and 

procedures, and detailed consultation 

requirements for interaction with other 

community providers. We considered 

proposing to require detailed 

documentation of case planning for 

individual clients. Some of these ideas 

were suggested in our consultative 

process. However, in keeping with one 

of the overarching principles we heard 

through consultation, that the standards 

of any kind—whether performance or 

procedural—should facilitate rather 

than impede local flexibility in creating 

and operating effective programs that 

respond to local needs and priorities, 

we do not include them. They involve 

processes that need to remain flexible to 

adjust to local or client circumstances, 

could result in potentially burdensome 

record-keeping or reporting, possibly 

divert scarce staff resources, or lead to 

other potential problems. 

We welcome comments on whether 

there is substantial evidence that these 

or any other requirements not proposed 

here would improve program outcomes, 

either overall or for each type of grant, 

at reasonable effort and cost. We also 

request comment on whether placing 

either the standards we propose or 

additional standards in funding 

announcements rather than in codified 

regulations would allow sufficient 

flexibility to grantees or would hinder 

our ability to use targeted initiatives to 

improve program practices. 

Under paragraph (a), we propose 

revising the language requiring grantees 

to participate in technical assistance 

and training in order to allow flexibility 

in which techniques will be used, and 

propose clarifying that grantees must 

also accept monitoring. We propose to 

expand this list considerably from the 

list in the current regulation. This list 

reflects primarily the evolution and 

expansion over the years of the training 

and technical assistance program, and 

the items listed are all conducted 

currently under the program. 

Requirements we propose to add are 

core competencies for youth workers, 

core support services, cultural and 

linguistic diversity, background checks, 

and ethics and staff safety. In particular 

and reflecting current program 

priorities, we propose positive youth 

development as a priority area for 

training or technical assistance. Under 

our proposal, grantees shall participate 

in technical assistance or short-term 

training as a condition of funding, as 

determined necessary by HHS, in areas 

such as, but not limited to: 

• Aftercare services or counseling; 

• Background checks; 

• Core competencies of youth 

workers; 

• Core support services; 

• Crisis intervention techniques; 

• Cultural and linguistic diversity; 

• Development of coordinated 

networks of private nonprofit agencies 

and/or public agencies to provide 

services; 

• Ethics and staff safety; 

• Fiscal management; 

• Low cost community alternatives 

for runaway or otherwise homeless 

youth; 

• Positive youth development; 

• Program management; 

• Risk and Protective Factors related 

to youth homelessness; 

• Screening and assessment practices 

• Shelter facility staff development; 

• Special populations (tribal youth; 

lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender 

youth; youth with disabilities; youth 

victims of trafficking, sexual 

exploitation or sexual abuse), 

• Trauma and the effects of trauma on 

youth; 

• Use of evidence-based and 

evidence-informed interventions; 

• Youth and family counseling; and 

• Confidentiality policies and 

protocols. 

We request comments on the 

expanded list of subjects. This is a 

substantial addition but one that we 

believe is useful to reflect the current set 

of policy and program priorities as set 

forth in the Act and in the program 

solicitations and management 

improvements that have been made in 

the overall program in recent years. 

Virtually all of these proposed 

provisions are derived from specific 

statutory mandates, and are already part 

of standard operating procedures. Many 

participants in our consultative process 

also suggested most of these items, 

reflecting the general consensus as to 

their importance in operating effective 

services. 

Under paragraph (b), we propose 

minor technical revisions to update the 

existing provision requiring 

coordination with the National 

Runaway Safeline. Under our proposal, 

grantees shall coordinate their activities 

with the 24-hour national toll-free 

communication system, which links 

runaway and homeless youth projects 

and other service providers with 

runaway or otherwise homeless youth, 

as appropriate to the specific activities 

provided by the grantee. At present, this 

system is called the National Runaway 

Safeline, its Web site is 

www.1800runaway.org, and the toll-free 

number is 1–800–RUNAWAY. 

Under paragraph (c), we also propose 

a technical revision to the reporting 

provision to require grantees to submit 

statistical reports that profile the clients 

served and that provide management 

and performance information in 

accordance with guidance provided by 

HHS. Such data submission is handled 

for services programs through the 

Runaway and Homeless Youth 

Management Information System 

(RHYMIS), which is described in detail 

at https://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/

fysb/rhymis. RHYMIS has been a major 

innovation and improvement tool in 

program data collection, but from a 

regulatory perspective updating the 

regulatory reference is a minor change. 

The existing rule quotes specific 

statutory language in place when the 

rule was written. The Act now contains 

additional requirements (see in 

particular sections 312(b)(7) and (8), and 

section 322(a)(9)). For example, it 

explicitly states that runaway and 

homeless youth projects ‘‘shall keep 

adequate statistical records profiling the 

youth and family members whom it 

serves,’’ that grantees ‘‘shall submit 

annual reports to the Secretary detailing 

how the center has been able to meet the 

goals of its plans,’’ and that grantees 

shall submit ‘‘statistical summaries 

describing . . . the number and 

characteristics of the runaway and 

homeless youth . . . who participate 

. . . and the services provided to such 

youth.’’ We propose to review this 

section to require appropriate reporting 

and to delete specific quotations from 

the Act. 

In its final stage, this rule may impose 

additional requirements if the 

rulemaking process or other information 


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leads us to decide that RHYMIS could 

be improved or expanded. We welcome 

comments on RHYMIS. 

We propose adding a new regulatory 

requirement for outreach for the three 

major grant programs. Outreach is a key 

statutory requirement of these programs. 

We propose in paragraph (d) that 

grantees shall perform outreach to locate 

runaway and homeless youth and youth 

at risk of running away or becoming 

homeless, and to coordinate activities 

with other organizations serving the 

same or similar clients. We request 

comments on this new requirement. 

Particular attention is needed for 

clients who may have fled foster care or 

a correctional program. It also is 

important that runaway and homeless 

youth projects not be used as a 

substitute for services that these or other 

programs are legally obliged to provide. 

We are especially interested in 

comments on the following two 

proposed requirements. First, under 

paragraph (e) we propose that grantees 

shall develop and implement a plan for 

addressing youth who have run away 

from foster care placement or 

correctional institutions, and for 

returning those youth appropriately to 

the responsible organizations, in 

accordance with Federal, State, or local 

laws that apply to these situations. 

Second, under paragraph (f) we 

propose that grantees shall take steps to 

ensure that youth who are under the 

legal jurisdiction of the juvenile justice 

or child welfare systems receive services 

from those systems until such time as 

they are released from the jurisdiction of 

those systems. The purpose of these 

provisions is to provide a clear 

demarcation between services that are 

the legal and financial responsibility of 

other programs, and services that are the 

responsibility of the Runaway and 

Homeless Youth Program. Because the 

availability of Federal funds varies 

among programs, and where Federal 

funds are available the matching rates 

usually vary, other State and local 

agencies have financial incentives to 

blur these responsibilities. We strongly 

encourage grantees to take steps prevent 

other programs from displacing their 

costs onto these programs while also 

providing continuous service to youth. 

Additionally, we propose three 

provisions focusing on the need to serve 

youth outside the program. They are 

found in existing funding opportunity 

announcements. Under proposed 

paragraph (g), grantees shall develop 

and implement an aftercare plan 

covering at least 6 months to stay in 

contact with clients who leave the 

program in order to ensure their ongoing 

safety. A youth’s individual aftercare 

plan shall outline what services were 

provided, including appropriate 

referrals for needed health care services, 

the youth’s housing status, and the rate 

of participation and completion of the 

services in the plan at 3 months and at 

6 months after exiting the program. In 

paragraph (h), grantees shall develop 

and implement a plan for health care 

services referrals for youth. Under 

proposed paragraph (i), grantees shall 

assist youth to stay connected with their 

schools or to obtain appropriate 

educational services. This includes 

coordination with McKinney-Vento 

school district liaisons, designated 

under the McKinney-Vento Homeless 

Assistance Act, to assure that runaway 

and homeless youth are provided 

information about the services available 

under that statute. Under that law, 

which is the primary piece of Federal 

legislation dealing with the education of 

homeless children in U.S. public 

schools, school districts are required to 

provide equal access to the same free, 

appropriate public education provided 

to other children and youth and to 

undertake additional steps as needed for 

such access. For example, school 

districts must identify potential barriers 

to the education of homeless youth, and 

homeless youth may not be segregated 

from other students. 

The Act, at sections 312(b)(13) and 

322(a)(16), specifically requires grantees 

to develop emergency plans. We 

propose to adopt this requirement under 

paragraph (j) by requiring that grantees 

develop and document plans that 

address steps to be taken in case of a 

local or national situation that poses 

risk to the health and safety of staff and 

youth. Emergency preparedness plans 

should, at a minimum, include routine 

preventative maintenance of facilities 

(e.g. fire extinguishers and alarms 

checked, furnace serviced) as well as 

preparedness, response, and recovery 

efforts. The plan should contain 

strategies for addressing evacuation, 

security, food, medical supplies, and 

notification of youths’ families. In the 

event of an evacuation due to specific 

facility issues, such as a fire, loss of 

utilities, or mandatory evacuation by the 

local authorities, an alternative location 

needs to be designated and included in 

the plan. Grantees must immediately 

provide notification to their Family and 

Youth Service Bureau project officer 

and grants officer when evacuation 

plans are executed. 

The Runaway and Homeless Youth 

Program does not assure or attempt to 

assure that its grantees meet any of the 

hundreds of State or local laws or 

regulations or other requirements that 

may apply to grantees or to individual 

staff members. That is the responsibility 

of State or local agencies charged with 

enforcing those requirements. The 

operation of shelters, however, is such 

an integral part of the program and in 

some instances the location of shelters 

so controversial that we believe it 

prudent as a condition of grant award to 

require that grantees shall ensure that 

all shelters that they operate are 

licensed where that is required, and 

determine that any shelters to which 

they regularly refer clients have 

evidence of current licensure, if 

licensure is applicable to shelters of that 

type. We add this requirement under 

proposed paragraph (k). We do not 

mean by this language to suggest that 

grantees must independently verify 

particular conditions imposed as a 

condition of licensure at facilities to 

which they refer clients (that is the 

responsibility of the State or local 

officials who make licensure decisions), 

but simply that grantees must determine 

that such shelters have a current license 

where one is required. Of course, 

grantee-operated facilities also are 

responsible to State or local authorities 

for meeting any requirements, whether 

required for licensure or not, imposed 

by those authorities as a condition of 

operation. Failure to meet any 

applicable State or local legal 

requirements as a condition of operation 

may be grounds for grant termination. 

Under paragraph (l), we propose to 

require that all employees be subject to 

a broad range of background checks for 

criminality and suitability (see the 

definition of background check). We 

also propose to require that host homes 

be subject to criminal and child abuse 

checks. We believe that current methods 

of obtaining background checks are 

reasonably simple, straightforward, and 

inexpensive. These policies are already 

operational and a requirement in the 

Funding Opportunity Announcement. 

We welcome comments on any potential 

problems with the proposed 

requirement and with any suggestions 

as to improving its scope. 

Positive youth development (PYD) 

has been a central framework of the 

program for years. PYD emphasizes: 

• Healthy messages to adolescents 

about their bodies, behaviors, 

interpersonal relationships, and 

interaction; 

• Safe and structured places for teens 

to study, recreate, and socialize; 

• Strong relationships with adult role 

models; 

• Skill development in literacy 

competence, work readiness, and social 

skills; and 

• Opportunities for youth to serve 

others and build self-esteem. 


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Runaway and homeless youth projects 

that adopt these principles provide the 

youth they serve with opportunities for 

positive use of time, for positive selfexpression and self-development, and 

for constructive civic and social 

engagement. Accordingly, we propose 

under paragraph (m) to require PYD on 

a program-wide basis. Under this 

paragraph, grantees shall utilize and 

integrate into the operation of their 

projects the principles of positive youth 

development, including healthy 

messages, safe and structured places, 

adult role models, skill development, 

and opportunities to serve others. 

As previously discussed in this 

preamble, there are numerous other 

possible requirements that could be 

included in the final rule. For example, 

we could require certain kinds of staff 

training. We do not propose such 

additional requirements for three 

reasons. First, it is difficult to craft 

requirements that do not unduly 

constrain grantee flexibility by imposing 

a ‘‘one size fits all’’ approach that does 

not in fact reasonably apply to 

particular grantees or particular 

situations or particular staff. Second, 

such requirements almost by necessity 

create burdens, e.g. for recordkeeping or 

reporting to demonstrate that grantees 

meet the requirement. Third, there is an 

alternative mechanism in the form of 

funding opportunity announcements. 

These announcements provide the 

flexibility to add particular 

requirements (including temporary 

priorities) without going through a 

rulemaking process and, more 

importantly, allow far more flexibility 

than codified rules normally allow. For 

example, the 2013 funding opportunity 

announcement for the Basic Center 

Program (http://www.acf.hhs.gov/

grants/open/foa/view/HHS-2013-ACFACYF-CY-0575) gives examples of 

practices to follow or services that 

agencies can provide, all flexibly 

described. This language allows 

grantees the option to provide most but 

not all of these services. This would 

allow, for example, for the situation in 

which some other agency provides a key 

service and the grantee can use referral 

arrangements. Particularly in a program 

dealing with such complex problems, 

and given the extreme variation in 

service availability from other providers 

in particular localities, we believe that 

funding opportunity announcements are 

often a superior vehicle for encouraging 

certain practices. 

To this end, we propose to add at 

paragraph (n) that grantees provide such 

other services and meet such additional 

requirements as the Department of 

Health and Human Services determines 

are necessary to carry out the purposes 

of the statute, as appropriate to the 

services and activities for which they 

are funded. These services and 

requirements are articulated in the 

funding opportunity announcements 

and other instructions issued by the 

Secretary or secretarial designees. This 

includes operational instructions and 

standards of execution determined by 

the Secretary or secretarial designees to 

be necessary to properly perform or 

document meeting the requirements 

applicable to particular programs or 

projects. 

In addition to the requirements all 

RHY grantees must meet, there are 

additional requirements specific to each 

of the three core RHY programs which 

stem from the Act and the unique 

purposes of each program. 

We propose to create a new section 

§ 1351.21 ‘‘What are the additional 

requirements that the Basic Center 

Program grantees must meet?’’. There 

are four additional program specific 

requirements that are central to the 

purposes of the Basic Center Program. 

First, under proposed paragraph (a) all 

Basic Center grantees shall have an 

intake procedure that is available 24 

hours a day and 7 days a week to all 

youth seeking services and temporary 

shelter. The intake process must, at all 

hours, enable staff to address and 

respond to young people’s immediate 

needs for crisis counseling, food, 

clothing, shelter, and health care 

services. The second proposed 

requirement under paragraph (b), 

describes the largest and arguably most 

important function described under the 

Act for Basic Center grantees, requiring 

that grantees shall provide, either 

directly or through arrangements, access 

to temporary shelter 24 hours a day and 

7 days a week. Any grantee that did not 

provide temporary living services to 

eligible youth would not be meeting an 

essential function of the program 

(section 311(a)(2) of the Act). Note that 

this requirement allows for a 

combination of facilities that are 

directly operated by the grantee, 

operated by others, or accessible 

through referral. Third, under paragraph 

(c), we propose to require that Basic 

Center grantees provide case 

management, counseling and referral 

services that meet client needs and that 

encourage when in the best interests of 

youth particularly with regard to safety, 

the involvement of parents or legal 

guardians. Under paragraph (d), we 

propose to require that grantees provide 

additional core support services to 

clients both residentially and nonresidentially, as appropriate. The core 

services must include case planning, 

skill building, recreation and leisure 

activities, and aftercare. Again, this is an 

essential function of the program and 

codification does not require changes in 

program operations. Under paragraph 

(e), we propose to require that grantees 

make contact with the parent(s), legal 

guardian or other relatives of the youth 

within 72 hours of entering the program 

with a ‘‘best interest of the youth’’ 

exception allowed for disclosure of the 

location if additional information is 

needed to ensure the safety of the youth. 

The ‘‘best interest of the youth’’ would 

be defined by the State child welfare 

legal requirements with respect to child 

protective services and law enforcement 

mandatory reporting. Finally, under 

paragraph (f), we propose to include 

grantees be subject to any additional 

requirements that are included in the 

annual funding opportunity 

announcement (FOA). 

We also propose a new section 

§ 1351.22 ‘‘What are the additional 

requirements that the Transitional 

Living Program and Maternity Group 

Home grantees must meet?’’ to include 

specific requirements for core services 

to be provided by the programs. Under 

paragraph (a), we would require that 

grantees provide transitional living 

arrangements and additional core 

services including case planning/

management, counseling, skill building, 

consumer education, referral to social 

and health care services, and education, 

recreation and leisure activities, 

aftercare and, as appropriate, parenting 

skills, child care, and child nutrition. 

Note that this language requires for 

Maternity Group Home grantees a focus 

on parenting skills, childcare, and child 

nutrition. Additionally, under 

paragraph (b), we require that TLP and 

MCP grantees be subject to any 

additional requirements included in the 

funding opportunity announcement. 

We propose to create a new section 

§ 1351.23 ‘‘What are the additional 

requirements that the Street Outreach 

Program grantees must meet?’’. The 

proposed requirements are specific to 

the purposes of the Street Outreach 

program. We propose under paragraph 

(a) to require that SOP grantees provide 

services designed to assist clients in 

leaving the streets, in making healthy 

choices, and in building trusting 

relationships in areas where targeted 

youth congregate. Under paragraph (b), 

we require SOP grantees provide 

directly or by referral other core services 

to their clients. Finally, under paragraph 

(c), we require that SOP grantees be 

subject to any additional requirements 

included in the funding opportunity 

announcement. 


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7 Kidd, S., & Shahar, G. (2008). Resilience in 

homeless youth: The key role of self-esteem. 

American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 78 (2), 163. 

8Milburn, N. G., Jane Rotheram-Borus, M., 

Batterham, P., Brumback, B., Rosenthal, D., & 

Mallett, S. (2005). Predictors of close family 

relationships over one year among homeless young 

people. Journal of Adolescence, 28(2), 263–275. 

9Milburn, N., Liang, L., Lee, S., Roteram-Borus, 

M., Rosenthal, D., Mallett, S., et al. (2009). Who is 

doing well? A typology of newly homeless 

adolescents. Journal of Community Psychology, 37 

(2), 135–147. 

We request comments on each of 

these proposed provisions and 

suggestions for deletions or additions. 

We believe that each is clearly justified 

by the Act and by recent and current 

priorities for programs conducted under 

the Act. We are particularly interested 

in suggestions for additions that would 

directly and substantially further the 

purposes of these programs without 

unduly limiting flexibility on the part of 

grantees or creating substantial new 

paperwork or reporting requirements. 

Subpart D—What Are the Runaway and 

Homeless Youth Program-Specific 

Standards? 

In addition to requirements that apply 

to all Runaway and Homeless Youth 

programs, the Department proposes to 

establish a new Subpart that creates 

specific standards for each major type of 

local services grant, with a focus on 

performance-based standards. These 

new performance standards were 

mandated by the Act, as amended by the 

Reconnecting Homeless Youth Act of 

2008. Performance standards focus 

directly on program goals and create or 

use criteria that either measure goal 

attainment or are close proxies to 

meeting the goal. In addition, for each 

program, we propose standards 

encompassing core functions and 

services that are essential for success in 

that program. We believe the 

performance standards can best be 

organized by building upon four core 

outcomes based on research which 

indicates that improvements on risk and 

protective factors can serve as pathways 

to get to better outcomes in social and 

emotional well-being, permanent 

connections, education or employment, 

and stable housing.789 These four core 

outcomes are expected to lead to 

healthy and productive transitions to 

adulthood for homeless youth in the 

following ways: 

(1) Social and Emotional Well-being 

includes the development of key 

competencies, attitudes, and behaviors 

that equip a young person experiencing 

homelessness to avoid unhealthy risks 

and to succeed across multiple domains 

of daily life, including school, work, 

relationships, and community; (2) 

Permanent connections include ongoing 

attachments to families or adult role 

models, communities, schools, and 

other positive social networks which 

support young people’s ability to access 

new ideas and opportunities that 

support thriving and they provide a 

social safety net when young people are 

at-risk of re-entering homelessness; (3) 

Education or employment includes high 

performance in and completion of 

educational and training activities, 

especially for younger youth, and 

starting and maintaining adequate and 

stable employment, particularly for 

older youth. Achievements in education 

and employment increase a youth’s 

capacity to support himself or herself 

and avoid future homelessness; and (4) 

Stable housing includes a safe and 

reliable place to call home. Stable 

housing fulfills a critical and basic need 

for homeless youth. It is essential to 

enabling functioning across a range of 

life activities. 

We do not propose to establish such 

standards for grants for research, 

evaluation, demonstration and service 

projects; grants for a national 

communications system to assist 

runaway and homeless youth in 

communicating with their families and 

service providers; and grants for 

technical assistance and training. 

The consultative process involved 

extensive discussion of potential 

performance standards. During the 

consultation process, the participants 

looked at current practices and 

discussed minimum expectations versus 

exceptional service. For example, the 

participants of the consultation process 

discussed appropriate methods for 

notifying parents and legal guardians 

when a young person enters a shelter: 

Telephone, email or other types of 

communication. The best method for 

parent/guardian notification depends on 

grantees’ technological capacity, 

community expectations, and other 

factors. For that reason, the standard 

should focus on the timing of the 

notification and not the methods to 

ensure that grantees with various 

communication systems can achieve the 

standard. 

Basic Center Program Standards 

We propose a new § 1351.30 for Basic 

Center Grantees. For these grantees we 

propose under paragraph (a) that 

grantees must contact the parent(s), 

legal guardian or other relatives of 

clients within 72 hours of entering the 

program to inform them that the youth 

is safe, with a determination to be made 

on a case-by-case basis of whether it is 

in the best interests of the youth to 

notify the parent(s), legal guardian or 

other relatives of the location of the 

youth until further information has been 

gathered to assure safety. Under 

paragraph (b), we propose to require 

grantees shall maintain at 90 percent or 

higher the proportion of youth 

transitioning to safe and appropriate 

settings when exiting Basic Center 

Program services. Paragraph (c) 

proposes that grantees shall ensure that 

youth have received appropriate 

counseling services informed by 

screening and assessment of each 

youth’s psychosocial strengths and 

needs. Data shall be reported by each 

grantee on the type of counseling each 

youth received (individual, family and/ 

or group counseling), the participation 

rate based on a youth’s service plan or 

treatment plan, and the completion rate 

based on a youth’s service plan or 

treatment plan. Under paragraph (d), we 

propose that grantees that choose to 

provide street-based services, homebased services, drug and/or alcohol 

abuse education and prevention 

services, and/or testing for sexually 

transmitted diseases (at the request of 

the youth) shall ensure youth receive 

the appropriate services informed by 

screening and assessment of each 

youth’s strengths and needs. Data shall 

be reported on the completion rate for 

each service provided based on the 

youth’s service plan or treatment plan. 

These performance standards both 

involve critical and measurable program 

objectives. The first standard requires 

parental contact (if feasible, of course) 

within 72 hours. We encourage contact 

within 24 hours. The second requires 

that these centers achieve 90 percent or 

higher the proportion of youth living in 

safe and appropriate settings 

immediately after exiting Basic Center 

Program services. We note that RHYMIS 

data show that on average, grantees have 

achieved a 92 percent success rate 

under the second measure. We welcome 

specific comment on these standards. 

Proposed paragraph (c) emphasizes the 

statutory requirement for counseling 

services and outlines specific data to be 

reported. Proposed paragraph (d) 

outlines specific data to be reported for 

services grantees may choose to provide 

based on the statute. 

In addition to these proposed 

measures, we welcome comment on 

measures for the Basic Center Program 

that will demonstrate youth outcomes 

post-exit. 

Transitional Living Program Standards 

We propose to add a new section 

§ 1351.31 for Transitional Living 

Programs (including Maternity Group 

Homes). Under paragraph (a), we 

propose to require as performance 


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21076 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 71 / Monday, April 14, 2014 / Proposed Rules 

standards that grantees maintain at 90 

percent or higher the proportion of 

youth transitioning to safe and 

appropriate settings when exiting 

Transitional Living Program services. 

Under paragraph (b), we propose that 

grantees maintain at 45 percent or 

higher the proportion of youth who are 

engaged in community service and 

service learning activities while in the 

program. In proposed paragraph (c), 

grantees shall ensure youth are engaged 

in educational advancement, job 

attainment skills or work activities 

while in the program. In proposed 

paragraph (d), grantees shall ensure and 

report that youth receive health care 

services as determined within their 

health care referral plan. Finally, under 

proposed paragraph (e), MGH grantees 

shall ensure and report that youth 

receive consistent pre-natal care, wellbaby exams, and immunizations for the 

infant while in the program. We note 

that grantees achieved an 86 percent 

success rate on average in FY 2007 

under the safe exit measure. 

Additionally, we note that grantees 

achieved a 42 percent success rate on 

average in FY 2007 under the 

engagement measure. We believe that 

these standards are readily achievable 

by well-run programs. 

We welcome specific suggestions for 

improvements to these standards. In 

addition to these proposed measures, 

we welcome comment on measures for 

the Transitional Living Program that 

will demonstrate youth outcomes postexit. 

Street Outreach Program Standards 

We propose to add a new § 1351.32 

for the Street Outreach Program. 

Creating a reasonably achievable 

performance measure for this program is 

difficult because of the circumstances 

under which it operates (e.g., meeting 

youth in unstructured street situations). 

As currently stated in the Onsite Review 

Protocol: Runaway and Homeless Youth 

Programs (at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/

programs/fysb/content/docs/rhy_

review_protocol/index.htm but subject 

to future change), in its section on 

performance standards, the ‘‘Street 

Outreach Program provides services to 

youth under circumstances that make a 

straightforward adaptation of some of 

the elements of the performance 

standards impractical’’ (Introduction, 

page 3). 

We are, however, considering 

requiring the following approach: The 

most important activity under this 

program is simply contacting street 

youth, and we already collect data on 

the total number of contacts (counting a 

youth contacted twice as two contacts). 

Accordingly, we propose as a 

performance measure the number of 

total contacts made by the project, 

giving the projects credit for repeatedly 

reaching youth. A ‘‘contact’’ is the 

engagement between Street Outreach 

Program staff and homeless youth in 

need of services that could reasonably 

lead to shelter or significant harm 

reduction. FYSB is open to public 

comment on the proposed definition. 

This measure has the defect of potential 

unreliability, and it is difficult to set an 

actual numeric standard that would not 

unfairly penalize smaller grantees. 

Unlike our proposed performance 

standards for the other programs there is 

no denominator against which to 

calculate a percentage. Nonetheless, we 

propose to use the total number of 

contacts with homeless or runaway 

youth as a performance measure, but not 

to set a numeric standard at this time. 

An alternative might be to use the 

percent of youth contacted that accept 

shelter or other services—such as 

referrals, family reunification services, 

conflict resolution, or mediation 

counseling, and case management—as a 

performance standard. We welcome 

comment on these options and 

suggestions for other alternatives. 

We request comments on the 

proposals for all three programs and 

recommendations for alternatives. We 

do not propose performance standards 

for technical assistance and other grants 

that do not provide direct services. We 

do not believe that support grants such 

as these lend themselves to across-theboard, outcome-oriented performance 

standards such as those proposed here. 

We opt to include benchmarks in some 

of the proposed performance standards, 

those where historic data exists to allow 

for a reasonable benchmark to be set, 

rather than leaving it to the funding 

opportunity announcement or other 

guidance mechanism. 

We propose to create a new section 

§ 1351.33 ‘‘How and when will 

performance standards for the Runaway 

and Homeless Youth Program be 

revised?’’. For those performance 

standards for which benchmarks are not 

set within this Notice of Proposed 

Rulemaking, benchmarks will need to 

be set in the coming years as data are 

collected. Additionally, as grantees 

improve performance, it will be 

necessary to adjust the benchmark on a 

given performance standard in the 

coming years. Furthermore, as more is 

learned about how to improve 

outcomes, performance standards 

themselves may need to be modified or 

added. The Notice of Proposed 

Rulemaking (NPRM) process takes a 

considerable amount of time and is not 

conducive to on-going adjustments. 

Therefore, in order to ensure that 

performance standards as well as the 

benchmarks set within a given 

performance standard keep pace with 

improvements grantees are able to make 

over time, we are proposing that the 

Secretary may, based upon available 

program data, add, amend, or suspend 

performance standards and/or 

benchmark levels when appropriate. All 

performance standards and benchmark 

levels will be consistent with the 

performance standards provision in the 

most current reauthorization of the 

Runaway and Homeless Youth Act and 

will relate to one or more four core 

outcomes: Social and emotional wellbeing; permanent connections; 

education or employment; and/or stable 

housing. Notification to grantees shall 

be given in advance of the revision 

through a public notification 

mechanism such as a funding 

opportunity announcement, policy 

guidance or other appropriate means. 

We welcome comment on how 

performance standards and benchmarks 

can be set and/or adjusted in a timely, 

yet transparent and public, manner. 

We propose to create a new section 

§ 1351.34 ‘‘When Are Program-Specific 

Requirements Effective?’’. After we 

review public comments, the 

Department will make final decisions on 

these proposed requirements and will 

then issue a final rule. Normally, a final 

rule contains a date section with 

language such as this: These final 

regulations are effective on June 13, 

2014. We intend to use this standard 

approach. We also are proposing in 

§ 1351.34, for the local services program 

specific requirements, specific language 

that would delay the actual imposition 

of those requirements until the 

beginning of the next budget period. We 

propose that grantees shall meet 

program specific requirements, as 

applicable, upon the effective date of 

those requirements, or starting at the 

beginning of the next budget period for 

the grant, whichever comes later. Since 

most budget periods begin on October 1 

of each year, this means that grantees 

would have however many days there 

are between the issuance of final 

regulations and that date, but never less 

than 60 days. The purpose of this delay 

is threefold. First, it avoids the need to 

assess performance over a fraction of a 

grantee’s annual budget period, i.e. over 

a fraction of a year, but instead uses a 

full year of performance as the standard 

for assessment. Second, it facilitates 

comparisons among grantees, by using a 

full year of performance as uniform 

basis for comparison. Third, and most 


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important, it provides time for grantees 

to prepare for these requirements, and 

for the Family and Youth Services 

Bureau (FYSB) to provide technical 

assistance and training to assist them. 

We appreciate that some grantees, 

particularly TLP grantees, operate on 

more staggered schedules and will have 

less time than others. We would expect 

to target early help on those facing the 

shortest deadlines. We welcome 

comments on this proposed approach 

and suggestions for alternatives. 

VII. Impact Analysis 

Paperwork Reduction Act 

This proposed rule contains no new 

information collection requirements. We 

note that the existing RHYMIS 

information collection system has been 

renewed through FY 2013. We request 

comments on whether anything in this 

rule should, if adopted, suggest a change 

in RHYMIS. In particular, we want to be 

sure that RHYMIS reflects all 

performance standards in any future 

revision. We also welcome comments 

on technical or implementation changes 

in RHYMIS that might facilitate 

measurement of performance or 

otherwise assist in achieving higher 

performance. 

Regulatory Flexibility Act 

The Secretary certifies that this 

proposed rule will not result in a 

significant economic impact on a 

substantial number of small entities. We 

have not proposed any new 

requirements that would have such an 

effect. Our proposed standards would 

almost entirely conform to the existing 

statutory requirements and existing 

practices in the program. In particular, 

we have proposed imposing only a few 

new process, procedural, or 

documentation requirements that are 

not encompassed within the existing 

rule, existing funding opportunity 

announcements, or existing information 

collection requirements. None of these 

would impose a consequential burden 

on grantees. Accordingly, an Initial 

Regulatory Flexibility Analysis is not 

required. 

Regulatory Impact Analysis 

Executive Order 12866 requires that 

regulations be reviewed to ensure that 

they are consistent with the priorities 

and principles set forth in the Executive 

Order. The Department has determined 

that this rule is consistent with these 

priorities and principles. The Executive 

Order requires a Regulatory Impact 

Analysis for proposed or final rules with 

an annual economic impact of $100 

million or more. Nothing in this 

proposed rule approaches effects of this 

magnitude. Nor does this proposed rule 

meet any of the other criteria for 

significance under the Executive Order. 

This proposed rule has been reviewed 

by the Office of Management and 

Budget. 

Congressional Review 

This proposed rule is not a major rule 

(economic effects of $100 million or 

more) as defined in the Congressional 

Review Act. 

Federalism Review 

Executive Order 13132, Federalism, 

requires that Federal agencies consult 

with State and local government 

officials in the development of 

regulatory policies with federalism 

implications. This rule will not have 

substantial direct impact on the States, 

on the relationship between the 

National Government and the States, or 

on the distribution of power and 

responsibilities among the various 

levels of government. Therefore, in 

accordance with the Executive Order we 

have determined that this rule does not 

have sufficient federalism implications 

to warrant the preparation of a 

federalism summary impact statement. 

Family Impact Review 

Section 654 of the Treasury and 

General Government Appropriations 

Act of 1999 (Pub. L. 105–277) requires 

Federal agencies to issue a Family 

Policymaking Assessment for any rule 

that may affect family well-being. This 

proposed rule would not have any new 

or adverse impact on the autonomy or 

integrity of the family as an institution. 

Like the existing rule and existing 

program practices, it directly supports 

family well-being. Since we propose no 

changes that would affect this policy 

priority, we have concluded that it is 

not necessary to prepare a Family 

Policymaking Assessment. 

List of Subjects in 45 CFR 1351 

Administrative practice and 

procedure, Grant programs—Social 

programs, Homeless, Reporting and 

recordkeeping requirements, Technical 

assistance, Youth. 

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance 

Program Numbers 93.550, Transitional Living 

for Homeless Youth; 93.557, Education and 

Prevention Grants to Reduce Sexual Abuse of 

Runaway, Homeless and Street Youth; and 

93.623, Basic Center Grants for Runaway 

Youth) 

Dated: April 4, 2014. 

Mark Greenberg, 

Acting Assistant Secretary for Children and 

Families. 

Approved: April 7, 2014. 

Kathleen Sebelius, 

Secretary. 

For the reasons set out in the 

preamble, title 45 CFR Part 1351 is 

proposed to be amended as follows: 

PART 1351—RUNAWAY AND 

HOMELESS YOUTH PROGRAM 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 1351 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 42 U.S.C. 5701. 

Subpart A—Definition of Terms 

■ 2. Revise § 1351.1 to read as follows: 

§ 1351.1 Significant Terms. 

For the purposes of this part: 

Act means the Runaway and 

Homeless Youth Act as amended, 42 

U.S.C. 5701 et seq. 

Aftercare means additional services 

provided beyond the period of 

residential stay that offer continuity and 

supportive follow-up to youth served by 

the program. 

Background check means the review 

of an individual employee’s or 

employment applicant’s personal 

information, which shall include 

verification of educational credentials 

and employment experience, as well as 

a national examination of the 

individual’s criminal records, and an 

examination of the individual’s driving 

records, licensing records, and child 

abuse or neglect history. Volunteers 

who come into contact with children 

and youth served or proposed to be 

served by the agency must also undergo 

a background check. 

Budget period means the interval of 

time into which a multi-year period of 

assistance (project period) is divided for 

budgetary and funding purposes. 

Case management means assessing 

the needs of the client and, as 

appropriate, arranging, coordinating, 

monitoring, evaluating, and advocating 

for a package of services to meet the 

specific needs of the client. 

Client means a runaway, homeless, or 

street youth, or youth at risk of running 

away or becoming homeless, who is 

served by a program grantee. 

Congregate care means a shelter type 

that combines living quarters and 

restroom facilities with centralized 

dining services, shared living spaces, 

and access to social and recreational 

activities. 

Contact means the engagement 

between Street Outreach Program staff 


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and homeless youth in need of services 

that could reasonably lead to shelter or 

significant harm reduction. 

Core competencies of youth worker 

means the ability to demonstrate skills 

in six domain areas: 

(1) Professionalism (including, but not 

limited to, consistent and reliable job 

performance, awareness and use of 

professional ethics to guide practice); 

(2) Applied positive youth 

development approach (including, but 

not limited to, skills to develop a 

positive youth development plan and 

identifying the client’s strengths in 

order to best apply a positive youth 

development framework); 

(3) Cultural and human diversity 

(including, but not limited to, gaining 

knowledge and skills to meet the needs 

of clients of a different race, ethnicity, 

nationality, religion/spirituality, gender 

identity/expression, sexual orientation); 

(4) Applied human development 

(including, but not limited to, 

understanding the needs of those at risk 

and with special needs); 

(5) Relationship and communication 

(including, but not limited to, working 

with clients in a collaborative manner); 

and 

(6) Developmental practice methods 

(including, but not limited to, utilizing 

methods focused on genuine 

relationships, health and safety, 

intervention planning). 

Counseling services means the 

provision of guidance, support, referrals 

for services including, but not limited, 

to health services, and advice to 

runaway or otherwise homeless youth 

and their families, as well as to youth 

and families when a young person is at 

risk of running away. These services are 

designed to alleviate the problems that 

have put the youth at risk of running 

away or contributed to his or her 

running away or being homeless. 

Drop-in center means a place operated 

and staffed for runaway or homeless 

youth that clients can visit without an 

appointment to get advice or 

information, to receive services or 

service referrals, or to meet other 

runaway or homeless youth. 

Drug abuse education and prevention 

services means services to prevent or 

reduce drug and/or alcohol abuse by 

runaway and homeless youth, and may 

include: 

(1) Individual, family, group, and peer 

counseling; 

(2) Drop-in services; 

(3) Assistance to runaway and 

homeless youth in rural areas (including 

the development of community support 

groups); 

(4) Information and training relating 

to drug and/or alcohol abuse by 

runaway and homeless youth to 

individuals involved in providing 

services to such youth; and 

(5) Activities to improve the 

availability of local drug and/or alcohol 

abuse prevention services to runaway 

and homeless youth. 

Health care services means physical, 

mental, behavioral and dental health 

services and, in the case of Maternity 

Group Homes mean those provided to 

the child of the youth; and where 

applicable and allowable within a 

program, family or household members 

of the youth shall receive information 

on appropriate health related services. 

Home-based services means services 

provided to youth and their families for 

the purpose of preventing such youth 

from running away or otherwise 

becoming separated from their families 

and assisting runaway youth to return to 

their families. It includes services that 

are provided in the residences of 

families (to the extent practicable), 

including intensive individual and 

family counseling and training relating 

to life skills and parenting. 

Homeless youth means an individual 

who cannot live safely with a parent, 

guardian or relative, and who has no 

other safe alternative living 

arrangement. For purposes of Basic 

Center Program eligibility, a homeless 

youth must be less than 18 years of age 

(or higher if allowed by a State or local 

law or regulation that applies to 

licensure requirements for child- or 

youth-serving facilities). For purposes of 

Transitional Living Program eligibility, 

a homeless youth cannot be less than 16 

years of age and must be less than 22 

years of age (unless the individual 

commenced his or her stay before age 

22, and the maximum service period has 

not ended). 

Host family home means a family or 

single adult home that provides shelter 

to a homeless youth. 

Intake means a process for gathering 

information to assess eligibility and the 

services required to meet the immediate 

needs of the client. 

Juvenile justice systems, institutions, 

or authorities means agencies that 

include, but are not limited to, juvenile 

courts, correctional institutions, 

detention facilities, law enforcement, 

training schools, or agencies that use 

probation, parole, and/or court ordered 

confinement. 

Maternity group home means a 

community-based, adult-supervised 

transitional living arrangement where 

client oversight is provided on site or 

on-call 24 hours a day and that provides 

pregnant or parenting youth and their 

children with a supportive environment 

in which to learn parenting skills, 

including child development, family 

budgeting, health and nutrition, and 

other skills to promote their long-term 

economic independence and ensure the 

well-being of their children. 

Outreach means finding runaway, 

homeless and street youth, or youth at 

risk of becoming runaway or homeless, 

who might not use services due to lack 

of awareness or active avoidance, 

providing information to them about 

services and benefits, and encouraging 

the use of appropriate services. 

Risk and protective factors mean 

those factors that are measureable 

characteristics of a youth that can occur 

at multiple levels, including biological, 

psychological, family, community, and 

cultural levels, that precede and are 

associated with an outcome. Risk factors 

are associated with higher likelihood of 

problem outcomes, and protective 

factors are associated with lower 

likelihood of problem outcomes. 

Runaway youth means an individual 

under 18 years of age who absents 

himself or herself from home or place of 

legal residence without the permission 

of a parent or legal guardian. 

Runaway and homeless youth project 

means a community-based program 

outside the juvenile justice or child 

welfare systems that provides runaway 

prevention, outreach, shelter, and 

transition services to runaway, 

homeless, or street youth or youth at 

risk of running away or becoming 

homeless. 

Safe and Appropriate Settings When 

Exiting Basic Center Program Services 

or Transitional Living Program Services 

means settings that reflect achievement 

of the intended purposes of the Basic 

Center and Transitional Living programs 

as outlined in section 382(a) of the Act. 

Safe and Appropriate Settings When 

Exiting Basic Center Program Services 

or Transitional Living Program Services 

are not exits: 

(1) To another shelter; 

(2) To the street; 

(3) To a private residence, other than 

a youth who is staying stably with 

family, if the youth is not paying rent; 

(4) To another residential program if 

the youth is not paying rent or if the 

youth’s transition to the other 

residential program was unplanned; 

(5) To a correctional institute or 

detention center if the youth became 

involved in activities that lead to this 

exit after entering the program; 

(6) To an unspecified other living 

situation; or 

(7) To a living situation that is not 

known. 

Screening and assessment means 

standardized instruments and practices 

used to validly and reliably identify 


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each youth’s individual strengths and 

needs across multiple aspects of health, 

wellbeing and behavior in order to 

inform appropriate service decisions 

and provide a baseline for monitoring 

outcomes over time. Screening involves 

brief instruments, for example with 

trauma and health problems, which can 

indicate certain youth for more 

thorough diagnostic assessments and 

service needs. Assessment, which is 

used here to mean assessment more 

broadly than for the purposes of 

diagnosis, involves evaluating multiple 

aspects of social, emotional, and 

behavioral competencies and 

functioning in order to inform service 

decisions and monitor outcomes. 

Service plan or treatment plan means 

a written plan of action based on the 

assessment of client needs and strengths 

and engaging in joint problem solving 

with the client that identifies problems, 

sets goals, and describes a strategy for 

achieving those goals. To the extent 

possible, the plan should incorporate 

the use of evidence-based or evidenceinformed interventions. 

Short-term training means the 

provision of local, State, or regionallybased instruction to runaway or 

otherwise homeless youth service 

providers in skill areas that will directly 

strengthen service delivery. 

Street youth means an individual who 

is a runaway youth or an indefinitely or 

intermittently homeless youth who 

spends a significant amount of time on 

the street or in other areas that increase 

the risk to such youth for sexual abuse, 

sexual exploitation, prostitution, or drug 

and/or alcohol abuse. For purposes of 

this definition, youth means an 

individual who is age 21 or less. 

State means any State of the United 

States, the District of Columbia, the 

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the 

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 

Islands, and any territory or possession 

of the United States. 

Supervised apartments means a type 

of shelter setting using building(s) with 

separate residential units where client 

supervision is provided on site or on 

call 24 hours a day. 

Technical assistance means the 

provision of expertise or support for the 

purpose of strengthening the 

capabilities of grantee organizations to 

deliver services. 

Temporary shelter means all shelter 

settings in which runaway and 

homeless youth are provided room and 

board, crisis intervention, and other 

services on a 24-hour basis for up to 21 

days. 

■ 3. Revise the Subpart B heading to 

read as follows: 

Subpart B—Runaway and Homeless 

Youth Program Grants 

■ 4. Revise § 1351.10 to read as follows: 

§ 1351.10. What is the purpose of 

Runaway and Homeless Youth Program 

grants? 

The purpose of Runaway and 

Homeless Youth program grants is to 

establish or strengthen communitybased projects to provide runaway 

prevention, outreach, shelter, and 

transition services to runaway, 

homeless, or street youth or youth at 

risk of running away or becoming 

homeless. Youth who have become 

homeless or who leave and remain away 

from home without parental permission 

are disproportionately subject to serious 

health, behavioral, and emotional 

problems. They lack sufficient resources 

to obtain care and may live on the street 

for extended periods, unable to achieve 

stable safe living arrangements and at 

times putting themselves in danger. 

Many are urgently in need of shelter, 

which, depending on the type of 

runaway and homeless youth project, 

can include host family homes, drop-in 

centers, congregate care, or supervised 

apartments, and services, including 

services that are linguistically 

appropriate, responsive to their complex 

social identities (i.e., race, ethnicity, 

nationality, religion/spirituality, gender 

identity/expression, sexual orientation, 

socioeconomic status, physical ability, 

language, beliefs, values, behavior 

patterns, or customs), and acknowledge 

the environment they come from. 

Runaway and Homeless Youth grant 

services should take a positive youth 

development approach that ensures a 

young person a sense of safety and 

structure; belonging and membership; 

self-worth and social contribution; 

independence and control over one’s 

life; skills to develop plans for the 

future and set goals; and closeness in 

interpersonal relationships. To make a 

successful transition to adulthood, 

runaway youth, homeless youth, and 

other street youth also need 

opportunities to complete high school 

or earn a general equivalency degree, 

learn job skills, and obtain employment. 

HHS operates three programs to carry 

out these purposes through direct local 

services: The Basic Center Program; the 

Transitional Living Program (including 

Maternity Group Homes); and the Street 

Outreach Program. HHS operates three 

additional activities to support 

achievement of these purposes: 

Research, evaluation, and service 

projects; a national communications 

system to assist runaway and homeless 

youth in communicating with service 

providers; and technical assistance and 

training. 

■ 5. Revise § 1351.11 to read as follows: 

§ 1351.11 Who is eligible to apply for a 

Runaway and Homeless Youth Program 

grant? 

Public (State and local) and private 

non-profit entities, and coordinated 

networks of such entities, are eligible to 

apply for a Runaway and Homeless 

Youth Program grant unless they are 

part of the law enforcement structure or 

the juvenile justice system. 

■ 6. Revise § 1351.12 to read as follows: 

§ 1351.12 Who gets priority for the award 

of a Runaway and Homeless Youth Program 

grant? 

In making Runaway and Homeless 

Youth Program grants to existing 

grantees, prior experience shall be 

weighed along with performance; 

therefore the Secretary or the Secretary’s 

designee gives priority to those public 

or private agencies that have performed 

highly in comparison to other agencies 

receiving grants in past years, both in 

meeting applicable performance 

standards and in complying with 

applicable conditions of grant award or 

execution required under these 

regulations or under funding 

opportunity announcements. In making 

awards to new applicants or to existing 

grantees seeking to expand to a new 

service area, consideration will be given 

to the likelihood that the applicant or 

grantee will be able to meet applicable 

performance standards and other 

regulatory requirements under this Part 

or funding opportunity conditions in 

comparison to the performance of other 

new applicants or of existing grantees 

providing the same types of services. 

The Secretary also gives priority to new 

or existing Basic Center Program, 

Transitional Living Program (including 

Maternity Group Homes), and Street 

Outreach Program applicants whose 

total grant requests for services to 

runaway or otherwise homeless youth 

are less than $200,000 and whose 

project budgets, considering all funding 

sources, are smaller than $200,000. 

These amounts are subject to adjustment 

in funding opportunity announcements 

as necessary to reflect inflation. 

■ 7. Revise § 1351.13 to read as follows: 

§ 1351.13 What are the Federal and nonFederal match requirements under a 

Runaway and Homeless Youth Program 

Grant? 

The Federal share of the project 

represents 90 percent of the total project 

cost supported by the Federal 

Government. The remaining 10 percent 

represents the required project match 


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cost by the grantee. This may be a cash 

or in-kind contribution. 

■ 8. Revise § 1351.15 to read as follows: 

§ 1351.15 What costs are supportable 

under a Runaway and Homeless Youth 

Program grant? 

Costs that can be supported include, 

but are not limited to, staff training and 

core services such as outreach, intake, 

case management, data collection, 

temporary shelter, transitional living 

arrangements, referral services, 

counseling services, and aftercare 

services. Costs for acquisition and 

renovation of existing structures may 

not normally exceed 15 percent of the 

grant award. HHS may waive this 

limitation upon written request under 

special circumstances based on 

demonstrated need. For grants that 

support research, evaluation, and 

service projects; a national 

communications system to assist 

runaway and homeless youth in 

communicating with service providers; 

and for technical assistance and training 

grants; costs that can be supported 

include those enumerated above as well 

as services such as data collection and 

analysis, telecommunications services, 

and preparation and publication of 

materials in support of the purposes of 

such grants. 

■ 9. Revise § 1351.16 to read as follows: 

§ 1351.16 What costs are not allowable 

under a Runaway and Homeless Youth 

Program grant? 

A Runaway and Homeless Youth 

Program grant does not cover the (a) 

capital costs of constructing new 

facilities, or (b) operating costs of 

existing community centers or other 

facilities that are used partially or 

incidentally for services to runaway or 

homeless youth clients, except to the 

extent justified by application of cost 

allocation methods accepted by HHS as 

reasonable and appropriate. 

■ 10. Revise § 1351.17 to read as 

follows: 

§ 1351.17 How is application made for a 

Runaway and Homeless Youth Program 

grant? 

HHS publishes periodically over the 

Internet funding opportunity 

announcements of grant funds available 

under the Act for each type of local 

services grant, and also may publish 

additional announcements for special 

projects. The funding opportunity 

announcements state the amount of 

funds available, program priorities for 

funding, and criteria for evaluating 

applications in awarding grants. The 

announcements also describe specific 

procedures for receipt and review of 

applications. An applicant should: 

(a) Obtain a program announcement 

from the ACF Web site or from the 

ACYF Operations Center; and 

(b) Submit a completed application 

either electronically to the Grants.gov 

Web site or to the ACYF Operations 

Center. 

■ 11. Revise § 1351.18 to read as 

follows: 

§ 1351.18 What criteria has HHS 

established for deciding which Runaway 

and Homeless Youth Program grant 

applications to fund? 

In reviewing applications for a 

Runaway and Homeless Youth Program 

grant, HHS takes into consideration a 

number of factors, including: 

(a) Whether the grant application 

meets the particular priorities, 

requirements, standards, or evaluation 

criteria established in funding 

opportunity announcements; 

(b) A need for Federal support based 

on the likely number of estimated 

runaway or otherwise homeless youth 

in the area in which the runaway and 

homeless youth project is or will be 

located exceeding the availability of 

existing services for such youth in that 

area; 

(c) For runaway and homeless youth 

centers, whether there is a minimum 

residential capacity of four (4) and a 

maximum residential capacity of twenty 

(20) youth in a single structure (except 

where the applicant assures that the 

State where the center or locally 

controlled facility is located has a State 

or local law or regulation that requires 

a higher maximum to comply with 

licensure requirements for child and 

youth serving facilities), or within a 

single floor of a structure in the case of 

apartment buildings, with a number of 

staff sufficient to assure adequate 

supervision and treatment for the 

number of clients to be served; 

(d) Plans for meeting the best interests 

of the youth involving, when possible, 

both the youth and the family. The 

plans also must include methods for 

assuring the youth’s safe return home or 

to local government officials or law 

enforcement officials and indicate 

efforts to provide appropriate alternative 

living arrangements; 

(e) Plans for the delivery of aftercare 

or counseling services to runaway or 

otherwise homeless youth and their 

families; 

(f) Whether the estimated cost to HHS 

for the runaway and homeless youth 

project is reasonable considering the 

anticipated results; 

(g) Whether the proposed personnel 

are well qualified and the applicant 

agency has adequate facilities and 

resources; 

(h) Past performance on a RHY grant, 

including but not limited to program 

standards; 

(i) Whether the proposed project 

design, if well executed, is capable of 

attaining program objectives; 

(j) The consistency of the grant 

application with the provisions of the 

Act and these regulations; and 

(k) Other factors as outlined in 

funding opportunity announcements. 

■ 12. Revise § 1351.19 to read as 

follows: 

§ 1351.19 What additional information 

should an applicant or grantee have about 

other Federal requirements for a Runaway 

and Homeless Youth Program grant? 

(a) A number of other rules and 

regulations apply to applicants and 

grantees. These include: 

(1) 2 CFR Part 182—Government-wide 

Requirements for Drug Free Workplace; 

(2) 2 CFR Part 376—Nonprocurement 

Debarment and Suspension; 

(3) 45 CFR Part 16—Procedures of the 

Departmental Grant Appeals Board; 

(4) 45 CFR Part 30—Claims 

Collection; 

(5) 45 CFR Part 46—Protection of 

Human Subjects; 

(6) 45 CFR Part 74—Uniform 

Administrative Requirements for 

Institutions of Higher Education, 

Hospitals, and Other Non-Profit 

Organizations, and Commercial 

Organizations; 

(7) 45 CFR Part 80— 

Nondiscrimination Under Programs 

Receiving Federal Assistance Through 

the Department of Health and Human 

Services Effectuation of Title VI of the 

Civil Rights Act of 1964; 

(8) 45 CFR Part 81—Practice and 

Procedure for Hearings Under part 80; 

(9) 45 CFR Part 84— 

Nondiscrimination on the Basis of 

Handicap in Programs or Activities 

Receiving Federal Financial Assistance; 

(10) 45 CFR Part 86— 

Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex 

in Education Programs or Activities 

receiving Federal Financial Assistance; 

(11) 45 CFR Part 87—Equal Treatment 

for Faith Based Organizations; 

(12) 45 CFR Part 91— 

Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Age 

in Programs or Activities Receiving 

Federal Financial Assistance; 

(13) 45 CFR Part 92—Uniform 

Administrative Requirements for Grants 

and Cooperative Agreements to State, 

Local, and Tribal Governments; and 

(14) 45 CFR Part 93—New 

Restrictions on Lobbying. 

(b) Several program policies regarding 

confidentiality of information, 

treatment, conflict of interest and State 

protection apply to recipients of 


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Runaway and Homeless Youth Program 

grants. These include: 

(1) Confidential information. All 

information including lists of names, 

addresses, photographs, and records of 

evaluation of individuals served by a 

runaway and homeless youth project 

shall be confidential and shall not be 

disclosed or transferred to any 

individual or to any public or private 

agency without written consent of the 

youth and family unless release of 

information is compelled by a court or 

statutory mandate. In such cases, the 

grantee is required to make reasonable 

attempts to notify the victims affected 

by the disclosure and to take steps to 

protect the privacy and safety of the 

persons affected by the release. Youth 

served by a runaway and homeless 

youth project shall have the right to 

review their records; to correct a record 

or file a statement of disagreement; and 

to be apprised of the individuals who 

have reviewed their records. Procedures 

shall be established for the training of 

project staff in the protection of these 

rights and for the secure storage of 

records. 

(2) Medical, psychiatric or 

psychological treatment. No youth shall 

be subject to medical, psychiatric or 

psychological treatment without the 

consent of the youth and family unless 

otherwise permitted by State law. 

(3) Conflict of interest. Employees or 

individuals participating in a program 

or project under the Act shall not use 

their positions for a purpose that is, or 

gives the appearance of being, motivated 

by a desire for private gain for 

themselves or others, particularly those 

with whom they have family, business 

or other ties. 

(4) State law protection. HHS policies 

regarding confidential information and 

experimentation and treatment shall not 

apply if HHS finds that State law is 

more protective of the rights of runaway 

or otherwise homeless youth. 

(5) Non-discriminatory services and 

training. Service delivery and staff 

training must comprehensively address 

the individual strengths and needs of 

youth as well as be language 

appropriate, gender specific 

(interventions that are sensitive to the 

diverse experiences of male, female, and 

transgender youth), and culturally 

sensitive and respectful of the complex 

social identities of youth (i.e. race, 

ethnicity, nationality, religion/

spirituality, gender identity/expression, 

sexual orientation, socioeconomic 

status, physical ability, language, 

beliefs, values, behavior patterns, or 

customs). 

(c) Nothing in the Act or these 

regulations gives the Federal 

Government control over the staffing 

and personnel decisions regarding 

individuals hired by a runaway and 

homeless youth project receiving 

Federal funds. 

■ 13. Revise subpart C to read as 

follows: 

Subpart C—Additional Requirements 

Sec. 

1351.20 What are the additional 

requirements that apply to all Runaway 

and Homeless Youth Program local 

services grants? 

1351.21 What are the additional 

requirements that the Basic Center 

Program grantees must meet? 

1351.22 What are the additional 

requirements that the Transitional Living 

Program and Maternity Group Home 

grantees must meet? 

1351.23 What are the additional 

requirements that the Street Outreach 

Program grantees must meet? 

§ 1351.20 What are the additional 

requirements that apply to all Runaway and 

Homeless Youth Program local services 

grants? 

This section applies to the Basic 

Center Program, the Transitional Living 

Program, and the Street Outreach 

Program. To improve the administration 

of these Runaway and Homeless Youth 

Programs by increasing the capacity of 

runaway and homeless youth projects to 

deliver services, by improving their 

performance in delivering services, and 

by providing for the evaluation of 

performance: 

(a) Grantees shall participate in 

technical assistance, monitoring, and 

short-term training as a condition of 

funding, as determined necessary by 

HHS, in such areas as: Aftercare services 

or counseling; background checks; core 

competencies of youth workers, core 

support services; crisis intervention 

techniques; cultural and linguistic 

diversity; development of coordinated 

networks of private nonprofit agencies 

and/or public agencies to provide 

services; ethics and staff safety; fiscal 

management; low cost community 

alternatives for runaway or otherwise 

homeless youth; positive youth 

development; program management; 

risk and protective factors related to 

youth homelessness; screening and 

assessment practices; shelter facility 

staff development; special populations 

(tribal youth; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and 

transgender youth; youth with 

disabilities; youth victims of trafficking, 

sexual exploitation or sexual abuse); 

trauma and the effects of trauma on 

youth; use of evidence-based and 

evidence-informed interventions; and 

youth and family counseling. 

(b) Grantees shall coordinate their 

activities with the 24-hour National tollfree and Internet communication 

system, which links runaway and 

homeless youth projects and other 

service providers with runaway or 

otherwise homeless youth, as 

appropriate to the specific activities 

provided by the grantee. 

(c) Grantees shall submit statistical 

reports profiling the clients served and 

providing management and performance 

information in accordance with 

guidance provided by HHS. 

(d) Grantees shall perform outreach to 

locate runaway and homeless youth and 

to coordinate activities with other 

organizations serving the same or 

similar client populations. 

(e) Grantees shall develop and 

implement a plan for addressing youth 

who have run away from foster care 

placement or correctional institutions, 

in accordance with Federal, State, or 

local laws that apply to these situations. 

(f) Grantees shall take steps to ensure 

that youth who are under the legal 

jurisdiction of the juvenile justice or 

child welfare systems receive services 

from those systems until such time as 

they are released from the jurisdiction of 

those systems. 

(g) Grantees shall develop and 

implement an aftercare plan, covering at 

least 6 months, to stay in contact with 

youth who leave the program in order 

to ensure their ongoing safety. A youth’s 

individual aftercare plan shall outline 

what services were provided, including 

appropriate referrals for needed health 

care services, the youth’s housing status, 

and the rate of participation and 

completion of the services in the plan at 

3 months and at 6 months after exiting 

the program. 

(h) Grantees shall develop and 

implement a plan for health care 

services referrals for youth during the 

service and aftercare periods. 

(i) Grantees shall assist youth to stay 

connected with their schools or to 

obtain appropriate educational services. 

This includes coordination with 

McKinney-Vento school district 

liaisons, designated under the 

McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance 

Act, to assure that runaway and 

homeless youth are provided 

information about the services available 

under that Act. 

(j) Basic Center Program, Transitional 

Living Program, and Street Outreach 

grantees shall develop and document 

plans that address steps to be taken in 

case of a local or national situation that 

poses risk to the health and safety of 

staff and youth. Emergency 

preparedness plans should, at a 

minimum, include routine preventative 


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maintenance of facilities as well as 

preparedness, response, and recovery 

efforts. The plan should contain 

strategies for addressing evacuation, 

security, food, medical supplies, and 

notification of youths’ families, as 

appropriate. In the event of an 

evacuation due to specific facility 

issues, such as a fire, loss of utilities, or 

mandatory evacuation by the local 

authorities, an alternative location 

needs to be designated and included in 

the plan. Grantees must immediately 

provide notification to their project 

officer and grants officer when 

evacuation plans are executed. 

(k) Grantees shall ensure that all 

shelters that they operate are licensed 

where that is required, and determine 

that any shelters to which they regularly 

refer clients have evidence of current 

licensure if licensure is applicable to 

shelters of that type. For granteeoperated facilities, failure to meet any 

applicable State or local legal 

requirements as a condition of operation 

may be grounds for grant termination. 

(l) Grantees shall conduct complete 

background checks on all employees 

and volunteers. Grantees shall also 

conduct criminal and child abuse 

checks for all host homes. 

(m) Grantees shall utilize and 

integrate into the operation of their 

projects the principles of positive youth 

development, including healthy 

messages, safe and structured places, 

adult role models, skill development, 

and opportunities to serve others. 

(n) Grantees shall provide such other 

services and meet such additional 

requirements as HHS determines are 

necessary to carry out the purposes of 

the statute, as appropriate to the 

services and activities for which they 

are funded. These services and 

requirements are articulated in the 

funding opportunity announcements 

and other instructions issued by the 

Secretary or secretarial designees. This 

includes operational instructions and 

standards of execution determined by 

the Secretary or secretarial designees to 

be necessary to properly perform or 

document meeting the requirements 

applicable to particular programs or 

projects. 

§ 1351.21 What are the additional 

requirements that the Basic Center Program 

grantees must meet? 

(a) Grantees shall have an intake 

procedure that is available 24 hours a 

day and 7 days a week to all youth 

seeking services and temporary shelter 

that addresses and responds to 

immediate needs for crisis counseling, 

food, clothing, shelter, and health care 

services. 

(b) Grantees shall provide, either 

directly or through arrangements, access 

to temporary shelter 24 hours a day and 

7 days a week. 

(c) Grantees shall provide case 

management, counseling and referral 

services that meet client needs and that 

encourage, when in the best interests of 

the youth particularly with regard to 

safety, the involvement of parents or 

legal guardians. 

(d) Grantees shall provide additional 

core support services to clients both 

residentially and non-residentially as 

appropriate. The core services must 

include case planning, skill building, 

recreation and leisure activities, and 

aftercare. 

(e) Grantees shall contact the 

parent(s), legal guardian or other 

relatives of each client within 72 hours 

of the youth entering the program to 

inform them that the youth is safe. The 

grantee should determine on a case-bycase basis if it is in the best interests of 

the youth to notify the parent(s) or legal 

guardian of the location of the youth 

until further information has been 

gathered to assure safety. 

(f) Additional requirements included 

in the funding opportunity 

announcement (FOA). 

§ 1351.22 What are the additional 

requirements that the Transitional Living 

Program and Maternity Group Home 

grantees must meet? 

(a) Grantees shall provide transitional 

living arrangements and additional core 

services including case planning/

management, counseling, skill building, 

consumer education, referral to needed 

social and health care services, and 

education, recreation and leisure 

activities, aftercare and, as appropriate 

to grantees providing maternity-related 

services, parenting skills, child care, 

and child nutrition. 

(b) Additional requirements included 

in the funding opportunity 

announcement (FOA). 

§ 1351.23 What are the additional 

requirements that the Street Outreach 

Program grantees must meet? 

(a) Grantees shall provide services 

that are designed to assist clients in 

leaving the streets, making healthy 

choices, and building trusting 

relationships in areas where targeted 

youth congregate. 

(b) Grantees shall directly or by 

referral provide treatment, counseling, 

prevention, and education services to 

clients as well as referral for emergency 

shelter. 

(c) Additional requirements included 

in the funding opportunity 

announcement (FOA). 

■ 14. Add Subpart D to read as follows: 

Subpart D—What Are the Runaway and 

Homeless Youth Program-Specific 

Standards? 

Sec. 

1351.30 What performance standards must 

Basic Center grantees meet? 

1351.31 What performance standards must 

Transitional Living Programs (TLP), 

including Maternity Group Homes 

(MGH), meet? 

1351.32 What performance standards must 

Street Outreach Programs (SOP) meet? 

1351.33 How and when will performance 

standards for the Runaway and Homeless 

Youth Program be revised? 

1351.34 When are program-specific 

requirements effective? 

§ 1351.30 What performance standards 

must Basic Center grantees meet? 

What are the minimum performance 

standards that Basic Center grantees 

must achieve to receive and maintain 

funding? 

(a) Grantees must contact the 

parent(s), legal guardian or other 

relatives of each client within 72 hours 

of the youth entering the program to 

inform them that the youth is safe. The 

grantee should determine on a case-bycase basis if it is in the best interests of 

the youth to notify the parent(s) or legal 

guardian of the location of the youth 

until further information has been 

gathered to assure safety. 

(b) Grantees shall maintain at 90 

percent or higher the proportion of 

youth transitioning to safe and 

appropriate settings when exiting Basic 

Center Program services. 

(c) Grantees shall ensure that youth 

receive counseling services that match 

the individual needs of each participant. 

Data shall be reported by each grantee 

on the type of counseling each youth 

received (individual, family and/or 

group counseling), the participation rate 

based on a youth’s service plan or 

treatment plan, and the completion rate 

based on a youth’s service plan or 

treatment plan, where applicable. 

(d) Grantees that choose to provide 

street-based services, home-based 

services, drug and/or alcohol abuse 

education and prevention services, and/ 

or testing for sexually transmitted 

diseases (at the request of the youth) 

shall ensure youth receive the 

appropriate services. Data shall be 

reported on the completion rate for each 

service provided based on the youth’s 

service or treatment plan. 

§ 1351.31 What performance standards 

must Transitional Living Programs (TLP), 

including Maternity Group Homes (MGH), 

meet? 

What are the minimum performance 

standards that TLP and MGH grantees 


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must achieve to receive and maintain 

funding? 

(a) Grantees shall maintain at 90 

percent or higher the proportion of 

youth transitioning to safe and 

appropriate settings when exiting 

Transitional Living Program services. 

(b) Grantees shall maintain at 45 

percent or higher the proportion of 

youth who are engaged in community 

service and service learning activities 

while in the program. 

(c) Grantees shall ensure youth are 

engaged in educational advancement, 

job attainment skills or work activities 

while in the program. 

(d) Grantees shall ensure and report 

that youth receive health care services 

as determined within their health care 

referral plan. 

(e) MGH grantees shall ensure and 

report that youth receive consistent prenatal care, well-baby exams, and 

immunizations for the infant while in 

the program. 

§ 1351.32 What performance standards 

must Street Outreach Programs (SOP) 

meet? 

What are the minimum performance 

standards that SOP grantees must 

achieve to receive and maintain 

funding? Grantees shall contact youth 

who are or who are at risk of homeless 

or runaway status on the streets, in 

numbers that are reasonably attainable 

for the staff size of the project. Grantees 

with larger staffs will be expected to 

contact larger numbers of youth in 

approximate proportion, as determined 

by HHS, to the larger number of staff 

available to provide this service. 

§ 1351.33 How and when will performance 

standards for the Runaway and Homeless 

Youth Program be revised? 

(a) Current and future performance 

standards for grantees will be related to 

one or more of the following four core 

outcomes: 

(1) Social and Emotional Well-being; 

(2) Permanent Connections; 

(3) Education or Employment; and/or 

(4) Stable Housing. 

(b) The Secretary may, based upon 

available program data, add, amend, or 

suspend benchmark levels for current 

and future performance standards for 

grantees. The specific benchmark levels 

in §§ 1351.30, 1351.31, and 1351.32 may 

be amended per this section. 

(c) The Secretary may, based upon 

available program data, add, amend or 

suspend performance standards for 

grantees that relate to one or more of the 

four core outcomes in paragraph (a) of 

this section. 

(d) Notification to grantees shall be 

given in advance of any revision to 

either program standards or benchmark 

levels through a public notification 

mechanism such as a funding 

opportunity announcement, policy 

guidance or other appropriate 

mechanism. 

§ 1351.34 When are program-specific 

requirements effective? 

Grantees shall meet program specific 

requirements as applicable upon the 

effective date of those requirements, or 

starting at the beginning of the next 

budget period for the grant, whichever 

comes later. 

[FR Doc. 2014–08178 Filed 4–10–14; 11:15 am] 

BILLING CODE 4184–01–P 


TKELLEY on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS5