While the Act requires a minimum of one public hearing, ACF encourages Lead Agencies to convene additional public hearings, since the concern of the Act is to allow broad public participation in preparing a Plan. The hearings are meant to be an integral part of planning a child care program and should not be an occasion merely to comment on an already completed Plan. Many Lead Agencies have on-going Planning processes with broad community involvement that convene regularly during the year. In the two previous biennial planning cycles, Lead Agencies showed great diversity in fulfilling the public hearing requirement. Statewide notification of the public hearing has also varied greatly.
Many States send press releases to a broad array of news and information outlets.
Widespread use of the Internet has influenced the way states publicize their public hearings. Many States have posted both their hearing notices and their draft Plans on the Lead Agency's Web site. Electronic Format States are encouraged to submit their Plans through electronic means. Amending the Plan To make a substantive change to a CCDF program after the Plan has been approved, a Lead Agency needs to submit a Plan amendment to ACF for approval. Amendments are to be submitted within 60 days of the effective date of the change.