A federally recognized tribe is an American Indian or Alaska Native tribal entity that is recognized as having a government-to-government relationship with the United States. Federally recognized tribes and their members are eligible for programs and services the federal government provides to Indians because of their status as Indians. Eligible tribes and certain tribal entities have access to federal resources for child welfare programs under programs administered by HHS. Federal funding provided under titles IV-E and IV-B of the Social Security Act covers a portion of costs for states and participating tribes of operating their foster care, adoption assistance, and kinship guardianship assistance programs (title IV-E) and funding for child welfare services, such as parent support and counseling for children and families (title IV- B). Approximately 20,000 of the 415,000 children in foster care at the end of fiscal year 2014 were identified as American Indian or Alaska Native alone or American Indian or Alaska Native in combination with one or more races. Title IV-E of the Social Security Act is the largest single federal source of child welfare funding, providing nearly $7.5 billion in fiscal year 2015 to child welfare agencies to support foster care and transitional independent living programs for eligible children, adoption assistance for children with special needs, and kinship guardianship assistance. Both states and tribes seeking to operate a title IV-E program must have an approved title IV-E plan. The title IV-E plan provides documentation that state or tribal law, regulations, and policies comply with program requirements. Among other things, the title IV-E program requires that states and tribes: make reasonable efforts, consistent with the health and safety of the child, to preserve and reunify families (1) prior to a child’s placement in foster care, to prevent the need for removing the child; and (2) to make it possible for the child to safely return home; prepare a written case plan for each child receiving foster care maintenance payments and ensure periodic court or administrative review of each such case; and, regularly hold a permanency hearing to determine the case goal for the child (to be held at least every 12 months) and make reasonable efforts to finalize the case goal—reunification, adoption, legal guardianship, placement with a fit and willing relative, or, where appropriate, another planned permanent living arrangement. Case goal options under title IV-E are shown in table 1. Title IV-E funds reimburse participating states and tribes for a portion of their eligible costs of providing foster care, adoption assistance, or kinship guardianship assistance on behalf of eligible children: Title IV-E Foster Care Program: The title IV-E Foster Care Program provides federal funding for state and tribal title IV-E agencies to support out-of-home care for children until the children are safely returned home, placed permanently with adoptive families or placed in other planned arrangements for permanency. Federal funds are available for a portion of monthly maintenance payments for the daily care and supervision of eligible children; administrative costs to manage the program; training of staff and foster care providers; recruitment of foster parents; and costs related to the design, implementation and operation of a state-wide data collection system. Title IV-E Adoption Assistance Program: The Adoption Assistance Program provides funds to state and tribal title IV-E agencies to facilitate the timely placement of children, whose special needs or circumstances would otherwise make placement with adoptive families difficult. Federal funds are available for a one-time payment to families to assist with the costs of adopting an eligible child, and for a portion of monthly subsidies to assist with the care of an eligible adopted child, as well as for certain administrative and other program costs. Title IV-E Guardianship Assistance Program: The Guardianship Assistance Program (GAP) is an optional program under title IV-E that provides funds to support the care of children discharged from foster care to legal guardianship who meet the program’s eligibility requirements. Under the program, state and tribal title IV-E agencies who opt to provide guardianship assistance payments to relatives who have assumed legal guardianship of eligible children receive partial reimbursement from the federal government for the cost of providing these payments. In general, eligible children include those who have been eligible for title IV-E foster care maintenance payments during at least a 6 consecutive month period during which the child resided in the home of the prospective relative guardian who was licensed or approved as meeting the licensure requirements as a foster family home, among other criteria. The reimbursement rate varies by type of expense. The federal share of foster care maintenance payments, adoption assistance payments, and guardianship assistance payments is between 50 percent and 83 percent of costs, with higher federal support going to states and eligible tribes with lower per capita incomes. The federal share of training and administrative costs is 75 percent and 50 percent, respectively. Eligible tribes may receive federal title IV-E funds either by (1) directly operating a foster care title IV-E program pursuant to an approved title IV- E plan; or (2) administering all or part of a title IV-E program on behalf of a state pursuant to a tribal-state agreement. Tribal-state agreements: Tribes may enter into cooperative agreements with their state child welfare agency to administer part of the state’s title IV-E program. Through tribal-state agreements, title IV- E funds are generally passed through the state to the tribes. Whether tribes or states have responsibility for activities such as developing a case plan for the child’s placement and care, or reviewing the case plan on a regular basis, can vary depending on the agreement. HHS considers the state to be the grantee for title IV-E funding and as a result, the state has ultimate responsibility for ensuring compliance with title IV-E program requirements. Direct title IV-E programs: The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (Fostering Connections Act) authorized tribes to directly operate a title IV-E program and obtain federal reimbursement for eligible program costs pursuant to an approved title IV-E plan. As of October 2015, there were seven tribes approved to directly operate a title IV-E program. The provisions of title IV-E apply to tribes that operate their own programs in the same manner as they apply to states, with limited exceptions. HHS is responsible for oversight and monitoring of states and tribes that are approved to directly operate a title IV-E program. Tribes also have access to federal funding provided under title IV-B, subparts 1 and 2 of the Social Security Act for various child welfare services—$664 million in fiscal year 2015. These programs fund a range of child welfare services and activities generally aimed at preventing abuse and neglect; preserving and reunifying families; and promoting safety, permanency, and well-being of children in foster or adoptive placements. To receive title IV-B funding, states and tribes must submit a 5-year plan—the Child and Family Services Plan—that sets forth the vision and goals to be accomplished to improve the state’s or tribe’s coordinated child and family service delivery system. It also includes, among other things, the state’s or tribe’s plans for use of funding from title IV-B. Tribes that receive title IV-B funding and operate foster care programs must also comply with certain title IV-E requirements, including those related to case goals. State and tribal title IV-B agencies must submit annual updates—Annual Progress and Service Reports—on the progress made toward accomplishing the goals and objectives in the Child and Family Services plan, which are reviewed by HHS regional office staff. Tribes must also be operating a program under title IV-B, subpart 1 to be eligible to directly administer a title IV-E program. The main mechanism for oversight of title IV-B tribal agencies is HHS’s review of the tribe’s Child and Family Service Plan and annual updates. This review is conducted by HHS regional office staff as part of the joint planning process. In addition, tribes or families involved with tribal child welfare programs may receive other state or federal funding outside of titles IV-E or IV-B to support child welfare services, or they may be supported only through tribal funds. The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA) added APPLA as an option for a child’s case goal if none of the other case goals enumerated in the statute would be in the best interests of the child. In addition, ASFA removed language allowing a child to be “continued in foster care on a permanent or long-term basis” because of his or her special needs or circumstances. Under title IV-E, APPLA is permitted as a case goal in cases where the child welfare agency has documented to the court a “compelling reason” for determining that the other case goals would not be in the best interests of the child. The Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, enacted in 2014, restricted the use of APPLA as a case goal to children age 16 and older, although it delayed implementation for children in foster care under the responsibility of an Indian tribe. For older children with a case goal of APPLA, the Act places additional requirements on states and tribes. Among other things, at each permanency hearing (to be held at least every 12 months), the child welfare agency is required to (1) document its intensive, ongoing, and unsuccessful efforts to return the child home or secure a placement with a relative, legal guardian, or adoptive parent; and (2) implement procedures to ensure that the court re-determines whether APPLA is the appropriate case goal for the child and asks the child about his or her desired permanency outcome. ACF’s Children’s Bureau is responsible for providing program guidance under titles IV-B and IV-E to grantees.