Affordable Care Act (ACA) Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program

The Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (TMIECHV) is being administered by The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Office of Early Childhood Development (ECD), Office of Child Care (OCC), in collaboration with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Assistance is available to eligible Tribes (or consortia of Tribes), Tribal Organizations, and Urban Indian Organizations, to strengthen and improve maternal and child health programs, improve service coordination for at-risk communities, and identify and provide comprehensive evidence-based home visiting services to families who reside in at-risk communities. The ACF, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), in collaboration with HRSA, is administering the Tribal Research Center for Early Childhood (TRCEC), which will provide leadership and support to promote excellence in community-based participatory research and evaluation of ACF early childhood initiatives that serve Tribal communities (i.e., Home Visiting, Head Start, Early Head Start). The TRCEC is expected to engage in a variety of activities that are designed to identify and develop effective practices and systems for home visiting, Head Start, and Early Head Start programs in Tribal communities; to establish the culturally meaningful processes and outcomes of those programs; to build research capacity within Tribal communities; and to build the capacity of researchers to conduct research and evaluation in partnership with Tribal communities. TRCEC will provide leadership and support to promote excellence in community-based research and evaluation of Tribal MIECHV, Head Start, and EHS initiatives that serve AI/AN children and families. TRCEC is expected to engage in activities that support the identification and development of effective practices and systems for integrated services for Tribal MIECHV, Head Start, and EHS in tribal communities.

Only Tribes (or a consortium of Indian Tribes), Tribal Organizations, or Urban Indian Organizations, as defined by Section 4 of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, Public Law 94-437, are eligible applicants for the Tribal HV Grant Program. For the TRCEC, only the following are eligible applicants: a) public and State controlled institutions of higher education; b) nonprofits having a 501(3)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education; c) nonprofits without 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education; (d) private institutions of higher education; e) for profit organizations other than small businesses; and f) small businesses.

For the Tribal HV program: • Eligible families residing in at-risk American Indian/Alaskan Native communities in need of such services, as identified in a needs assessment; • Low-income eligible families; • Eligible families who are pregnant women under age 21; • Eligible families with a history of child abuse or neglect or have had interactions with child welfare services; • Eligible families with a history of substance abuse or need substance abuse treatment; • Eligible families that have users of tobacco products in the home; • Eligible families that are or have children with low student achievement; • Eligible families with children with developmental delays or disabilities; and • Eligible families who, or that include individuals serving or formerly serving in the Armed Forces, including those with members who have had multiple deployments outside the US. Eligible family: • A woman who is pregnant, and the father of the child if available, or • A parent or primary caregiver of the child, including grandparents or other relatives and foster parents serving as the child's primary caregiver from birth until kindergarten entry, including a noncustodial parent with an ongoing relationship with, and at times provides physical care for the child.

Assistance for the Tribal HV Program will be used to: conduct a needs assessment that considers community characteristics and the quality and capacity of existing home visiting programs and other supportive services; is coordinated with other relevant needs assessments; and involves community stakeholders as appropriate; collaborative planning efforts to address identified needs by developing capacity and infrastructure; providing high-quality, evidence-based home visiting services to pregnant women and families with young children aged birth to kindergarten entry; establishing, measuring, and reporting on progress toward meeting 36 performance measures in six legislatively-mandated benchmark areas; and conducting rigorous local evaluations. Consistent with statutory authority, Home Visiting funds for the TRCEC will be used for: (a) activities to promote excellence in research and evaluation of Tribal MIECHV programs in tribal communities; and (b) measurement development activities that will expand the evidence base around home visiting programs for AI/AN populations. Consistent with the relevant statutory authority, Head Start funds for the TRCEC will be used for research and evaluation activities to: (a) foster continuous improvement in the quality of the Head Start programs and in their effectiveness in enabling participating AI/AN children and their families to succeed in school and otherwise; and (b) develop, test, and disseminate new ideas based on existing scientifically valid research, for addressing the needs of AI/AN children and their families and communities. Costs of organized fundraising, including financial campaigns, endowment drives, solicitation of gifts and bequests, and similar expenses incurred solely to raise capital or obtain contributions, are unallowable. Awards issued under this announcement are subject to the uniform administrative requirements and cost principles under 45 CFR Part 75. An application funded with the release of Federal funds through a grant award, does not constitute, or imply, compliance with Federal regulations. Funded organizations are responsible for ensuring that their activities comply with all applicable Federal regulations. Grantees are subject to the limitations set forth in 45 CFR Part 75.216 (b) (Prohibition against profit), which states that, "Except for awards under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) programs (15 U.S.C. 638), no HHS funds may be paid as profit to any recipient even if the recipient is a commercial organization. Profit is any amount in excess of allowable direct and indirect costs." Grantees are also subject to the requirements of 45 CFR Part 87, Equal Treatment for Faith-Based Organizations. Additional information on "Understanding the Regulations Related to the Faith-Based and Community Initiative" can be found at: https://www.hhs.gov/about/agencies/iea/partnerships/index.html. Awards issued under this announcement are subject to the requirements of Section 106 (g) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, as amended (22 U.S.C. 7104). TRCEC awards are subject to the availability of Federal funds. Please note that funds for MIECHV are not currently appropriated for the full length of the identified project period. The Federal share of TRCEC project costs shall not exceed $600,000 for any of the 12-month budget periods, inclusive of indirect costs . Funds and their associated activities/costs supported by funds from MIECHV Tribal Home Visiting, Office of Child Care and OHS for the TRCEC must be tracked separately; and must be accounted for on an ongoing basis and expenditures attributed to either Tribal HV, Child Care or Head Start portions of the project.

For the Tribal HV, grants (cooperative agreements) are generally awarded for a 5-year project period. In the first year of the project, grants will be awarded on a competitive basis. Pending successful completion of Year 1 activities, submission of a plan that meets requirements, and approval of this plan, applications will be considered on a noncompetitive continuation basis for Years 2-5 subject to availability of funds, satisfactory progress of the grantee, and a determination that continued funding would be in the best interest of the Federal Government. Grants will be awarded for 12-month budget periods with a 5-year project period. Funds awarded to grantees under this program will be made available for expenditure through the end of the second succeeding fiscal year after award. For the TRCEC, grants (cooperative agreements) are generally awarded with a project period of up to five years. The initial award will be for the first 12-month budget period. Budget requests for the second through fifth year of funding within the project period should be identified in the current application (on SF-424A), but such requests will be considered in subsequent years on a noncompetitive basis, subject to the applicant's eligibility status, the availability of funds, satisfactory progress of the grantee, and a determination that continued funding would be in the best interest of the Federal Government.

Applicants should review each of the individual funding opportunity announcements listed under this CFDA program for additional application procedur.

Applications will be evaluated based upon the criteria published in each funding opportunity announcement.

For the Tribal HV program: each application will be screened to determine whether it was received by the closing date and time and whether the requested amount exceeds the award ceiling. Applications that are designated as late or those with requests that exceed the award ceiling will be returned to the applicant with a notation that they were deemed non-responsive and will not be reviewed. Applications competing for financial assistance will be reviewed and evaluated by objective review panels using the criteria described in the funding opportunity announcement. Each panel is made up of experts with knowledge and experience in the area under review. Generally, review panels are composed of three reviewers and one chairperson. Results of the competitive objective review are taken into consideration by ACF in the selection of projects for funding; however, objective review scores and rankings are not binding and are one element of the decision-making process. ACF may elect to not fund applicants with management or financial problems that would indicate an inability to successfully complete the proposed project. Applications may be funded in whole or in part. Successful applicants may be funded at an amount lower than that requested. ACF reserves the right to consider a preference to fund organizations serving emerging, unserved, or under-served populations, including those located in pockets of poverty, and to consider the geographic distribution of Federal funds in its funding decisions. ACF may refuse funding for projects with what it regards as unreasonably high start-up costs for facilities or equipment, or for projects with unreasonably high operating costs. In addition, federal staff will conduct an administrative review of the applications and the results of the competitive review and will make recommendations for funding to the Director, Office of Child Care (OCC) With the results of the competitive review and information from federal staff, the Director of OCC, in consultation with Deputy Assistant Secretary and Inter-Departmental Liaison for Early Childhood Development, will make the final funding decisions. For the TRCEC, grant awards are subject to the availability of Federal funds. Note that funds for the Tribal MIECHV are not appropriated for the full length of the specified project period. The Federal share of project costs for any of the 12-month budget periods, inclusive of indirect costs will be from the Tribal MIECHV Program, Office of Child Care or Head Start research funds). No grant award will be made under this announcement on the basis of an incomplete application. No grant award will be made to an applicant or sub-recipient that does not have active SAM registration. Applications recommended for approval that were not funded under the competition because of the lack of available funds, may be held over by ACF and re-considered in a subsequent review cycle if a future competition under the program area is planned. These applications will be held over for a period of up to one year and will be re-competed for funding with all other competing applications in the next available review cycle. For those applications that have been deemed as approved but unfunded, a notice will be given of such determination.

For theTRCEC, successful applicants will be notified through the issuance of a Notice of Award (NoA) document that sets forth the amount of funds granted, the terms and conditions of the grant, the effective date of the grant, the budget period for which initial support will be given, the non-Federal share to be provided (if applicable), and the total project period for which support is contemplated. The NoA will be signed by the Grants Officer and transmitted. Following the finalization of funding decisions, organizations whose applications will not be funded will be notified by letter, signed by the Program Office head. Other correspondence announcing to a Principal Investigator or Project Director that an application was selected is not an authorization to begin performance. Costs incurred before receipt of the NoA are at the recipient's risk and may be reimbursed only to extent considered allowable as approved pre-award costs.