§ 1355.46 Compliance.

(a) Files subject to compliance. ACF will evaluate the out-of-home care and adoption and guardianship assistance data files that a title IV-E agency submits to determine whether the data complies with the requirements of § 1355.43 and the data file submission and data quality standards described in paragraphs (c) and (d) of this section. ACF will exempt records related to a child in either data file whose 18th birthday occurred in a prior report period and will exempt records relating to a child in the adoption and guardianship assistance data file who is in a title IV-E guardianship from a compliance determination as described in paragraph (e) of this section.

(b) Errors. ACF will utilize the error definitions in paragraphs (b)(1) through (5) of this section to assess a title IV-E agency's out-of-home care and adoption and guardianship assistance data files. This assessment of errors will help ACF to determine if the title IV-E agency's submitted data files meet the data file submission and data quality standards outlined in paragraphs (c) and (d) of this section. ACF will develop and issue error specifications.

(1) Missing data. Missing data refers to instances in which a data element has a blank or otherwise missing response, when such a response is not a valid option as described in §§ 1355.44 or 1355.45.