FY 2025 Form ACF-696T— a Financial Reporting Form for Tribal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agencies

PROGRAM INSTRUCTION

1. Log No: ACF-OCC-PI-2025-11
2. Issuance Date: December 9, 2025
3. Originating Office:Office of Child Care
4. Key Words: Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF); ACF-696T; Financial Reporting Form for Indian Tribes

TO

Tribal lead agencies administering child care programs under the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act (42 U.S.C. § 9857et seq.), as amended, and other interested parties.

SUBJECT

Form ACF-696T— a Financial Reporting Form for Tribal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agencies.

REFERENCES

The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act, as amended (42 U.S.C. § 9857et seq.); Section 418 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. § 618); 45 C.F.R. Parts 98 and 99; the American Relief Act (ARA) of 2025 (Pub. Law No. 118-158).

PURPOSE

This Program Instruction distributes the revised Form ACF-696T financial reporting form and instructions for the CCDF Tribal lead agencies. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved the Form ACF-696T under OMB 0970-0510.

BACKGROUND

Tribal lead agencies are required to submit financial reports annually as specified by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF; 42 U.S.C. § 9858m(c)(2)(C), 45 C.F.R. § 98.65). Tribal lead agencies are required to use the ACF-696T to report expenditures for all funding issued under CCDF.

Tribal lead agencies must submit separate annual reports for each fiscal year in which CCDF funds were awarded. Therefore, a Tribal lead agency may be submitting as many as five separate ACF-696T reports in a year — one for each fiscal year with an open CCDF grant dating to Grant Year (GY) 2020.

Tribal lead agencies that incorporate CCDF into an approved P.L. 102-477 Plan are typically not required to submit the ACF-696T to ACF; rather these Tribal lead agencies submit financial reporting to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. However, Tribal lead agencies that incorporate a CCDF program into an approved P.L. 102-477 Plan but have active grants that were awarded directly by ACF must continue to submit the ACF-696T until those awards are closed.

Spending Requirements

The ACF-696T is used to determine compliance with the CCDF spending requirements set forth in 45 C.F.R. Part 98, Subparts F and I.

Tribal lead agencies, regardless of allocation amount, must meet quality spending requirements that vary depending on the year that funds were awarded:

• For funds awarded in GYs 2020 and 2021, all Tribal lead agencies must spend at least 8 percent of expenditures on quality improvement activities.
• For funds awarded in GYs 2022 and later, all Tribal lead agencies must spend at least 9 percent of expenditures on quality improvement activities.

Tribal lead agencies with medium or large CCDF allocations ($250,000 or more based on GY 2016 allocations) must spend at least 3 percent of expenditures on quality improvement activities for infants and toddlers in addition to the quality spending requirement mentioned above.

Tribal lead agencies may not spend more than 15 percent of their expenditures on administrative activities.

Tribal lead agencies receiving a medium or large CCDF allocation must expend a significant percentage of the CCDF Discretionary grant to provide direct child care services for children. After withholding the Discretionary base amount, minimum quality (8 percent for GYs 20 and 21 and 9 percent for GY22 and subsequent years) and infant/toddler quality (3 percent) expenses, and the actual administrative costs (up to 15 percent), Tribal lead agencies must expend 70 percent of the remaining Discretionary per-child amount on direct child care services.

The spending requirements described above do not apply to the Discretionary base amount, and those funds may be used for any allowable CCDF expense, including administrative costs.

Obligation and Liquidation

Typically, Tribal lead agencies must obligate all CCDF Mandatory and Discretionary funding by the end of the second Federal Fiscal Year following the funds being awarded, and liquidate all CCDF Mandatory and Discretionary funding by the end of the third Federal Fiscal Year following the award. However, many Tribal lead agencies have requested and received extraordinary circumstances (fiscal) waivers for their current, individualized obligation and liquidation deadlines. Tribal lead agencies should refer to their most recent extraordinary circumstances waiver approval letter for their current, individualized obligation and liquidation deadlines.

If a Tribal lead agency is unable to obligate the full CCDF Discretionary award within the required time period, the Tribal lead agency must report in a letter to ACF no later than April 1^st of the fiscal year in which the funds are due to be obligated with the dollar amount from the grant that the Tribal lead agency will be unable to obligate by the obligation deadline. These unobligated funds may be reallotted to other Tribal lead agencies. Any Tribal lead agency without an ACF-696T report submission by April 1^st of each year for the prior grant year will not be eligible to receive reallotted funds.

In 2024, OCC published an updated CCDF final rule providing Tribal lead agencies with additional time to liquidate funds that are set aside for construction and major renovation. Generally, Tribal lead agencies must obligate all funds set aside for construction or major renovation by the end of the third fiscal year in which the funds were awarded and liquidated by the end of the fifth fiscal year. As the new rule instituted an obligation deadline for construction funds, OCC offered an extraordinary circumstances waiver to Tribal lead agencies seeking to extend the obligation deadline. Tribal lead agencies with construction set asides should reference their extraordinary circumstances fiscal waiver approval letter for specific extended obligation and liquidation dates for their construction funding.

REVISIONS

American Relief Act (ARA) of 2025 Supplemental Discretionary Disaster and Non-Disaster funds.

The revised ACF-696T Completion Instructions include reporting instructions for the ARA CCDF Supplemental Discretionary Disaster and Non-Disaster funds awarded to Tribal lead Agencies. The revised ACF-696T includes reporting in Column G for the ARA CCDF Supplemental Discretionary Non-Disaster funds.

ACTION REQUIRED

Tribal lead agencies must submit their ACF-696T reports electronically by December 29, 2025, through the PSC/Payment Management System (PMS; see Action Transmittal No. OGM-AT-13-01). PMS reduces paperwork, allows for quicker processing, automatically completes required calculations, and checks for potential errors. Tribal lead agencies with PMS assignments may access the system through pmsapp.psc.gov/pms/app/login .

New users needing access to PMS may refer to the detailed instructions available on the official PMS Website: User Access | HHS PSC FMP Payment Management Services . A user who already has access to PMS can modify the current access level to gain access to the CCDF financial reporting functionality. To update User Access: Login to PMS — select "Menu" — User Account Maintenance — Update Privileges. Locate and select “Financial Report ACF CCDF 696/696T” to access the report. Once updated, navigate to the report from the main menu: Menu — Federal Financial Reporting — ACF Financial Reporting — CCDF Report.

SUBMISSION OF REAL PROPERTY FORM

CCDF Tribal lead agencies with real property in which the federal government retains an interest (i.e., real property that was constructed or renovated in whole or in part with CCDF dollars) must prepare and submit the SF-429 with Attachment A on an annual basis at the same time as their annual ACF-696T Financial Report is due. For more information, please see Program Instruction CCDF-ACF-PI-2023-01 on the OCC website.

NON-REPORTING PENALTIES

Failure to submit the ACF-696T report on or before the due date may be a basis for withholding financial payments, suspension, or termination.

INQUIRIES

Inquiries should be made to the ACF Office of Grants Management at ogm_occ@acf.hhs.gov.

/s/

__________________________

Anne-Marie Twohie

Acting Director

Office of Child Care

ATTACHMENTS

1. A copy of Form ACF-696T (PDF (PDF)) (Excel (XLSX))
2. Instructions for completing Form ACF-696T (PDF)