Feds Revamp Data Collection on Marriages and Fatherhood
Published Date: 5/4/2026
Notice
Summary
The government is updating how it tracks the success of programs that help families through healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood efforts. New grant recipients starting in 2025 will collect and report data starting April 2026, with some changes to improve how progress is measured. This update affects program staff and participants and keeps funding and support flowing smoothly for the next three years.
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Analyzed Economic Effects
7 provisions identified: 4 benefits, 3 costs, 0 mixed.
2025 Grant Cohort Starts Data Reporting
ACF will require the Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) grant cohort that received 5-year awards in September 2025 to begin collecting and reporting performance measure data in April 2026. This requirement applies to grant recipient staff and program participants and is tied to a 3-year extension of the approved data collection.
Quarterly Reporting Requirement Eliminated
ACF will eliminate the requirement for grant recipients to complete a program operations survey and Performance Progress Report (PPR) after the first, second, and third quarters of each grant year. Grant recipients will instead submit a modified program operations survey and a single, revised PPR after the fourth quarter of each grant year.
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours
ACF estimates the total annual burden of the information collection at 45,122 hours. Specific instrument estimates include 135,000 program applicant entrance surveys at 0.34 hours each (total 45,900 hours over the request period; annual burden 15,300) and 87,561 participant exit surveys at 0.28 hours each (total 24,516 hours over the request period; annual burden 8,172).
Applicant Survey Removed at Enrollment
ACF proposes to eliminate the applicant characteristics survey that was administered at program enrollment. If implemented, program applicants will no longer have to complete that specific enrollment survey.
Entrance and Exit Surveys Updated and Translated
ACF will modify the participant entrance and exit surveys and will provide translated Spanish versions of those surveys; English remains the official authoritative version. The surveys have four versions each (HM Adults, HM Youth, RF Community-Based Fathers, RF Reentering Fathers).
CQI Plan Still Required (Separate Collection)
Grant recipients must continue to document their continuous quality improvement (CQI) planning and implementation using a CQI plan template, but for the 2025 cohort this template will be collected under a separate information collection request and completed outside the nFORM system.
nFORM Web System Provided to Recipients
ACF provides grant recipients with a web-based performance measures system called nFORM (Information, Family Outcomes, Reporting, and Management) to improve the efficiency and quality of data collection and reporting. Recipients will use nFORM to submit the performance measures.
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