(a) To be considered for a bonus, the State must have submitted data on out-of-wedlock births as follows:

(1) The State must have submitted to NCHS the final vital statistics data files for all births occurring in the State. These files must show, among other elements, the total number of live births and the total number of out-of-wedlock live births occurring in the State. These data must conform to the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program contract for all years in the calculation period. This contract specifies, among other things, the guidelines and time-lines for submitting vital statistics data files; and

(2) The State must have submitted these data for the most recent two years for which NCHS reports final data, as well as for the previous two years.

(b) If a State has changed its method of determining marital status for the purposes of these data, the State also must have met the following requirements:

(1) The State has identified all years for which the method of determining marital status is different from that used for the previous year;

(2) For those years identified under paragraph (b)(1) of this section, the State has either:

(i) Replicated as closely as possible a consistent method for determining marital status at the time of birth, and the State has reported to NCHS the resulting alternative number of out-of-wedlock births; or

(ii) If NCHS agrees that such replication is not methodologically feasible, the State may chose to accept an NCHS estimate of what the alternative number would be;

(3) The State has submitted documentation to NCHS on what changes occurred in the determination of marital status for those years and, if appropriate, how it determined the alternative number of out-of-wedlock births for the State; and

(4) For methodological changes that were implemented prior to 1998 and applicable to data collected for the bonus period, the State has submitted the information described in paragraphs (b)(1), (2) and (3) of this section within two months after April 14, 1999. For such changes implemented during or after 1998, the State must submit such information either by the end of calendar year 1999 or according to the same deadline that applies to its vital statistics data for that year, whichever is later.