While the NFCSP developed since 2000 did show increased efforts on caregiver support services, the flexibility of the program’s administration structure resulted in several issues, one of which is the lack of uniform caregiver assessment (Feinberg, et al., 2006; Alliance, 2006). On a basis of history and variation discussion and the cost benefit analysis by comparing the policy alternative to the current policy, while legislating a standardized caregiver assessment under the OAA Title III E would definitely lead to benefits for caregivers, care receivers and more importantly, the entire NFCSP system, a range of potential costs and the difficulties to measure their magnitude suggested that it is not the right time for passing this policy reform because the tool could not be created from zero to a national uniform overnight. Instead, by setting the national mandatory standardized caregiver assessment in the NFCSP as the final goal, I recommend that AoA could develop a step-by-step plan for realizing the goal, taking states’ distinctive conditions into account and assigning specific tasks to states at different stages.
