District of Columbia AFCARS Assessment Report

From December 6 - 10, 2004 staff of the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Region III, and the Office of Information Services (OIS) conducted an assessment review of the District of Columbia's Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS). The AFCARS data used for the review was from the report period April 1, 2004 through September 30, 2004 (2004B).

Two major areas are evaluated as part of an AFCARS assessment review (AAR): the AFCARS general requirements and data elements. The general requirements include the population that is to be reported to AFCARS and the technical requirements for constructing a data file. The data elements are assessed on the basis of whether the District is meeting the AFCARS definitions for the information required, if the correct data are being entered and extracted, and the quality of the data submitted. Each of the 103 foster care and adoption data elements is rated on the basis of its compliance with the requirements in the AFCARS regulation, policy guidance, and technical bulletins. Information that is collected from each of the components of the review is combined to rate each data element. A scale of one (does not meet AFCARS standards) to four (fully meets AFCARS standards) is used to assign a factor to each element. The general information requirements are also assessed and rated separately using the same scale. A summary of the significant findings is included in the report, and detailed findings can be found in the "Detailed Findings" matrices for the foster care and adoption data elements, and the general requirements (Tab A). The minimum tasks that are required to correct the District 's reporting of the AFCARS data are included in the AFCARS Improvement Plan (Tab B). The rating factors received by the District are:

General Requirements	Rating Factor
Foster Care/Adoption Population Standards	4
Technical Standards	4

Rating Factor	Foster Care (66 elements)	Adoption (37 elements)	Full Data Set (103 elements)
4	16 (24%)	10 (27%)	26 (25%)
3	44 (67%)	20 (54%)	64 (62%)
2	6 (9%)	7 (19%)	13 (13%)
1	0	0	0

The District is in full compliance with the foster care and adoption population requirements and the technical standards. In regard to the date elements, the most significant area the District needs to address is the quality of the data.

The District needs to improve the quality of its data. A majority of items were given the rating of "3" because of underreporting of information and will necessitate additional training for caseworkers and monitoring by supervisors to ensure accurate data entry. The District may want to consider reviewing the data in the file at the time of a periodic review to ensure it is accurate and up-to-date. (See AFCARS Federal regulation at 45 CFR 1355 Appendix A, I. I. E.) Changes made to the system with regard to data entry will inevitably result in improved data accuracy and quality. The District's semi-annual data submission may, as a result, fail to meet the missing data standard. In order to ensure that the data are complete, the agency must require workers to enter the data and assess its validity prior to submitting it to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). To do so, the District may utilize the management reports created by the agency, as well as the Data Quality Utility and the Frequency Utility issued by ACF.

Tab B contains the AFCARS Improvement Plan (AIP). The AIP contains the AFCARS data elements that do not meet the requirements in the Federal regulations. Each matrix contains a column that identifies the task(s), the date the task is to be completed, and one for comments.

Within 30 calendar days after the receipt of this report and the attached AFCARS Improvement Plan, the District staff are to submit the Improvement Plan electronically to the ACF Regional Office, OIS, and my staff with estimated dues dates for completing the tasks in the Improvement Plan.

The District should contact the ACF Regional Office once it has completed its AIP. The ACF Regional Office will then provide the District with a set of test case scenarios. These scenarios test the system by requiring the District to enter the information and extract the data, which is then compared to known answers for each scenario. Dates for the submission of the test data file will be arranged with the ACF Regional Office and the Office of Information Systems.

In order to assess the quality of the data, a frequency report will be generated on the data submitted after the system changes have been implemented. Once ACF and the District agree that the quality of the data is acceptable, and all tasks and revisions, based on the test cases, have been completed, the District must submit the completed AIP to the ACF Regional Office. The District will receive a letter summarizing the final results of the review.

The ACF Regional Office will work with the District to determine if technical assistance is needed, and available, to implement the AFCARS Improvement Plan. The District may obtain technical assistance from the Children's Bureau's resource centers. To request technical assistance from the resource centers, contact your ACF Regional Office.

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