Findings

This section provides the major findings resulting from the review of the State's AFCARS data collection. Tab B provides detailed information on the findings for each of the foster care and adoption data elements, the general AFCARS requirements, and the case file review. The AFCARS reporting period under review was October 1, 2001 through March 31, 2002 (2002A).

As part of the post-site visit analysis the State's documents, the data, the case file review findings, and team member notes are assessed to make the final determination of findings. As a result, some of the original rating factors were modified from those given at the end of the on-site review. The findings matrix in Tab B reports the previous rating with a "strike-through" mark on it, and the new rating. The AFCARS Improvement Plan in Tab C contains the final rating factor. Several changes to the rating factors were made due to the findings from the paper case file review.

Strengths

Strengths identified by the Federal review team during the review include:

The State converted historical information on open cases.
The State is correctly reporting the adoption population.
The State is reporting private agency adoptions.
The State has a good method to collect primary and secondary special needs information.

Based on the on-site findings and the post-site visit analysis, 32% (21) of the foster care and 51% (19) of the adoption elements are reported correctly. The State includes youth under the Division of Youth Services that are in out of home placements for whom the title IV-B/IV-E agency has responsibility for care, placement, or supervision.

General Requirements - Population Errors

The AFCARS foster care population must include all children under the placement, care or supervision of the State agency. This includes all children who are required to be provided the protections included in section 422(b)(10) of the Social Security Act (the Act). The Delaware Department of Services to Children, Youth, and their Families (DCYF), includes the Division of Family Services (DFS), the Division of Youth Rehabilitative Services (YRS) and the Division of Child Mental Health (CMH). If the State agency (DCYF) has responsibility for the care, placement, or supervision of children then, regardless of which Division has primary responsibility, information on these children must be reported to AFCARS. Currently, the State includes in its AFCARS population those children placed through DFS and YRS. The State must include CMH children that are in the agency's care and placement responsibility and are in out-of-home foster care placements.

Also, children who have been in foster care and are returned to their home while under the placement, care, or supervision of the State agency must be included in the AFCARS population. If the child has been returned home for a specified period of time, then the State includes them in the population for that period of time. If a time period is not specified, then the agency continues reporting that child in the AFCARS population for up to six months. If the agency's responsibility for placement, care, or supervision is terminated by the court prior to six months, then the date of termination is entered as the discharge date. Otherwise, if the non-specified period of time extends beyond six months, the agency is to enter the date on which the child has been in its own home for six months as the discharge date.

The State has been reporting these children with discharge dates at the time they are returned home and not according to the above guidelines. The State must include these children in the AFCARS report as appropriate, and according to the criteria listed in the previous paragraph.

There are several issues that relate to the reporting of juvenile justice youth. The issues are addressed in the findings matrices. Most of the issues are in regard to how the State reports the start and end of the removal episode, counting placements, and diagnosed disabilities. During the on-site review not all of the State staff's questions and concerns may have been addressed. The State may want to consider having the National Resource Center for Information Technology in Child Welfare provide on-site technical assistance in this area.

Data Element Errors

Based on the on-site findings and the post-site visit analysis, 50 percent (33) of the foster care and 27 percent (10) of the adoption data elements require system modifications. Changes made to the system with regard to data entry will inevitably result in improved data accuracy and quality. The State'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 ACF. To do so, the State may utilize the management reports created by the agency, as well as the Data Quality Utility and the Frequency Utility.

Information on Race and Hispanic and Latino Origin (foster care elements number #9 -10, #52 - 55 and adoption elements number #7 - 8, #25 - 28)

The State does not collect data or report whether an individual considers him/herself to be more than one race. The State's information system, Family and Child Tracking System (FACTS), is designed to allow workers to enter only one race, not multiple races. The system must be modified to allow workers to select more then one race, as appropriate, for children, foster parents and adoptive parents. Also, "unable to determine" is not an option for workers to select on the data entry screen. The definition of "unable to determine" is:

"The specific race category is 'unable to determine' because the child is very young or is severely disabled and no person is available to identify the child's race. 'Unable to determine' is also used if the parent, relative or guardian is unwilling to identify the child's race." Or, in the case of adults, "…is unwilling to identify his or her race or ethnicity."

The State must modify the screens by adding "unable to determine" as an option and train workers on the appropriate use of this value.

Information on Children Diagnosed with Disabilities (foster care elements #10-15)

The State and Federal teams agreed that the State's number of children in foster care that are diagnosed with a disability are under-reported in AFCARS. This may be due to the way the system is designed to capture disability information. FACTS does not have the question "Has the child been clinically diagnosed as having a disability?" Instead, the response to this question (AFCARS FC element #10) is based on the worker selecting one of the disabilities on the screen. If none of the conditions are checked, then the program code maps blank information to "no." This results in a response of a false "no." For AFCARS purposes, "no" indicates that "a qualified professional has conducted a clinical assessment of the child and has determined that the child has no disabilities." Alternately, ``not yet determined'' indicates that "a clinical assessment of the child by a qualified professional has not been conducted." The State must modify the system to include this question and the values "yes," "no," and "not yet determined." This will provide more accurate information regarding whether a medical or psychological professional has seen a child.

There are some conditions that could be reported to AFCARS that the State is not mapping. The detailed findings and the AFCARS Improvement Plan list some options the State may consider when making system design changes.

Information on whether a child was previously adopted (foster care elements #16 - 17)

This is information that the caseworkers are required to provide. However, there is not an option for the value "unable to determine." Instead, if a child is abandoned, the worker selects "no." This is not the correct use of this value. "No" should only be used if the worker has assessed that the child has never been adopted, either through a private or public agency, prior to entering the current foster care episode. If the child was abandoned and there is no one available to provide this information, then the response to elements #16 and 17 is "unable to determine." The State must modify its system to include an option for the value "unable to determine."

Date of placement in the current foster care setting (foster care element #23)

At the time of the State's AFCARS assessment review, the State was reporting this date in accordance with Federal policy effective at that time. However, as of October 1, 2002, the State must collect and report the actual dates that a child is on runaway status from a foster setting, or the date the child returns home while under the care, placement, or supervision of the State. The State will want to implement training for caseworkers to ensure these dates are entered into the system.

Number of previous placement settings in the current episode (foster care element #24)

The State is not including all placement settings in the count of placements. During the on-site review, it was determined that the program code is not counting either the initial or the current placement. As a result, the number of placement settings for a child is being under-reported.

Also, the State should refer to policy guidance in the Children's Bureau Child Welfare Policy Manual that was issued on July 5, 2002 (Section 1, AFCARS, subsection 2B.7). The policy guidance addresses what should be counted and not counted for this element. The following temporary living conditions are not placements in the calculation of the number of previous placement settings for foster care element #24.

Visitation with a sibling, relative, or other caretaker (i.e., preplacement visits with a subsequent foster care provider or preadoptive parents);
Hospitalization for medical treatment, acute psychiatric episodes or diagnosis;
Respite care;
Day or summer camps;
Trial home visits; and
Runaway episodes.
Information on the most recent case plan (foster care element #43)

The State is to report the most recent case plan for the current removal episode. The State's program code checks for a case plan goal for the current placement setting, but is not extracting all case plans.

Information on sources of Federal support/assistance for the child (foster care elements #59 - 65)

The requirement for these elements is to report if a payment has been made on behalf of the child during the six-month report period. Instead, the State is reporting if the child is eligible for one of these sources of income. This has specific implications for the title IV-E foster care reviews. The State must correct the program code to extract the correct data, and resubmit the appropriate report period, prior to the State's title IV-E review.

Data Quality

Eighteen percent (12) of the foster care and 22 percent (8) of the adoption elements are correctly extracted to the AFCARS file, but the quality of the data needs to improve. The majority of the data quality issues are to due to timely entry of data by caseworkers, and keeping the information up-to-date.

One area that needs correcting will require new guidance to be given to caseworkers. Caseworkers are using a generic date (1111) when dates of birth are not known for the child's biological mother and father. Workers should enter an appropriate approximate date of birth if the exact date is not known (the day should be the 15th of the month).

Once changes are made to the program code and/or to the data entry screens, the quality of the data will need to be monitored for accuracy. It may be necessary to implement additional training for caseworkers and monitoring by supervisors to ensure accurate data entry. The State may want to consider system ticklers/edits that will remind workers to update the information at appropriate times, and review the data in the file at the time of a periodic review (see AFCARS Federal regulation at 45 CFR 1355 Appendix A, I. I. E).

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