Executive Summary

From September 13 - 16, 2004 staff of the Children's Bureau and the Office of Information Services (OIS) conducted an assessment review of Hawaii's Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS). The AFCARS data used for the review was from the report period October 1, 2003 through March 31, 2004 (2004A).

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 State 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 State's reporting of the AFCARS data are included in the AFCARS Improvement Plan (Tab B).

The final rating factors may differ from those given as the preliminary on-site ratings. Changes in the rating factors reflect findings from further analysis of the State's program code and system screens, and changes made by the State and submitted to the Children's Bureau after the on-site visit. The final rating factors received by the State 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	37 (56%)	24 (65%)	61 (59%)
3	22 (33%)	8 (22%)	30 (29%)
2	7 (11%)	5 (14%)	12 (12%)
1	0	0	0

The State 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 State needs to address is the quality of the data.

The State needs to improve the quality of its data. Several 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 State 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 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 the Administration for Children and Families (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 issued by ACF.

Within 30 calendar days after the receipt of this report and the attached AFCARS Improvement Plan, the State staff must submit the Improvement Plan to the ACF Regional Office with estimated due dates for completing the tasks in the Improvement Plan. Test cases will be provided to the State once all of the required modifications are completed. Dates for the submission of the extracted test data file will be arranged with the ACF Regional Office and OIS. Once ACF and the State agree that the quality of the data is acceptable, the AFCARS Improvement Plan will be considered finished, and a letter will be sent to the State from the Children's Bureau confirming this fact. The letter will include a summary of the actions taken by the State and the completed AFCARS Improvement Plan.

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