Requirement

Finding/Notes

Rating Factor

Population Requirements

2

45 CFR 1355.40(a)       Scope of the data collection system – foster care

Must include all children in foster care for whom the agency has responsibility for placement, care, or supervision (45 CFR 1355.40(a)(2)).

• All children who are required to be provided the protection of section 422(b)(10) of the Social Security Act (the Act) (Appendix A – SECTION II).
• All children supervised by or under the responsibility of another public agency with which the title IV-B/E agency has an agreement under title IV-E and the State makes title IV-E foster care maintenance payments (Appendix A - SECTION II).

Includes Native American children covered under section 422(b)(10) of the Act, (45 CFR 1355.40(a)(2)).

Out of State placements.  The State making the placement submits the information on the child (45 CFR 1355.40(a)(2)).

Includes all children who have been in foster care at least 24 hours (Appendix A - SECTION II).

Does not include children who are in their own homes under the responsibility of the State agency (Appendix A - SECTION II). 

Include all children who are in the placement, care, or supervision responsibility of the title IV-B/E agency that are on “trial home visits” (Child Welfare Policy Manual, Section 1.3, AFCARS Reporting Population).

Includes youth over the age of 18 if a payment is being made on behalf of the child (Child Welfare Policy Manual, Section 1, AFCARS).

Correct

The State does not have interagency agreements with either Tribes or juvenile justice agencies.

The State includes Tribal children that are in the agency’s responsibility for care and placement.

The State, correctly, does not include in its AFCARS report children placed in Maine from another State.

The program code checks for “same day” removals and correctly excludes them from the AFCARS report.

The State, correctly, does not include children that have not been removed from their homes, unless it is a “constructive removal.”

The State returns children to their own home while the agency retains responsibility for care and placement.  The staff indicated judges may order children home for both specified and non-specified periods of time.  The State must modify the collection and reporting of this information to ensure that if the child is returned home for a specified period of time, regardless of the length of time, these children continue to be included in AFCARS for the entire specified period of time.  If there is not a specified period of time noted, and if the child is still at home and the agency has care and placement responsibility at six months, the child is to be reported in AFCARS as “discharged.”

The State’s age of majority is 18.  The State claims title IV-E funds for youth up to their 19th birthday, if the individual meets the title IV-E requirements.  The State may also continue to provide services to youth over the age of 18 under a voluntary agreement with the youth.  These individuals are incorrectly included in the AFCARS report.  Once a child reaches 18, or 19, if appropriate, the State must report these individuals as discharged.  The reason for discharge would be “emancipation,” unless there is another appropriate outcome reason.

Case file review finding:  There were 16 records of individuals over the age of 18 who were not receiving title IV-E funds.

45 CFR 1355.40(a)    Scope of the data collection system – adoption

Includes all adopted children placed by the agency, and all adopted children for whom the State agency is providing adoption assistance (either ongoing or for non-recurring expenses), or for whom care or services are provided directly or by contract or agreement with other private or public agencies (45 CFR 1355.40(a)(3)).

• Report on all children adopted in the State during the reporting period in whose adoption the State has had any involvement. All adoptions after 10/1/94 that meet the criteria below must be reported.  Criteria (Appendix B – Section II):

a) Children who had been in foster care under the responsibility and care of the agency.
b) All special needs children, whether or not they were in the public foster care system prior to their adoption and for whom non-recurring expenses were reimbursed.
c) Children adopted for whom an adoption assistance payment or service is being provided based on arrangements with the State agency.

Adoptions prior to 10/1/94, with title IV-E adoption subsidies, report aggregate data (45 CFR 1355.40(a)(3)).

For children adopted out-of-State, the placing State reports the adoption data (45 CFR 1355.40(a)(3)).

Voluntarily reports on all other adoptions.    (Appendix B – Section II).

The State includes all adoptions of children that were in the State’s foster care system.

The State does not have adoption agreements with families adopting a special needs child through a private agency.

Not applicable

The State, correctly, does not include in its reporting population children placed in Maine from another State.

The State is not reporting on all other adoptions that may occur in the State.

Technical Requirements

2

45 CFR 1355.40(b) Foster care and adoption reporting requirements

The data must be extracted from the data system as of the last day of the reporting period (45 CFR 1355.40(b)(1)).

The data must be submitted in electronic form as described in Appendix C (45 CFR 1355.40(b)(1)).

The data must be in record layouts as delineated in Appendix D
 (45 CFR 1355.40(b)).

Correct for regular (R) data files, but not for subsequent (S) files.  Not all fields in MACWIS are stored to reflect what the circumstances were at any given time in the past.  Therefore, when an AFCARS subsequent file is sent to ACF the file will contain information known at the time of the resubmission and not at the time of the report period being submitted.  Example:   On June 1, 2003 the permanency goal was “adoption” and on February 1, 2005 the permanency goal is “long-term foster care.”  The State resubmits the 2003B data file on July 10, 2005, the resubmitted file will include the current goal of “long-term foster care” not the goal as of June 1, 2003.  The State must ensure that certain fields have history tables that stores older information.  The State also will need to revise the program code that extracts the AFCARS data file.

Correct

Correct

Appendix A, 45 CFR 1355 Foster Care Data Elements and Appendix B, 45 CFR 1355 Adoption Data Elements

State uses sequential numbering of the case record number or encrypts the record number.
Appendix C, 45 CFR 1355 Electronic Data Transmission Format

• Data file must be in ASCII format.
• Elements must be comprised of integer (numeric) value(s).
• All records must be a fixed length.

ACYF-PI-CB-95-09, Reissued May 23, 1995
State extracts all records based on the transaction date of discharge.

Technical Bulletin #2, File Format
State uses correct file name for transmission.

The State encrypts its record numbers.

Correct
Correct
Correct

Correct

Correct

Data Extraction

For children who are in care on the last day of the reporting period, information as of the last day of the period is extracted.

For children who were discharged during the period, information on the most recent episode is extracted.

Correct

The adoption extraction routine should extract all adopted children based on the legalization date within the report period.  The extraction routine should not extract information relevant to the child that occurs after the date of legalization.  The State should modify the program code by removing the condition for open and re-open cases.  The adoption file is to reflect only the information as of the date of legal finalization of the adoption.

Data Conversion

State transferred historical information on open cases.  Specifically, it included information on:  date of first removal, total number of removals, and whether the child’s mother was married at the time of the child’s birth.  If the case was open at the time of conversion, information on the number of placement settings was included.

The information system has the capability of recording historical information.  This should apply to both open cases in which historical information must be entered, and for closed cases that re-open after conversion and must be entered into the system.

The State converted data from the legacy system for open and closed cases back to 1997. 

The program code checks a history table that is incorporated into MACWIS.  The table contains the dates of previous removal dates, discharge dates and discharge reasons.  If this information is in the history table, it is used to populate the foster care data elements related to previous removals.