Population Requirements

Rating Factor
2

Requirement

Finding/Notes

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).

The State reports on all children for whom it has responsibility for placement, care, or supervision.

Some counties have title IV-E interagency agreements with Indian Tribes and/or with the Department of Corrections.  These children are included in the AFCARS report.

The State is including in the reporting population Native American children that are in the State’s responsibility for placement and care.

The State is incorrectly including Tribal children that it or the county does not have care and placement responsibility for, but for whom the county provides funds for the placement of the child.  The State needs to exclude these records from the AFCARS reporting population. 

In those instances in which the county and the Tribe have joint custody of the child, these records are to be included in the reporting population. 

The State correctly excludes children placed in Minnesota from other State public agencies.

The program code correctly extracts records for children that have been in care for 24 hours or more. 

The State does not include a child until he/she has been removed from home.

On August 1, 2005 legislation was passed allowing the agency to have “trial home visits.”  The State has implemented codes and training for the use of this “setting.’  (See foster care findings.)  The State can return a child to his/her home and retain responsibility for placement and care for up to six months. 

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 also provides services to youth through a voluntary arrangement after the age of 18.  The State incorrectly includes these youth in AFCARS.  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.  Post site-visit analysis:  The State modified the program code to exclude youth that are 19 or older at the start of the report period.  (LN 217)

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 is not currently including children adopted through private agencies in which the State agency has a signed adoption agreement for subsidies or services. 

Yes

Yes

The State is not reporting adoptions in which there is no State agency involvement.

Technical Requirements

4

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

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.

The State encrypts its client identifier 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.

Correct

Correct

Correct

ACYF-PI-CB-95-09, Reissued May 23, 1995

State extracts all records based on the transaction date of discharge.

Yes

Technical Bulletin #2, File Format

State uses correct file name for transmission.

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

Correct

File Creation

State attaches footnotes to files.

State is using proper format for the creation of footnotes.

State uses DCU and DQU on its data file.

Yes, on occasion.

Yes

Yes

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 all open and closed cases as of January 1, 1995.  If a case was closed prior to that date and the child re-enters foster care, the system supports the entry of the historical data.

Counties that had an information system did an automated conversion on data that existed in the system.  The remaining counties manually entered entered information on open and closed cases.  The conversion process relied heavily on county staff following detailed instructions for coding data, running conversion programs, and correcting data errors.

The accuracy of this information is dependent on all counties having entered prior removal episodes.  If a case was closed prior to January 1995 and the child re-enters foster care in a  different county it may be some time before all of this data, if ever, gets entered into SSIS.  The State is relying on the family letting a worker know the child had been foster care previously.  There also is reliance that the original county(ies) staff will enter the data once notified the child has reentered care.