Conclusion

In summary, the State has implemented a good case management system that caseworkers are encouraged and expected to maintain as the official case record. The State must address the issues related to "historical" data and therapeutic foster care placements as soon as possible. These two areas contain crucial information pertaining to a child's experience with foster care and knowing where a child is actually placed twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Tab B contains the AFCARS Improvement Plan. The plan contains the AFCARS general requirements and the data elements that have been determined to not meet the requirements in the Federal regulations. Each has a matrix that contains a column for the task, the date the task is to be completed, and one for comments.

Within 30 days after the receipt of this report and the attached AFCARS Improvement plan, State staff are requested to contact the ACF Regional Office with proposed timeframes for implementing the improvement plan. The State and the ACF Regional Office (in conjunction with the Children's Bureau) will discuss the completion dates outlined by the State and negotiate the final due dates. The State should provide written quarterly updates to the Regional Office. Additionally, the State workplan for implementing the changes to the system and for caseworker training must be included in the State's title IV-B Annual Progress and Services Report as part of the information required in 45 CFR 1357.15(t) and 45 CFR 1357.16(a)(5).

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

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 State agree that the quality of the data is acceptable, the AFCARS Improvement Plan will be considered finished. Once all tasks and, if necessary, revisions based on the test cases, have been completed the State should submit the completed improvement plan to the ACF Regional Office. The State will receive a letter summarizing the final results of the review. No further on-site reviews will be conducted unless ACF receives information regarding the quality of the State's data and it is determined that an on-site visit is necessary.

The ACF Regional Office will work with the State to determine if technical assistance is needed, and available, to implement the AFCARS Improvement Plan. The State may obtain technical assistance from the Children's Bureau's National Resource Center for Information Technology in Child Welfare (NRC-ITCW). The Resource Center can be contacted at (877) NRC-ITCW (672-4892), or at its web page: http://www.nrccwdt.org. If you wish to request on-site technical assistance from the NRC-ITCW, contact your ACF Regional Office.

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