Utah AFCARS Assessment Review Report

Findings

This section provides the major findings resulting from the review of the State’s AFCARS data collection. Tab A provides detailed information on the findings for the general AFCARS requirements, each of the foster care and adoption data elements, and the case file review. The AFCARS data used for the review were from the report period October 1, 2004 - March 31, 2005.

As part of the post-site visit analysis, the State’s documents, the data, the case file review findings, team member notes, the States’ corrected program code, and the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJS) program code for their Access database were assessed to make the final determination of findings. As a result, the original rating factors were modified from those given at the end of the on-site review. The findings matrix in Tab A reports the previous rating with a “strike-through” mark on it, and the new rating. The AFCARS Improvement Plan in Tab B contains the final rating factor.

There were several instances where the Division of Family and Children Services’ (DFCS) program code and data quality were compliant, but the program code and/or data quality for DJJS were not. Overall, DCFS is accountable for the accuracy of the AFCARS data. Therefore, the findings are applied regardless of which of the two program codes or data sets were incorrect. However, in certain instances where the quality of the data was a result of inaccuracies in the DJJS data, the findings were separated.

General Requirement Standards

For AFCARS reporting purposes, children that are in the State’s responsibility for care and placement whose first, and/or only, placement is in a locked facility or a hospital, the State should not include this child’s record in AFCARS. If the child moves from the these settings to a “traditional” foster care setting, then at this time the child’s record is to be included for reporting purposes and the date of removal would reflect the first “traditional” foster care setting. The State was including these situations in its AFCARS. The State has modified the program code and ACF will review and monitor the data to ensure accuracy.

Also, the staff noted that there are instances when a child is placed in the care and placement responsibility of the agency, but the child may be on runaway status, or runs away after the agency has care and placement responsibility, but before the child is taken to the foster care setting. The State currently excludes children on runaway status in this situation. The State must include these youth in its foster care population at the time of becoming a runaway.

The standards for the adoption population require that the State submit all adoptions that it has involvement with either due to the child being in its foster care system and/or one in which there is an adoption agreement. The State has adoption agreements with, and provides subsidies to, families that adopted a special needs child through a private agency. The State is not including these adoptions in AFCARS, and must begin doing so immediately.

Data Elements

In general, the State has additional minor technical corrections to make to the program code. There are several corrections that need to be made to the collection of data and mapping done by the DJJS. Many of these changes also are minor. The more significant areas requiring changes are listed below. The staff had identified all of these and the changes are in the development stage. Mostly, these changes will involve modifications to the screens in SAFE.

Circumstances associated with a child’s removal from home (foster care elements #26 - 40)

This area includes several elements; however, once the change is made it will affect all of the elements at once. The agency staff indicated that the collection of this data is being changed.

Currently, information is entered in multiple places in the system and the program code extracts the data from each of the locations. A new screen will contain a list of conditions and the worker will select all those that are associated with a child’s removal.

Foster Parent Information (Foster care elements #49 - 55)

This is another area where the State is currently making changes in the way it will collect and record the information. The State is able to track clients in contracted “umbrella” agency foster homes, but is currently unable to identify and record demographic data for these foster parents in SAFE. According to the State, this inability to capture “umbrella” agency foster parents’ demographic information is due to the lack of appropriate fields within SAFE to capture the information, the lack of access by “umbrella” agency staff, and the failure of “umbrella” agency staff to provide this information. The State needs to develop a method of identifying and recording required demographic information for contracted “umbrella” agency foster parents in the SACWIS application.

The State is developing and will be implementing the collection of this information. According to the State, it should be implemented in the spring of 2006.

Case plan goal (foster care element #43)

The State is currently planning enhancements to this module. The enhancements will allow workers to justify the selection of “other planned living arrangement.” Depending on the case worker’s reason, the goal will either be mapped to “emancipation” or “long term foster care.”

Data Quality

Once the above elements are corrected, the quality of the data will need to be assessed. In some instances, training regarding new fields or screens will have to be implemented. In addition to these elements, the quality of the data for an additional 22 foster care elements needs to improve. One way to address accuracy of the data is through additional training and supervisory oversight. The State needs to incorporate ongoing data quality assurance to ensure that the data are correct and consistent.

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