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).

The State Department of Human Services includes the Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) and the Division of Juvenile Justice Services (DJJS). DCFS is the title IV-B/E single State agency and it has an interagency agreement for title IV-E funds with the DJJS.

The State includes Tribal children in its reporting population. The State indicated there is a Tribal court, but it is rare that it will take the case.

Correct.

The State reports all children it has responsibility for that have been removed from their home for more than 24 hours. The State excludes records of children that have been in out-of-home care for less than 24 hours.

The State correctly excludes those children that are in their own home and for whom the State has “protective supervision.” However, there are instances that the State staff indicated the court will place a child in the care and placement responsibility of the agency, but the court orders the placement to be the child’s own home. The State also correctly excludes these records from the reporting population. On occasion, the child may be on runaway status, or run away after the agency has been given care and placement responsibility. The State currently excludes children on runaway status in this situation. The State must include those children in its responsibility for care and placement that are on “runaway” status.

The State’s policy indicates that a child may be returned home while under the agency’s care and placement responsibility for up to 60 days. The agency can extend this time frame.

The State’s age of majority is 18 but the State may retain legal custody of the youth up to the age of 21, specifically if the child has disabilities. Also, the State has a new transitional living initiative and youth do request to remain in the care and placement responsibility of the State in order to continue to receive services. The State is correctly reporting these youth over the age of 18 because they have legal custody of the child. The State also claims title IV-E funds for youth up to age 19 and includes these records in its AFCARS report.

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 is not currently including children adopted through private agencies in which the State agency has a signed adoption agreement for subsidies or services. The system currently cannot collect the data related to these adoptions.

The State has completed the development of the screens and plans to implement them the weekend of July 16 th. The State provided the review team with copies of the screens. No changes are recommended at this time. Post site - visit analysis: The State modified the program code to ensure that all applicable adoptions are reported to AFCARS.

N/A

The State does not include adoptions of children placed in their State by other public child welfare agencies.

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.

The State uses the transaction date as the basis for extracting the foster care cases. This is the “case begin entry date” and the “case end entry date.” Post site - visit analysis: Due to the change necessary to exclude records of children whose first and/or only placement is in a locked facility or a hospital, the selection logic was modified to extract based on the “removal entry date” rather than the “case entry transaction date.”

Technical Bulletin #2, File Format

State uses correct file name for transmission.

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.

Division of Juvenile Justice Services data file

Occasionally

Yes

Yes

The State DCFS agency receives a file from DJJS with the juvenile justice youth that come under the inter-agency agreement. The file is a flat ASCII file and is added to the end of the DCFS foster care file. The child welfare agency also compares the DJJS record identifier numbers to the DCFS numbers for duplication and to determine if the child also had a DCFS foster case that had been open during the report period. If one is found, the two records are combined based on the client identifier.

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 downloaded history information from the legacy mainframe to SAFE, the “history table.”

All open cases were converted including all the history, custody, the goal, the service episode, and placements.

The closed CPS cases were converted and the State is converting some of the out-of-home cases. For the CPS, the State converted cases from 1988 forward. The out of home cases were only converted from 1990 forward.

In the event that a closed case reopens, the extract code will search the “history table.” Also, workers can enter a note on the case history narrative screen indicating the child had previously been in foster care.