Executive Summary

From April 29 - May 2, 2002 staff of the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Region I, and the Office of Information Services (OIS) conducted an assessment review of Vermont's Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS). The AFCARS reporting period under review was April 1, 2001 through September 30, 2001.

Two major areas are assessed as part of an AFCARS assessment review: the AFCARS general requirements and data elements. The general requirements include the population that is to be reported to AFCARS and the technical requirements for constructing a data file. The data elements are assessed on the basis of whether the State is meeting the AFCARS definitions for the information required, if the correct data is being entered and extracted, and the quality of the data submitted. Each of the 103 foster care and adoption data elements is rated on the basis of its compliance with the requirements in the AFCARS regulation, policy guidance, and technical bulletins. Information that is collected from each of the components of the review is combined to rate each data element. A scale of one (does not meet AFCARS standards) to four (fully meets AFCARS standards) is used to assign a factor to each element. The general information requirements are also assessed and rated separately using the same scale.

Strengths identified by the Federal review team during the review include:

A very dedicated staff and good working relationship between technical and program staff.
There were no areas found to be in full non-compliance.
A significant percentage of the foster care and adoption elements were in full compliance.
The State is in full compliance with the population and technical general requirements.

During the on-site visit and between the time of the on-site review and the issuance of this report, the State's information systems staff made corrections to the program code that maps and extracts the AFCARS data. This report and the AFCARS Improvement Plan reflect those changes. As a result of the modifications made to the system, the rating factors for some of the elements were changed.

The majority of required changes to the system are minor. The largest area that warrants the State's attention involves monitoring the data for continuous improvement and providing training to the caseworkers. The primary areas that require changes in the program code and screen design include the collection of disability information and circumstances associated with a child's removal from home. The State has a plan in place to implement a "health history screen" by the fall of 2002. This screen should greatly enhance the reliability of the data reported on disabilities.

A summary of the significant findings is included in the report, and detailed findings can be found in the "Detailed Findings Matrices" for the foster care and adoption data elements, and the general requirements (See Tab A). The minimum tasks that are required to correct the State's reporting of the AFCARS data are included in the AFCARS Improvement Plan (Tab B).

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 to set due dates for completing the tasks in the improvement plan. Test cases will be provided to the State once all of the required changes have been completed. Dates for the submission of the extracted test data file will be arranged with the ACF Regional Office and OIS. Once ACF and the State agree that the quality of the data is acceptable, the AFCARS Improvement Plan will be considered finished, and a letter will be sent to the State from the Children's Bureau confirming this fact. The letter will include a summary of the actions taken by the State and the completed AFCARS improvement plan. No further on-site reviews will be conducted unless ACF receives information questioning the quality of the State's data, and it is determined that an on-site visit is necessary.

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