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Examples of Case Record Submissions
Example 1: Suppose a family has two children receiving child care assistance during the month. The first child is in one child care setting during the month. The second child is in two settings, with the second setting missing the information for Element 28: Total Hours of Child Care per Month (Setting #2). A record having the following format would be submitted (delimiters are in bold):
Example 2: Suppose a family has one child receiving child care assistance during the month. This child is in one child care setting. A record having the following format would be submitted:
7.9 Missing and Numeric Data Elements in Family Records
Although the number of families, children, and settings will vary in each submission, the space allocated to each group of elements remains the same. The family data is always allotted 61 positions; each child is allotted 23 positions and each setting 10. If the State is missing a data element for a record, blanks should be inserted in its place. For example, if the state is missing data element 08: Month/Year Child Care Assistance Started for one family, 6 spaces should be included in the record. Likewise, if element 28: Total Hours of Care Provided in Month were unavailable for one setting, the state would insert three blanks. This rule also applies to optional data elements such as 17: Child's Social Security Number. If the state does not provide a child's social security number, nine blanks should be inserted into the record immediately following the C.
Numeric data such as counts or dollars should be right justified in the space allocated for the element and padded with zeros to fill the field. For example, element 9: Total Monthly Family Income for Determining Eligibility is allocated 5 positions. If, for example, family income were $ 980, the amount would be formatted as '00980'. This standard also is used for element 2: Unique State Identifier; if this optional data element is supplied, the characters should be right justified and padded with zeros to fill out the 15 spaces allocated for the element. In summary, this formatting standard applies to the following elements:
02: Unique State Identifier
16: Family Size
07: Total Monthly Child Care Co-payment by Family
09: Total Monthly Family Income for Determining Eligibility
27: Total Monthly Amount Paid to Provider
28: Total Hours of Care Provided in Month
8.9 Footnotes
Footnotes are included at the states' option. States are encouraged to submit footnotes to clarify the data. Each footnote has the following format:
| Data Element Description |
Format |
Length |
Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
Delimiter identifying footnote |
N |
1 |
This delimiter identifies the following record as a footnote. |
Footnote Reference |
Number |
2 |
This references the data element on which the state is submitting an explanation. It can range from '01' for the first data element in the ACF-801 (the report period) to '28' for the last data element (Total Hours of Care Provided in a Month). States can also submit footnotes that refer to the whole file. In this case, the reference is '00'. |
Footnote Body |
Character |
No limit |
The text of the state remarks. |
Record Delimiter |
%% |
2 |
These characters indicate the end of a footnote record. |
The last submitted record on families and children receiving subsidized child care is either followed by:
- The optional footnotes for the month, if the state chooses to submit footnotes; or
- The monthly summary file for the following month, if the state is submitting three months at once; or
- The "&" (end of file delimiter) if this is the last record in the ACF-801 data submission.
Following is an example of a correctly formatted footnote (delimiters are in bold):
N17This state does not currently collect information on ethnicity as a separate data element from race. %%
9.9 Formatting Guidance For States Unable To Submit Data In A Variable Record Length Format
Some states employ software tools that will not allow child care data to be formatted in the variable length format described above. ACF gives these states the option to allocate fixed fields for every submitted record and submit ACF-801 data in the alternative format described below:
- Data for each family, child, and setting must follow the formatting rules described previously in this document. Data elements must be in the same order, and the same delimiters ("F", "C", "S", and "$") used. See above for additional information about the standard delimiters.
- The state should define each record so that it includes:
- Allocation for one family.
- Allocation for a maximum of 15 children per family. The State may allocate space for fewer than 15 children if desired.
- Allocation for a maximum of 5 settings per child. The State may allocate space for fewer than 5 settings per child if desired.
- Each record should begin with the family information, followed by the first child and the five associated settings, followed by the second child and the associated settings. This allocation continues up to the 15th child (if the state chooses to allocate that much space per family). This space is allocated even if not used for a specific family.
- A new delimiter, an asterisk "*", is used to mark all allocated but unused space for children and settings. Unused space should be filled with blanks or zeros and be the correct length for a child (23) or setting (10).
Following is an example of a state's (or territory's) family record in a fixed record length. The maximum allowable record space is allocated. The first child has three settings and the second child has two settings:
F (60 characters of data)C (22 characters of data for child 1)S(9 characters of data for setting 1)S(9 characters of data for setting 2)S(9 characters of data for setting 3)*(9 blanks for setting 4) )*(9 blanks for setting 5)C (22 characters of data for child 2)S(9 characters of data for setting 1)S(9 characters of data for setting 2)*(9 blanks for setting 3)*(9 blanks for setting 4)*(9 blanks for setting 5)*(22 blanks for child 3)*(9 blanks for setting 1)*(9 blanks for setting 2) *(9 blanks for setting 3) *(9 blanks for setting 4) *(9 blanks for setting 5)... *(22 blanks for child 15)*(9 blanks for setting 1)*(9 blanks for setting 2) *(9 blanks for setting 3) *(9 blanks for setting 4) *(9 blanks for setting 5)$
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