Child Care Bureau: CCDF Reporting, Revised Technical Bulletin #9, Using the ACF-801 Data Assessment Reports

Child Care and Development Fund, Using the ACF-801 Data Assessment Reports

Technical Bulletin #9r, revised February 2007

Using the ACF-801 Data Assessment Reports (Download in Word and PDF.)

I. Introduction | Section II: Overview of the CCBIS Data Check Process | Section III: The Summary Report | Section IV: The Detail Report |
Section V: Summary and Conclusions

IV. The Detail Report

The Detail Report provides information about individual case record errors. An error code key is printed at the top of the report, and the rest of the report lists the case records with errors. Only those records that contain errors are listed in this report. This report identifies exactly which records have errors in each county within the state. Grouping by FIPS codes facilitates the return of those records to the submitting county, where the case workers can correct the records according to the information in their files.

Detailed information on the standards used to determine errors may be found in Technical Bulletin #3r-v2: ACF-801 Case-Level Data Standards and Technical Bulletin #4r: ACF-801 Case-Level File Format.

		Error codes - for missing and out-of-range data
		Error codes for inconsistencies between elements: • #1-16 (Family data) • #17-25 (Child data) • #26-28 (Setting data)
County (per FIPS code)
Individual case records, organized by FIPS code/county. Family, child, and setting data are stacked below.

Individual Case Records in the Detail Report:

The Detail Report allows the user to examine each case record which was found to have an error. Figure E shows an example of a record as displayed on the Detail Report. This record demonstrates every type of error that may occur. An explanation of this record’s assessment follows below.

West County
					Elements (#1-28)
					Family	Child	Setting
Record Identifier					1111111	111222222	222
Rec	FIPS	Code Number	Fam SSN	Child SSN	1234567890123456	789012345	678
F C1 S1 S2	21007	00000000000A111	333444555	333555666	d.p.ppm.m......p	p1rrrrr2d	1..
F C1 S1 S2						Setting Format Wrong

Figure E: Sample Case Record (Explanation follows)

The information for each case record is organized as follows:

County: This is the submitting county, as identified by the FIPS Code (element #4) in the case record. The above example shows a record from West County.
Rec: The type of record for which error information is presented. In the far left of the heading are the codes F, C1, S1, etc. These indicate family, child, and setting record information, which is organized in several rows for each case record as follows:

F: The family record. This line contains record identifier information (the FIPS, case number, and family SSN) and family data information (elements #1-16).
C1: The child record for the first child in the family. This line contains information regarding the child’s SSN³ and also child data information (elements #17-25). Subsequent children would be indicated at C2, C3, etc.
S1: The setting record associated with the child. This line contains setting information for the child (elements #26-28). Any subsequent settings for this child would be indicated with an S2, S3, and so on. Each child record must have at least one setting record. The above case record had one child who was in two child care settings. If the family had a second child, this second child record would be indicated with a C2,followed by the number of settings in which the child received services (e.g., S1, S2). This arrangement would continue for any additional children and corresponding settings.

FIPS: The FIPS Code indicated in element #4 of the record (in the above example, the FIPS Code for West County is 21007).
Case Number: The unique state identifier for the case (element #2).
Fam SSN: The Social Security Number (element #3) for the Head of Family.⁴
Child SSN: The Social Security Number for the child (element # 17) in the report.

Elements #1-28: Family, Child, Setting: The numbers for the data elements for family, child, and setting data. Error codes, if any, appear under the corresponding data element number as listed in this heading. Elements with two digits are listed vertically. For example, element #15 is indicated by a 5 with a 1 above it.

Error Codes: Error codes may be associated with any data element (#1-28). Missing data are indicated by a “1” under the corresponding data element and out-of-range errors are denoted by a “2.” Inconsistencies among data elements relating to dates, protective services cases, monetary amounts, and race/ethnicity are denoted by a “d”, “p”, “m”, and “r”, respectively (see Tables 4 and 5).

Error Code

Error Definition

Issues to Address

1 = Missing Data

Where there was no value (contains all blanks).

If the value for an element is missing, then the remaining sequence of data quality checks (the out-of-range, internal inconsistency, and cross file checks) are not conducted.

Send the records to the submitting county/local agency where the caseworkers in charge of the files can verify and/or correct the information.

If a sizable number of records need correction, this may be due to a problem with the extraction or mapping of the data.

2 = Out-of-Range Error

Where the values entered for a data element are outside the typical range of values for the data.

If the value for an element is out-of-range, the remaining checks (the internal consistency check and the cross file checks) are not conducted on the data.

Send the records to the submitting county/local agency where the caseworkers in charge of the files can verify and/or correct the information.

If a sizable number of records need correction, this may be due to a problem with the extraction or mapping of the data.

Error

Code

Inconsistent Data Standard

(See also Technical Bulletin #3r-v2)

Issues to Address

(Date)

When there is inconsistency in elements relating to dates: Report Period (element #1), Date Child Care Began (#8), and Month/Year of Child’s Birth (#25).

To avoid an inconsistency error involving dates, both the month/year of the start date for child care assistance to the family (#8), and the month/year of child’s birth (#25), must precede or be equal to the month/year of the report period (#1).

Send the records to the submitting county/local agency, where the caseworkers in charge of the files can verify and/or correct the information.

If a sizable number of records need correction, this may be due to a problem with the extraction or mapping of the data.

(Protective

Service)

Where there is an inconsistency in the values for those elements relating to protective services: Head of Family SSN (#3), Single Parent (#5), Reason for Receiving Services (#6), Family Size (#16), and Child SSN (#17).

This type of inconsistency error occurs when the data in the record indicate that a child is reported as the head of family -- a value of “9” for Single Parent (#5); in this case it must also follow that:

- The reason for receiving subsidized child care (#6) is that the child is in protective services (a value of “4” or “9”)

- The family size (#16) is one (1)

- The SSN reported for the head of family (#3) is the same as the SSN reported for the child (#17)

Send the records to the submitting county/local agency, where the caseworkers in charge of the files can verify and/or correct the information.

If a sizable number of records need correction, this may be due to a problem with the extraction or mapping of the data.

(Monetary)

Where there is an inconsistency in the values reported for the elements relating to monetary values: Total Monthly Child Care Co-payment by Family (#7), Total Monthly Income for Determining Eligibility (#9), and Total Monthly Amount Paid to Provider (#27).

In order to avoid inconsistency errors related to dollar amounts:

- Total Monthly Child Care Co-payment by Family (#7) must be less than the sum of the Total Monthly Amount Paid to Provider (#27) for all the settings of all the children in the family, and

- Total Monthly Child Care Co-payment by family (#7) must also be less than the Total Monthly Income for Determining Eligibility (#9).

Send the records to the submitting county/local agency, where the caseworkers in charge of the files can verify and/or correct the information.

If a sizable number of records need correction, this may be due to a problem with the extraction or mapping of the data.

(Race/

Ethnicity)

Hispanic Ethnicity (#18) must be marked either “Yes” or “No.”

At least one of the race categories (items # 19-23) also must be marked Yes. If none of these elements is answered “Yes,” an inconsistency error is generated.

Send the records to the submitting county/local agency, where the caseworkers in charge of the files can verify and/or correct the information.

If a sizable number of records need correction, this may be due to a problem with the extraction or mapping of the data.

Table 5: Internal Inconsistency Codes (Detail Report)

The following description refers to errors demonstrated in Figure E:

The date given for the report period (#1) came prior to the date given for the child’s month/date of birth (element #25) thus triggering a “d” error code to indicate a violation of the consistency standard for those elements.
The “p” under the elements relating to protective service cases (#3, #5, #6, #16, and #17) indicates that there is inconsistency among these elements. When elements #5 and #6 indicate that the record is a protective service case with the child listed as the head of the family, it is internally consistent for the Social Security Numbers of the child and the head of family to be the same. However, in this example, the record indicates a single parent with training as the reason for receiving child care. This information is inconsistent with having the Social Security Numbers of the child and the head of family being the same.
The value given for the total monthly co-payment by the family (element #7) exceeded the total monthly income (element #9), resulting in an “m” error code under those elements.
There was no answer given for the ethnicity element (#18), resulting in an error code of “1” (missing) under that element.
There was not at least one “1” for race elements (#19-23), violating the standard that at least one of these elements be answered yes (value=1), resulting in an “r” (race/ethnicity) error code under those elements.
The value given for child gender (#24) was out-of-range (i.e., a value other than 1 for male, or 2 for female), incurring a “2” (out-of-range) error code.
There was no answer given for the type of child care (#26), resulting in an error code of “1” (missing) under that element.
The “Setting Format Wrong” message for the S2 data indicates a file formatting error for the second setting record. As a result, no data quality checks were conducted on the data in that setting record.

Figure F: Explanation of the Sample Case Record shown in Figure E

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³ Child SSN and Family SSN may be the same in certain protective services cases where the child is considered the head of the family. Return to Text

⁴Child SSN and Family SSN may be the same in certain protective services cases where the child is considered the head of the family. Return to Text

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V. Summary and Conclusions >>