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The Children's Bureau Data Analytics and Reporting Team held their second AFCARS Open Office Hours for 2023. These sessions are for state and tribal program administrators, child welfare data leaders, and information system programmers. It provides an opportunity to ask questions specific to your agency's implementation of AFCARS 2020. The February session covered the recent changes in Technical Bulletins 20, 21, 22, and 23, as well as additional information presented by the NCWDMS team on how to participate in the pilot and use the National Child Welfare Data Management System (NCWDMS) for AFCARS 2020 reporting.
This technical bulletin provides title IV-E agencies with information on the standards an AFCARS data file must meet to comply with the provisions of the AFCARS regulations found at 45 CFR §1355.41— §1355.47. This technical bulletin was last revised on October 6, 2023.
This Program Instruction (PI) clarifies program instruction on methods of extracting data for submission to the federal adoption and foster care analysis and reporting system (AFCARS).
This Program Instruction (PI) provides instruction to States on the June 30, 2002 submission of the Annual Progress and Services Report required under title IV-B of the Social Security Act (the Act), the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, and the Chafee Foster Care Independence Program; and the CFS-101, Annual Budget Request and Annual Summary of Child and Family Services.
This Program Instruction (PI) provides information regarding Adoption Assistance Agreements entered into, on or after October 1, 1983 in which the interests of the child must be adequately protected, regardless of the State of residence of the adoptive parents at any given time.
Diligent Recruitment of Families for Children in the Foster Care System: Challenges and Recommendations for Policy and Practice describes how child welfare agencies can improve diligent recruitment practices and services for resource families. It is based on grantee final reports and published research and presents activities undertaken by grantees, lessons learned, and suggestions for improvement.
This technical bulletin provides agencies with information required to create the AFCARS data files. It provides technical specifications on the structural layout of the XML data and shares the XML schema for the Out-of-Home Care File and the Adoption and Guardianship Assistance File. It also covers information on encryption of the file records. This Technical Bulletin was last revised on October 10, 2023.
The DCU contains the same data compliance checks as the federal AFCARS and creates a report showing if a title IV-E AFCARS file meets federal standards.
This webpage includes the documentation from Tennessee's Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) assessment review for fiscal year 2013: