Resource Library

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 webinar was a part of the AFCARS Final Rule Training Series. For this webinar, the Children's Bureau shared a revised version of Technical Bulletin 23: Compliance and Data Quality.  

This webinar was the seventh session in the AFCARS Final Rule Training Series. For this webinar, the Children's Bureau shared two new Technical Bulletins: 

• Technical Bulletin 22: Reporting Population and Data Extraction
• Technical Bulletin 23: Compliance and Data Quality

And a revised version of the previously released Technical Bulletin 21: File Structure and Encryption. There was also an opportunity to continue to ask questions so that the Children’s Bureau may develop relevant technical assistance resources.   We encourage you to submit any questions to AFCARS@acf.hhs.gov.

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 webinar described Idaho's and Arizona's experiences implementing child welfare information systems using Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) cloud computing. The state panelists shared their experiences and took questions from participants regarding their state solution architecture, cloud solution procurements, cloud vendor management, solution implementation, and user experience.

This webinar, sponsored by the Children’s Bureau’s Division of State Systems, features Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System leadership staff from four states in a panel discussion about managing project scope.

Through the webinar series, “Back to Basics”, the Division of State Systems within the Children’s Bureau, is offering a venue for information sharing and discussion. The second webinar of the series, “The Child Welfare Information Technology System Project Lifecycle, Part 1”, reviews the initial project stages including planning, procurement, relationship management and effective management of priorities, with two experienced child welfare Information System managers sharing their perspectives.

Through the webinar series, “Back to Basics”, the Division of State Systems within the Children’s Bureau, is offering a venue for information sharing and discussion. The third webinar of the series, “The Child Welfare Information Technology System Project Lifecycle, Part 2”, reviews the project stages including implementation, maintenance and operation, and Federal requirements.

This webinar, sponsored by the Children's Bureau's Division of State Systems (DSS) builds on guidance set forth in Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information Systems (SACWIS) Technical Bulletin #1: Action Plan Guidance and Examples issued in December, 2005. This webinar provided direction on how to construct an action plan, identified common pitfalls and benefits of action plans and described the tracking process for action plans.

This DSS presentation describes the Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS) Data Exchange Requirements as defined by Federal Regulations 45 CFR 1355.52(e), 1355.52(f), and 1355.54.  Both mandatory and optional data exchanges are covered in this presentation.