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 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 is an overview presentation on the AFCARS final rule.

This is a brief presentation on the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) soliciting comments and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposing to provide an additional two fiscal years to comply with the AFCARS requirements in the December 2016 final rule that were published in the Federal Register on March 15, 2018.

The Children's Bureau Data Analytics and Reporting Team held their final 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 April session covered questions and answers, as well as updates from NCWDMS.

The Children's Bureau Data Analytics and Reporting Team held an AFCARS Open Office Hours for the implementation of AFCARS 2020 in December 2022. This session was for state and tribal program administrators, child welfare data leaders, and information system programmers. It was an opportunity to ask questions specific to an agency's implementation. Below is the slide deck of the question and answers that were presented during the session.