Resource Library

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.

This short, 30-minute technical training video is created by The Children's Bureau Data Analytics and Reporting Team and gives a brief demonstration which describes basic XML concepts.

The Children's Bureau Data Analytics and Reporting Team held their third 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 March session covered frequently asked questions and answers, updates from the NCWDMS pilot, and updates regarding the upcoming AFCARS 2020 reporting period.

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.

The Children's Bureau Data Analytics and Reporting Team held their first AFCARS Open Office Hours in 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 January session was 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 described the Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS) Technical Assistance Review Process. It began with an overview of the lessons learned from the Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS) review process. The presentation described the iterative review process and it explains the use of self-assessment tools. As of this presentation, some self-assessment tools were available for public comment and others were in development.

This webinar explained how states are using remote/distance training and learning for CCWIS rollout and implementation. This webinar session provided an overview of key strategies for effective and engaging distance learning models for training and onboarding of new staff. State panelists shared lessons learned with using virtual reality during the onboarding and training process as well as lessons learned from quickly pivoting from in-person training to virtual training due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This webinar, featuring Terry Watt (Director, Division of State Systems), Nicole Harter-Shafer (Federal Analyst, Division of State Systems), and Nick Gompper (contracted technology specialist), provided technical assistance about cloud service computing models.  The webinar distinguished between Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service, Software-as-a-Service, and Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) solutions and the webinar included items to consider when evaluating solutions for a specific title IV-E agency need.  In addition, Terry Watt and Nicole Harter-Shafer provided technical assistance about selecting a solution, when to use a COTS waiver, and sole-source justification.  The webinar included several question and answer sessions throughout the presentation.

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 state panel discussion, featuring Alabama, District of Columbia, and Wisconsin, discussed sharing child welfare and education data to improve practice and outcomes. Panelists shared the history of their exchanges along with future visions for their exchanges. In addition, panelists discussed the lessons learned from building relationships between child welfare agencies and education agencies and developing data exchanges between them. The panel included several question and answer sessions throughout the presentation.