Effective January 21, 1994, the federal regulations at 45 CFR 1355.40 implemented Section 479 of title IV-E of the Social Security Act . These regulations are more commonly known as the "AFCARS regulations" and include appendices, such as the data dictionary, error standards, and the penalty amounts that a title IV-E agency may be assessed if found out of compliance with the AFCARS standards. On January 6, 2012, Interim Final Rules were published that implement amendments made to title IV-E. As a result of these amendments, conforming changes were made to the AFCARS regulations (including the appendices) to ensure that the same requirements for data collection and reporting apply to a tribal title IV-E agency as are currently applied to a state title IV-E agency.
The Children’s Bureau also has issued the following policy documents:
- Children's Bureau's Child Welfare Policy Manual, Section 1, AFCARS.
- ACYF-PI-CB-95-09 (REVISED), Methods of Extracting Data for Submission to AFCARS (issued May 23, 1995)
- ACYF-CB-PI-01-07, Change in the State AFCARS File Name (issued May 4, 2001)
The Children’s Bureau issued the following documents to supplement the information in the federal regulations and provide additional guidance and assistance to state and tribal title IV-E agencies in developing, implementing, and maintaining their AFCAR Systems.
AFCARS Resources
Technical bulletins, software utilities, Federal Information Processing Standards Codes, and Disability/Special Needs Code Table.
- Technical Bulletins
- Technical Assistance (includes software utilities)