Child Care Bureau: Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF)

Child Care and Development Fund

Technical Bulletin #9

Please Note: Technical Bulletin Number Nine has been superseded by a revision of Technical Bulletin Number Nine, published February 2007.

Using the ACF-801 Data Assessment Reports (also in Word and PDF)
FINAL: November 18, 1998

I. Introduction

This Technical Bulletin describes how to use the Summary Data Assessment Report ("Summary Report"), and the Detail Data Assessment Report ("Detail Report"), which States will receive after submitting their ACF-801 case-level data to the Federal Child Care Information System (CCIS).

The Summary and Detail Reports will assist States in correcting data submissions by providing information about submission errors as a whole, as well as about individual case records. The data submitted by States will be reported to Congress by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, used in national child care research, and may serve as the basis for programmatic decisions at the Federal and State level. Thus, it is important that your State’s data be accurate and complete.

This Bulletin is organized into the following sections:

Section II: Overview of the CCIS Data Check Process
A brief walk-through of the data checks conducted by the CCIS.

Section III: The Summary Report
Results of the data checks on the submission as a whole are found in the Summary Report.

Part A: File Format Assessment
Part B: Submission Summary
Part C: Data Quality Assessment
Part D: Cross File Checks

Section IV: The Detail Report
Results of the data checks on individual records are presented in the Detail Report. Detailed information on the standards used to determine errors may be found in Technical Bulletin #3 (Revised): ACF-801 Case-Level Data Standards and Technical Bulletin #4 (Revised): ACF-801 Case-Level File Format.

II. Overview of the CCIS Data Check Process

Once data are transmitted to the CCIS, the data are passed through a series of checks to validate the formatting and the content of the data. The checks are conducted in the following order (and data must pass each check before proceeding to the next):

File Format Check - checks the length of the records and determines whether all the necessary parts for each record are present. (See Technical Bulletin #4 for the file standards used.) The actual content of the data is not checked at this stage.
Data Quality Check - checks the content of properly formatted records. (See Technical Bulletin #3 for further discussion of the data standards used.) If at any stage data fail the check, then the remaining sequence of data quality checks are not conducted on the data (for instance, if in a properly formatted record the data for an element are missing, then the out-of-range, internal consistency, and cross file checks are not conducted for that data):
- Missing - checks the data in properly formatted files to ensure that there are values present (rather than blanks) for the required data elements.
- Out-of-range - checks to ensure that the data which passed the file format and missing checks are within the range of valid values.
- Internal inconsistency - checks to ensure that values of data elements which passed the file format, missing, and out-of-range checks are consistent with related data elements.
Cross File Check - checks all the data in the entire submission and determines whether the characteristics of the data submission conform to standards that are generally true of child care programs, though they may not be true for individual States.

III. The Summary Report

The Summary Report presents the results of the CCIS Data Checks described in Section II. (For information about individual records, check the Detail Report, discussed in Section IV, below.) The results presented here can help you find and correct errors in your submission, and also determine any possible problems with mapping or extraction of data.

Part A: File Format Assessment

The File Format Assessment in the Summary Report presents the results of the formatting check (an example of a File Format Assessment is displayed in Figure A, below). Here, each record is checked against the file format standards, as found in Technical Bulletin #4(Revised).

File Format Assessment

2 Family records have the wrong format
0 Child records have the wrong format
2 Setting records have the wrong format

0 Families were submitted without any children
0 Children were submitted without any settings
0 Family records with blank case identifiers and SSNs

Figure A: File Format Assessment

See Table 1 on the following page for a list of the messages that appear in the File Format Assessment, what each message means, and possible ways to address issues brought up by each.

Error message	File Format Standard	Issues to Address
# Family records have the wrong format	Each family record should begin with an "F" delimiter, followed by 58 record positions with family data.	Check the record for the following: - The record length is either too short or too long due to missing data, incorrectly placed data or extra values. - The "F" delimiter may be missing. If all the records in the submission are incorrectly formatted, this may indicate a problem with mapping or extraction of the data.
# Child records have the wrong format	Each child record should begin with a "C" delimiter and start at the 60^th position in the record, followed by 22 record positions with child data.	Check for an error with respect to record length or the delimiter (see above).
# Setting records have the wrong format	Each setting record should begin with an "S" delimiter, followed by 9 record positions with setting data.	Check for an error with respect to record length or the delimiter (see above).
# Families were submitted without any children	Each record (which represents a household receiving subsidized child care) must contain one family record and at least one child record.	Check the logic of your extraction routine to see why no children were associated with the family. The Detail Report (discussed in Section IV) will indicate which specific record(s) lack child data.
# Children were submitted without any settings	Each child record must have at least one setting record.	Check the logic of your extraction routine to see why there are no child care settings recorded for the child. The Detail Report (discussed in Section IV) will indicate which specific record(s) lack setting data.
# Family records with blank case identifiers and SSNs	Each family record must contain a SSN and/or a case identifier. When both are missing, it will not be possible to distinguish this record from the others, so no data quality check will be performed on this data.	Check your extraction routine to insure it is capturing SSNs and/or case identifiers for each family. Also, check that every family in your system has an SSN and/or case identifier. Records without identifiers will not appear in the Detail Report as there is no way to easily reference the record.

Table 1: File Format Assessment Messages (Part A)

Part B: Submission Summary

The Submission Summary contains information from two different parts of the ACF-801 file. In Figure B, below, notice the first line is:

Families receiving subsidized child care (per summary record): 2730

As indicated, the total number of families served during the month is taken from the header record that precedes the State’s case-level submission. Other information in the Submission Summary, are counts of records accepted for processing by the Federal Child Care Information System (CCIS) after the file format checks are run (see Figure B, below). Any family, child, or setting record that fails the file format checks is not counted. Only correctly formatted records will be checked for data quality, the results of which appear in the next section, Data Quality Assessment.

NOTE: If a State submits a full population, and if all family records are properly formatted, the number of families reported in the header record should equal the count of families performed by the Federal CCIS. If a State submits sample data, the two numbers will differ, as in the example below).

Submission Summary
Families receiving subsidized child care (per summary record): 2730
Families: 198
Children: 350
Settings: 398
Footnotes: 2

Figure B: Submission Summary

See Table 2 on the following page for a list of the messages that appear in the Submission Summary, what each message means, and possible ways to address these issues.

Error Message	Indication	Issues to Address
Families receiving subsidized child care (per summary record):	The number listed here is the same as that on the summary record. ("M199804000273000334#Jane Smith#(703) 555-1234 ext.666#(703) 555-9876#jsmith@dhr.anystate.us.")	If this number does not equal the number of families receiving subsidized child care during the reported month, correct the number and re-submit the data.
Families:	The number of properly formatted family records counted by the system, which are then submitted for the data quality checks (any invalid/improperly formatted family records are not included here).	Check to see if the number of family records indicated here is consistent with the estimated number of families listed in the submission summary (unless your State submitted sample data, in which case there should be approximately 200 families).
Children:	The number of properly formatted child records that were counted by the system and submitted for data quality checks.	Check the number of child records listed here against the figures for your State’s child care program.
Settings:	The number of properly formatted setting records that were submitted for a data quality check.	Check the number of setting records here against the figures for your State’s child care program.
Footnotes:	The footnotes that were counted. (These too must be correctly formatted, beginning with an N and indicating which data element to which it refers. See Technical Bulletin #4.)	If this number does not equal the number of footnotes your State intended to submit, examine the footnotes to locate the problem, correct it, and re-submit.

Table 2: Submission Summary Messages (Part B)

Part C: Data Quality Assessment

The Data Quality Assessment contains the results of data quality checks on the data for missing, out-of-range, or internally inconsistent values (an example of a section of the Data Quality Assessment is displayed in Figure C, below).

Figure C: Data Quality Assessment
The columns listed in this section are as follows:

Data Element: The 27 data elements for the ACF-801, listed in the first column. They are grouped into three sections beginning with the "Family Data" section (listing elements #1-15), Child Data (elements #16-24), and Setting Data (elements #25-27).

Missing data: The number of records containing no values (blanks) for a data element.

Out-of-range: The number of records where values for the data element were present but outside the allowable range of values according to the CCIS data standards (see Technical Bulletin #3).

Internally Inconsistent: The number of records where values for a data element were entered and in the correct range of values, but which conflict with the values for another, related element (see Technical Bulletin #3).

Total Errors: The total number of missing, out-of-range, and inconsistent errors found for that element.

Subject Records: The number of records that were tested for data quality errors. The number of family, child, and setting records should be the same as those listed in the submission summary. (Note that the only exception is protective services cases, which do not undergo the missing, out-of-range, and inconsistency checks for those elements relating to income, elements #7 and #9-15).

Success Rate: The percentage of records that passed the missing, out-of-range, and inconsistency checks ("Subject Records" minus "Total Errors", divided by "Subject Records").

NOTE -- To find out which individual case records contain errors, look at the Detail Report, discussed in Section IV of this Bulletin. When large numbers of missing, out-of-range, or inconsistency errors are reported in this section, this may indicate a systematic problem with the preparation of the submission. For instance:

If all (or almost all) of the records have a particular element missing, this might indicate that: (1) there is an error in the software program used by your State to pull the required information from your State database and reformat data to meet the Federal standard, or (2) database does not contain that data and/or that the data is not being collected. Check with your programmers to see what may be the exact cause for your State.

If all (or almost all) of the records have a particular data element out-of-range, this would indicate a possible problem with mapping or extraction of the data. For example, the extraction program may inadvertently transform the State’s database value of "F" (female) to "4" instead of the required Federal value of "2." Check with your programmers to see what may be the exact cause for your State.

Part D: Cross File Checks

The Cross File Checks (see Figure D, below) present the result of a programmatic analysis of all the data that passed the file format and data quality checks. While data for individual records may be correct, at times the data for a submission as a whole may not conform to general programmatic norms. Where the values for a particular data element for the submission in the aggregate fail to meet a general programmatic standard, this triggers a "red flag" and a notice is produced for that cross-file check. Check these notices to see if they apply to your State. Table 3 on the following page contains a list of all the notices that may appear (not all cross-file checks are conducted on sample submissions; these are indicated by an asterisk).

NOTE: These standards are based on general programmatic characteristics for State child care programs. Not all may be applicable to your specific State.

Cross File Checks

Please note:

------------

Element04: No data submitted for the following counties:

County Name FIPS Code

----------------- -----------

Smith 02150

Seward 02188

Element 10: All records have the same value.

Element 25: Only 8% of all records have Option 4:"Licensed/regulated

center-based care" checked.

Figure D: Cross File Checks

In the above example, the following programmatic checks were triggered:

For Element #4, FIPS Code, counties which did not submit case records are listed.

For Element #10, Employment Income, all the records contained the same value for this element (for instance, when all records indicate "0" for "no").

For Element #25, Type of Child Care, 8% of records indicated licensed/regulated center-based care as the type of child care provider. For most States, this percentage is higher, so you would want to confirm that this figure is true for your State.

Data Element	Cross File Checks (and related element #) Asterisks (*) indicate checks not conducted on sample submissions
01: Report Period	Month/Year of Report Period is not the same as that of the Summary record.
02: State ID	No identifiers submitted. Please consider submitting optional case identifiers.*
02: State ID	x % of records have the same case identifier.*
03: SSN	x% of all records have the same Head of Household SSN*
04: FIPS Code	No data submitted for the following counties: *
04: FIPS Code	x % of all records have the same FIPS code.*
05: Single Parent	Only x% of all records indicate Single Parent status.
06: Reason for Care	None of the records indicate Option 1: "Employment, including on-the-job training" as the reason for receiving subsidized child care.
06: Reason for Care	Element 06: None of the records indicate Option 2: "Training/Education" as the reason for receiving subsidized child care.
06: Reason for Care	Element 06: None of the records indicate Option 3: "Both Employment and Training/Education" as the reason for receiving subsidized child care.
06: Reason for Care	x % of all records indicate Option 4: "Protective Services" as the reason for receiving subsidized child care.
06: Reason for Care	Option 5: "Other" is reported for x% of all records.
06: Reason for Care	All records have the same value.
07: Family Copay	All records have the same value.
08: Subsidy Began	All records have the same value.
08: Subsidy Began	Element 01 and Element 08 have the same value in x% of the records.
09: Family Income	All records have the same value.
10: Employment	All records have the same value.
11: TANF	All records have the same value.
11: TANF	Only x% of all records indicate "TANF Income".
13: Housing	All records have the same value.
13: Housing	Only x% of all records indicate "Housing Voucher or Cash Assistance."
14: Food Stamps	All records have the same value.
14: Food Stamps	Only x% of all records indicate "Assistance under the Food Stamp Act of 1977."
15: Other Source	All records have the same value.
15: Other Source	Only x% of all records indicate "Other Income Sources."
16: Child SSN	x% of all records have the same child SSN.*
17: Hispanic/Latino	All records have the same value.*
17: Hispanic/Latino	Only x% of all records indicate "Hispanic/Latino" ethnicity.*
18: Am.Ind./Native	All records have the same value.*
18: Am. Ind/Native	Only x% of all records indicate "American Indian or Alaskan Native" race.*
19: Asian	All records have the same value.*
19: Asian	Only x% of all records indicate "Asian" race.*
20: Black/Af. Am.	All records have the same value.*
20: Black/Af./Am	Only x% of all records indicate "Black or African American" race.*
22: White	All records have the same value.*
22: White	Only x% of all records indicate "White" race.*
23: Gender	x% of all records indicate Option 2: "Female" as child gender.
24: Birth Mo./Yr.	All records have the same value.
25: Type of Care	All records have the same value.
25: Type of Care	Only x% of all records have Option 4: "Licensed/regulated center-based care" checked.
26: Type of Care	All records have the same value.
27: Hours of Care	All records have the same value.

Table 3: Cross File Check Notices (Part D)

The Detail Data Assessment Report

The Detail Report provides information about which case records contain errors. An error key is printed at the top of the report, and the rest of the report lists the case records with errors. Only those records that contain errors are listed in this report. The records are arranged according to the county that submitted them.

Using this report, you will be able to identify exactly which records have errors. In addition, you will be able to return those records grouped under a FIPS code to the submitting county, when the case workers can correct the records according to the information in their files.

Individual Case Records in the Detail Report:

The Detail Report details each case record which was found to have an error. Figure E shows an example of a record with every type of error that may occur. A sample interpretation of this record follows on page 16.

Figure E: Sample Case Record

The information for each case record is organized as follows:

County: This is the submitting county, as identified by the FIPS Code (element #4) in the case record. The above example shows a record from West County.

Rec: The type of record for which error information is presented. In the far left of the heading are the codes F, C1, S1, etc. These indicate family, child, and setting record information, which is organized in several rows for each case record as follows:

F: The family record. This line contains record identifier information (the FIPS, case number, and family SSN) and family data information (elements #1-15).
C1: The child record for the first child in the family. This line contains information regarding the child’s SSN and also child data information (elements #16-24). Subsequent children would be indicated at C2, C3, etc.
S1: The setting record associated with the child. This line contains setting information for the child (elements #25-27). Any subsequent settings for this child would be indicated with an S2, S3, and so on.

FIPS: The FIPS Code indicated in element #4 of the record (in the above example, the FIPS Code for West County is 21007).

Case Number: The unique state identifier for the case (element #2).

Fam SSN: The Social Security Number (element #3) for the Head of Family.

Child SSN: The Social Security Number for the child in the report. Temporary SSNs are also accepted in this field.

Elements #1-27/ Family Child Set: The numbers for the data elements for family, child, and setting data. Error codes, if any, appear under the corresponding data element number as listed in this heading (to save space, elements with two digits are listed vertically. For example, element #15 is indicated by a 5 with a 1 above it).

Error Codes: Missing data are indicated by a "1" under the corresponding data element and out-of-range errors are denoted by a "2." Inconsistencies among data elements relating to dates, protective services cases, monetary amounts, and race/ethnicity are denoted by a "d", "p", "m", and "r", respectively (see Tables 4 and 5 on the next two pages).

Message

Error Definition

Issues to Address

1 = Missing Data

Where there was no value (contains all blanks).

If the value for an element is missing, then the remaining sequence of data quality checks (the out-of-range, internal inconsistency, and cross file checks) are not conducted.

Send the records to the submitting county/local agency where the caseworkers in charge of the files can verify and/or correct the information.

If a sizable number of records need correction, this may be due to a problem with the extraction or mapping of the data.

2 = Out-of-Range Error

Where the values entered for a data element are outside the acceptable range of values for the data.

If the value for an element is out-of-range, the remaining sequence of checks (the internal consistency check and the cross file checks) are not conducted on the data.

Send the records to the submitting county/local agency where the caseworkers in charge of the files can verify and/or correct the information.

If a sizable number of records need correction, this may be due to a problem with the extraction or mapping of the data.

Table 4: Missing and Out-of-Range Codes (Detail Report)

Error
Code

Inconsistent Data Standard
(See also Technical Bulletin #3)

Issues to Address

When there is inconsistency in elements relating to dates: Report Period (element #1), Date Child Care Began (#8), and Month/Year of Child’s Birth (#24).

To avoid an inconsistency error involving dates, both the month/year of the start date for child care assistance to the family (#8), and the month/year of child’s birth (#24), must precede or be equal to the month/year of the report period (#1).

Send the records to the submitting county/local agency, where the caseworkers in charge of the files can verify and/or correct the information.

If a sizable number of records need correction, this may be due to a problem with the extraction or mapping of the data.

Where there is an inconsistency in the values for those elements relating to protective services: Head of Family SSN (#3), Single Parent (#5), Reason for Receiving Services (#6), and Child SSN (#16).

This type of inconsistency error occurs when the data in the record indicate that a child is reported as the head of family {a value of "9" for Single Parent (#5)}; in which case it must also follow that:

- The reason for receiving subsidized child care (#6) must be that the child is in protective services

- The SSN reported for the head of family (#3) must be the same as the SSN reported for the child (#16)

Send the records to the submitting county/local agency, where the caseworkers in charge of the files can verify and/or correct the information.

If a sizable number of records need correction, this may be due to a problem with the extraction or mapping of the data.

Where there is an inconsistency in the values reported for the elements relating to monetary values: Total Monthly Child Care Copayment by Family (#7), Total Monthly Income for Determining Eligibility (#9), and Total Monthly Amount Paid to Provider (#26).

In order to avoid inconsistency errors related to dollar amounts:

- Total Monthly Child Care Copayment by Family (#7) must be less than the sum of the Total Monthly Amount Paid to Provider (#26) for all the settings of all the children in the family, and

- Total Monthly Child Care Copayment (#7) must also be less than the Total Monthly Income for Determining Eligibility (#9).

Send the records to the submitting county/local agency, where the caseworkers in charge of the files can verify and/or correct the information.

If a sizable number of records need correction, this may be due to a problem with the extraction or mapping of the data.

Before FY2000, at least one of the following race or ethnicity elements must be answered "Yes" (value=1): Hispanic or Latino (#17), American Indian or Alaskan native (#18), Asian (#19), Black or African American (#20), Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (#21), or White (#22).

If none of these elements is answered "Yes," this causes an inconsistency error.

Send the records to the submitting county/local agency, where the caseworkers in charge of the files can verify and/or correct the information.

If a sizable number of records need correction, this may be due to a problem with the extraction or mapping of the data.

Table 5: Internal Inconsistency Codes (Detail Report)

Sample interpretation, using the illustration for Figure E: Sample Case Record:

In this case, the date given for the child’s month/date of birth (element #24) came after the date given for the report period (#1), thus triggering a "d" to indicate a violation of the consistency standard for those elements.
There was no answer given for the type of child care (#25), resulting in a code of "1" (missing) under that element.
The value given for child gender (#23) was out-of-range (i.e., a value other than 1 for male, or 2 for female), incurring a "2."
The "p" under the elements relating to protective service cases (#3,#5,#6, and #16) indicate that there is inconsistency among these elements. When elements #5 and #6 indicate that the record is a protective service case with the child listed as the head of the family, it is internally consistent for the Social Security Numbers of the child and the head of family to be the same. However, in this example, the record indicates a single parent with training as the reason for receiving child care. This information is inconsistent with having the Social Security Numbers of the child and the head of family being the same.
The value given for the total monthly income (element #9) exceeded the total monthly copayment by the family (#7), resulting in an "m" under those elements.
There was not at least one "1" for the ethnicity and race elements (#17-22), violating the standard that at least one of these elements be answered yes (value=1).
The "Setting Format Wrong" message for the S2 data indicates a file formatting error for the second setting record. As a result, no data quality checks were conducted on the data in that setting record.

V. Conclusion

This Bulletin has presented information on how to use the data assessment reports returned to States after their ACF-801 submission. The Summary Report provides a view of the State’s data as a whole, and allows States to assess any errors with extraction or mapping. The Detail Report enables States to see what types of errors occurred with individual case records, and is organized by county so that the records may be sent to the submitting county for correction. It is important that your State’s data are accurate and complete, since this data will be used in research, reported to Congress, and may serve as the basis for programmatic decisions on child care.

For more information about the data quality and file format standards used by CCIS for ACF-801 case-level data, see Technical Bulletins #3 and #4 on the CCARC website. Two brief illustrated presentations reviewing both data quality ("ACF-801 Top 10 Data Quality Problems") and file format errors ("ACF-801 Top 10 File Format Errors") and the Technical Bulletins may be found.