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Chapter VI: The Post-Site Visit Phase

A. Introduction

The post-site visit phase involves a final assessment by the Federal review team of the information gathered during the on-site review. A final report is written detailing the major findings from the assessment review, with copies attached of all of the detailed findings. The final report is signed by the Associate Commissioner of the Children's Bureau and mailed to the State agency.

While this is primarily a set of activities conducted by the Federal review team, the State may use this time to begin making corrections to the system or the extraction code based on the preliminary on-site findings. Also, the State team should utilize this time to plan when it anticipates each task can be completed.

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B. Final Analysis

Although the major portion of the AFCARS evaluation is conducted on-site, a number of steps in the assessment and documentation analysis may be completed during the post-site visit phase. These steps include consolidation of documentation from all members, consultation among Federal team members, and a final analysis of all findings, documentation, and (if applicable) revised program code. The Federal review team coordinator may contact the State with additional questions or request additional information.

The final rating factors may differ from those given as the preliminary on-site ratings. Changes in the rating factors reflect the post site-visit review of the case file review findings, the State's program code, and the system screens.

Changes/corrections to the program code or the system screens may be submitted to ACF for inclusion into the final analysis no later than 45 calendar days after the completion of on-site review.

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C. Final Report

The final report is issued to the State within 90 business days after the completion of the on-site review. The purpose of the final report is to document the findings of the AFCARS Assessment Review, including the agency's strengths, areas needing improvement, and changes necessary to meet all of the AFCARS requirements at 45 CFR 1355.40.

The AFCARS Assessment Review report to the State will include:

• a cover letter;
• an introduction that provides an overview of the background and purpose of the AAR;
• a summary of the findings and required changes;
• a table with the completed findings; and,
• the AFCARS improvement plan matrices.

Once the State receives the final report with the final findings, and if there are areas that need correcting, the AFCARS Improvement Phase begins. This phase is discussed in the next chapter.

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D. Dissemination Of The Final Report

The Children's Bureau will provide copies of the report to the appropriate officials at the State agency, CFSR staff, the Children's Bureau's Division of State Systems, and the ACF Regional Office. All documentation is retained by ACF as part of the permanent archive file on the State's AFCARS. Additionally, the State's final report, including all attachments, is posted on the Children's Bureau web site at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/systems/afcars/review.htm.

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Attachments:

ACYF-CB-IM-02-05

State Guide to an AFCARS Assessment Review HTML or PDF(332 KB)