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The test cases helps ACF reviewers evaluate several aspects of your system. First, they can confirm that several scenarios, which are required in AFCARS, can be captured in your system. For example, if a child is placed in an emergency shelter for more than 24 hours, that child should be reported to AFCARS and that shelter should be included in the number of placements in the episode (foster care data element #24).
Second, it helps reviewers to discover any State policies and procedures that inhibit your ability to report certain values or data elements. For example, if all adoptions in your State involve the State agency, then state agency involvement (adoption data element #4) is hard coded as "yes" in the program logic, then there will be not be a data element on the screen to gather this data in your system.
Finally, the records that are created by these scenarios will be extracted from your data system and compared with the expected results to ensure that the extraction and/or AFCARS file creation processes are functioning properly. This includes ensuring that records that should be extracted based on the dates of care are, indeed, extracted. It also includes ensuring that the data that were entered into the system are the same data that are extracted from the system. For example, a child who is male should have a "1" in the child sex field(s) (foster care data element #7 and adoption data element #6).
To guarantee that all of these activities can be done thoroughly and accurately it is important that you follow these instructions when entering the data from the case scenarios into your system:
Read all of the scenarios carefully before entering them into your system. Do not enter any scenarios into your system for which you have outstanding questions.
Enter the placement resources first so that they can be used when you enter any of the scenarios. You must use the sample resources from the scenarios when entering placements.
Do not skip any of the information unless it would not occur in your State due to policy or standard practice. In that case, please do not enter any of the scenario, but note it for discussion for the on-site portion of the review process.
Only the data for elements contained in the scenarios should be entered. Do not change anything. If a part of a particular scenario cannot be entered into your system because it would not occur in your State due to policy or standard practice, please note it for discussion during the on-site portion of the review.
Record the case record number in your system that corresponds to a scenario at the top of the hard copy of the scenario. This will be needed to compare the extracted file and the expected file results.
If certain non-AFCARS data is required to enter a record into your system that is not contained in the scenarios (e.g., social security numbers, addresses, etc.), you can save yourself some time by entering the minimal amount necessary. Keep in mind, that it will not be a part of the review, so there is no need to spend too much time on this. However, if AFCARS data elements that are not included in a scenario are required, do not enter the scenario until checking with the Federal review coordinator. This principle applies to any other information that could affect how an AFCARS data element is reported.
The scenarios should be entered into either a test area or training database in which data are treated the same as in the production environment. It is also important that any interfaces with other systems (e.g., child support) be operating in order to test as much of the system as possible.
If you have any questions about these instructions call the Federal Review Team Coordinator.
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Attachments:
State Guide to an AFCARS Assessment Review HTML or PDF(332 KB)
