Items that have been deleted can be seen by clicking the Deleted link. 1.2B.2 AFCARS, Data Elements and Definitions, Foster Care Specific Elements, Child's demographics 1. What if a parent refuses to disclose whether or not a child has been previously adopted? 1. Question: What if a parent refuses to disclose whether or not a child has been previously adopted? Answer: If a parent refuses to answer this question, "Unable to Determine" would represent the correct response. (See: 45 CFR 1355, Appendix A, Section I, Roman Numeral II. Also see: Appendix D, Detailed Foster Care, Element Number 16.)
Answer: If a child is identified as Hispanic or "Latino" in element number 09, then his/her ethnicity should also be further clarified, using element number 08, according to how the child or the child's parents define him/her. (See: 45 CFR 1355, Appendix A, Section I, Roman Numeral II, Questions C.1 and C.2. Also see: Appendix D, Detailed Foster Care, Element Numbers 8 and 9.)
Answer: The FIPS code should be the agency's not the child's place of residence. (See: 45 CFR 1355, Appendix D, Detailed Foster Care, Element Number 3)
Answer: A numeric code is to be used for the State identification. It is the first two digits of the State's Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS). (See: 45 CFR 1355, Appendix A, Section I, Roman Numeral I, Question D. Also see: Appendix D, Detailed Foster Care, Element Number 4.)
Answer: No. It is not a typographical error. Section 422 of the Social Security Act requires periodic reviews at least every six months; in practice, a 30 day grace period has been allowed, resulting in a seven month period in which to complete a review without penalty. For AFCARS reporting this fact, coupled with the intention to allow 60 days to enter the date associated with the review, results in a nine month time frame for entry of information about the periodic review. Therefore, any child in foster care at least nine months must have a periodic review date entered into the AFCARS report.
In summary, the review must take place within seven months of the child's entry into the foster care system (or of the last periodic review). The review date must be entered into the system within 60 days of the review date. This results in the nine month time frame referenced in the regulation.
Answer: AFCARS requires the reporting of race and Hispanic/Latino Origin on children in foster care, children who have been adopted, foster care providers, and adoptive parents. As noted in Appendices A and B of the Federal regulations at 45 CFR 1355, in the sections related to the instructions for foster care and adoption data elements, race and Hispanic/Latino origin information is based on how a client/adult perceives him/herself, or in the case of young children, how the parent identifies the child. This means the information on race and Hispanic/Latino Origin is to be self-reported by the individual. Additionally, racial and ethnic information should be collected and stored as separate pieces of information about the client.
Workers must ask clients this information and not make assumptions on which and how many races a person may be and whether the client is Hispanic or Latino or not. When a worker, rather than the client, makes this determination, he or she may be under-representing all possible races.
For AFCARS extraction and submission purposes, information not collected or not available for a particular client record (for whatever reason) is mapped as all blanks (not all zeros, all 9?s, etc.). Missing information should never be mapped to a valid AFCARS value.
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