Federal Guidance

On January 21, 1994 the Federal regulations, which implemented Section 479 of Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, became effective. These regulations are more commonly known as the "AFCARS regulations" and are found on the GPO web site at 45 CFR 1355.40. As part of the regulation there are six appendices (A-F). These appendices include the data dictionary, error standards, and the penalty amounts that a State may be assessed if found out of compliance with the AFCARS standards. Federal Regulations published on January 25, 2000 (65 FR 4019-4093) made technical changes to the race and ethnicity data elements in the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS). (PDF - 443 KB).

In addition to the statute and the regulation, the following policy documents have been issued by the Children's Bureau.

• Children's Bureau's Child Welfare Policy Manual, Section 1, AFCARS.

• ACYF-CB-IM-04-04, issued February 17, 2004. Adoption Incentives and AFCARS Penalties.

• ACYF-PI-CB-95-09 (REVISED), issued 5/23/95. Methods of Extracting Data for Submission to AFCARS

• ACYF-CB-PI-01-07, issued 5/4/2001. Change in the State AFCARS File Name

• ACYF-CB-IM-02-03, issued April 8, 2002. Decision regarding AFCARS Penalties, AFCARS File Name

• ACYF-CB-IM-02-05, issued April 22, 2002. AFCARS Assessment Reviews