No.

Requirement

Checklist

1

Must include all children in foster care for whom the State title IV-B/IV-E agency has responsibility for placement, care, or supervision (45 CFR 1355.40(a) (2)).

All children in foster care under the responsibility of the State agency administering or supervision the administration of the title IV-B Child and Family Services State plan and the title IV-E State plan; that is, all children who are required to be provided the assurances of section 422(b)(10) of the Social Security Act (the Act) ( Appendix A - SECTION II).

Are the following agencies included in one department:

• Child Welfare
• Juvenile Justice
• Mental Health

• Other?

If the above is yes, w hat agency is designated as the title IV-B/E single state agency under the respective state plans?

If the Department is designated as the single state agency, are all children removed from their homes and placed in the department's responsibility for care and placement, regardless of the Division, included in AFCARS?

Does the State include children in its responsibility for care, placement or supervision even if there are no foster care payments?

2

All children supervised by or under the responsibility of another public agency with which the title IV-B/E agency has an agreement under title IV-E and on whose behalf the State makes title IV-E foster care maintenance payments ( Appendix A - SECTION II).

Are all children in the joint care and custody of the juvenile justice and child welfare systems reported to AFCARS?

Are all children in the joint care and custody of the mental health and child welfare systems reported to AFCARS?

3

Includes American Indian children covered under section 422(b)(10) of the Act, on the same basis as any other child (45 CFR 1355.40(a) (2)).

4

For children in out-of-State placements, the State placing the child submits and continually updates the data (45 CFR 1355.40(a) (2)) .

5

Includes all children who have been in foster care at least 24 hours ( Appendix A - SECTION II).

Is the State including children that were out of their homes for less than 24 hours?

Does the State include children placed in emergency shelters?

6

Does not include children who are in their own homes under the responsibility of the State agency ( Appendix A - SECTION II) .

Does the State have a policy of "protective supervision?"

Does the State provide "protective supervision" without ever removing the child from his/her home?

Was the child removed under a "constructive removal?"

7

Include all children who are in the placement, care, or supervision responsibility of the title IV-B/E agency that are on "trial home visits" (Child Welfare Policy Manual, Section 1.3, AFCARS Reporting Population).

Is there a State policy that all children are returned home prior to the release of court ordered care, placement or supervision?

Is there a timeframe specified in policy or statue for the length of time that the State must maintain care and placement responsibility before the child is considered discharged?

Does the program code define a length of time for returned home placements?

8

Includes youth over the age of 18 if a payment is being made on behalf of the child (Child Welfare Policy Manual, Section 1, AFCARS).

What is the State's legal age of majority?

Does the State provide voluntary services to youth over the age of 18?

Does the State claim title IV-E funds for youth over 18 up through completion of school or their 19 th birthday?

9

Data are required to be transmitted by the State on all adopted children who were placed by the State title IV-B/IV-E agency, and on all adopted children for whom the State agency is providing adoption assistance (either ongoing or for nonrecurring expenses), care or services directly or by contract or agreement with other private or public agencies. (45 CFR 1355.40(a)(3)) .

Report on all children adopted in the State during the reporting period and in whose adoption the State title IV-B/IV-E agency has had any involvement. All adoptions after 10/1/94 that meet the criteria below must be reported.

• Children who had been in foster care under the responsibility and care of the State child welfare agency and who were subsequently adopted whether special needs or not and whether subsidies are provided or not ( Appendix B - Section II, paragraph (a)).

Are all adoptions under the jurisdiction of the agency required to be reported in the system?

What controls exist to ensure that all adoption cases are entered into the system?

Are private agency adoptions included? Under what circumstances?

What controls exist to ensure that an individual adoption record is extracted and reported to AFCARS only once?

10

Report on all children adopted in the State during the reporting period and in whose adoption the State title IV-B/IV-E agency has had any involvement. All adoptions after 10/1/94 that meet the criteria below must be reported.

• All special needs children, whether or not they were in the public foster care system prior to their adoption and for whom non-recurring expenses were reimbursed.
• Children adopted for whom an adoption assistance payment or service is being provided based on arrangements with the State agency . ( Appendix B - Section II, paragraphs (b) and (c)).

Does the State enter into adoption assistance agreements with families adopting from a private agency?

Are private individual adoptions included?

11

For children adopted out-of-State, the placing State reports the adoption data (45 CFR 1355.40(a)(3)) .

12

Voluntarily reports on all other adoptions. (Appendix B - Section II).

45 CFR 1355.40(b)(1)

13

The data must be extracted from the data system as of the last day of the reporting period

How does the State extract subsequent files?

14

The data must be submitted in electronic form as described in Appendix C.

15

The data must be in record layouts as delineated in Appendix D.

Does the State's submission frequently fail the format check?

45 CFR 1355.40(b)(2)

16

For foster care information, the child-specific data to be transmitted must reflect the data in the information system when the data are extracted.

45 CFR 1355.40(b)(3)

17

Adoption data are to be reported during the reporting period in which the adoption is legalized or, at the State's option, in the following reporting period if the adoption is legalized within the last 60 days of the reporting period.

Appendix A, 45 CFR 1355 Foster Care Data Elements and Appendix B, 45 CFR 1355 Adoption Data Elements

18

State uses sequential numbering of the case record number or encrypts the record number.

What does the State send for record numbers?

• Sequential numbers?
• Encrypted version of client identifier numbers?
• Other?

If encrypting, does the State use the ACF utility?

If encrypting, is the same encryption key used for every reporting period?

How often is it changed?

How is the encryption key safeguarded?

Appendix C, 45 CFR 1355 Electronic Data Transmission Format

19

Data file must be in ASCII format.

20

Elements must be comprised of integer (numeric) value(s).

21

All records must be a fixed length.

22

Inform the Department, in writing, of the method of transfer intended to be used by the State.

Appendix D, 45 CFR 1355 Foster Care and Adoption Record Layouts

23

Report the status of all children in foster care as of the last day of the reporting period (Section A.1.b(5)).

24

Provide data for all children who were discharged from foster care at any time during the reporting period, or in the previous reporting period, if not previously reported (Section A.1.b(5)).

Does the State have a number of "dropped" records?

How does the State ensure reporting of youth that have aged out?

ACYF-PI-CB-95-09, Reissued May 23, 1995

25

State extracts all records based on the transaction date of discharge or removal.

26

Data Quality - Conversion

27

State transferred historical information on open cases. Specifically, it included information on: date of first removal, total number of removals, and whether the child's mother was married at the time of the child's birth. If the case was open at the time of conversion, information on the number of placement settings was included.

Did the State have a legacy system?

Were all records converted?

How are cases that were closed at the time of conversion, but have re-opened, handled?

28

The information system has the capability of recording historical information. This should apply to both open cases in which historical information must be entered, and for closed cases that re-open after conversion and must be entered into the system.