AFCARS Assessment Review Report - Administration for Children ...
AFCARS Assessment Review Report - Administration for Children ...
AFCARS Assessment Review Report - Administration for Children ...
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Maryland staff have continued ef<strong>for</strong>ts to increase the use of CHESSIE by field staff andsupervisors. Some recommendations made during the March 2007 technical assistance site visitby the National Resource Center <strong>for</strong> Child Welfare Data and Technology (NRC-CWDT), such asa regular newsletter about CHESSIE and training that integrates both CHESSIE and Maryland’schild welfare policy, have been implemented.Maryland worked with the University of Maryland this past summer to per<strong>for</strong>m data entry ofcase in<strong>for</strong>mation. Graduate students helped complete data entry <strong>for</strong> out-of-home placementsover a period of several months. Currently, frontline staff are focusing on updating and ensuringthe accuracy of current placements. Maryland should continue to monitor <strong>for</strong> missing data andprovide feedback to local offices <strong>for</strong> correction.At the time of the visit, Maryland staff were also preparing to begin distributing a report thatcontains missing <strong>AFCARS</strong> data elements by child and unit. This should help facilitate data entryef<strong>for</strong>ts and allow supervisors to monitor data completeness <strong>for</strong> cases in their units.<strong>Report</strong>ing PopulationIn general, the State is correctly reporting the required foster care and adoption population fromthe child welfare system. One exception is that States are required to report in<strong>for</strong>mation on alladoptions in which the agency is involved, including all adopted children <strong>for</strong> whom the Stateagency is providing adoption assistance (either ongoing or <strong>for</strong> nonrecurring expenses), care orservices directly or by contract or agreement with other private or public agencies. (45 CFR1355.40(a)(3)). The State indicated it has adoption agreements <strong>for</strong> a subsidy and/or services withfamilies who adopted a child from a private adoption agency. Currently, these records are notbeing reported in <strong>AFCARS</strong> because the State’s in<strong>for</strong>mation system does not have the capacity tocollect the in<strong>for</strong>mation on cases that were not previous foster care cases. The system’s designrequires there to be an open foster care case be<strong>for</strong>e an adoption case can be created. At the timeof the <strong>AFCARS</strong> review the State team indicated they were reviewing possible solutions. TheState’s initial <strong>AFCARS</strong> Improvement Plan must include the State’s plan <strong>for</strong> making themodifications to the system and the timeline <strong>for</strong> implementing the changes.Technical RequirementsThere are two technical requirement items that were found to be non-compliant with <strong>AFCARS</strong>reporting. One is related to the design and structure of CHESSIE and how the adoption recordsare selected in the extraction code. The code does not exclude adoption cases that do not have afinal adoption legalization date. The primary problem is with the structure of the system.Currently, all adoption records that are in the adoption (“Case 3”) module in CHESSIE arereported. These cases include records in which an adoption payment is made to the family priorto the adoption finalization. Some of these adoptions have been finalized and some have not.The State staff discussed possible solutions to address this problem. The State may need todevelop an interim short-term solution to prevent records without a finalized adoption date frombeing submitted.US DHHS/ACF/ACYF/<strong>Children</strong>’s Bureau 5