Some of these documents need to be viewed in Adobe's Acrobat Reader. Download Acrobat Reader here.
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). This regulation may be access from the Children's Bureau's web site in HTML or PDF format.
In addition to the statute and the regulation, the following policy documents have been issued by the Children's Bureau.
Federal Register Announcement: Request for Public Comment on the Improvement of the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) - April 28, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 81) Note: The e-mail address listed in this announcement is incorrect and should be replaced with AFCARS_Project@acf.hhs.gov, a corrected announcement will be issued at a later date. HTML or PDF(38 KB)