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Understanding and using the State Data Profile is a major concern of States as they engage in the Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) Process. State Data Profiles are designed and calculated using two national data collection systems: the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) and the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS). AFCARS data are used in the Point-in-time Permanency Profile and First Time Entry Cohort Profile. NCANDS data are used in the Safety Profile of the State Data Profile. It is critical that States closely look at each section of the State Data Profile to ensure that child welfare practice is accurately reflected.

States are increasingly interested in these profiles and measures – not only to prepare for the CFSR, but to track their progress on these measures. In addition, many States wish to examine the measures and profiles for local agencies in their individual State. To accomplish this, many States are using SPSS (The Children’s Bureau web site contains guidance for States using SPSS to replicate the CFSR State Data Profile outcome measures) or an alternative solution developed by the State. However, SPSS itself and/or the expertise to use it may not be available to all States. In addition, it is not simple or user-friendly to create quick and easy profiles for non-SPSS users.

Mike Sjomeling of the North Dakota Department of Human Services developed an Access program that is simple to use. North Dakota created the utility by replicating the SPSS syntax found on the Children’s Bureau web site. The database is an innovative and user-friendly utility for calculating and displaying the Point-in-time Permanency and First Time Entry Cohort portion of the CFSR State Data Profile. The North Dakota utility has a user-interface that allows end-users to easily compute and view measures for their State at a “click of button.” In addition, the program allows States to calculate their measures by local agency and/or other variables (i.e., race, etc.) found in AFCARS.

To utilize the program, a State simply needs to get a copy of the North Dakota utility (in Microsoft Access) and obtain their AFCARS annual file(s). The password is "mostar" for the database. A State may obtain the necessary annual AFCARS files to use the North Dakota utility from either the Children’s Bureau web site or create them themselves from the New Jersey Access utility. North Dakota’s database was created in Microsoft Access 2000. However, if your State does not have that version of Microsoft Access, please contact the NRC-CWDT and we can get you a copy of the database in the version needed for your State.

North Dakota’s database works with the foster care AFCARS annual files (multiple race format) and computes the Point-in-time Permanency and the First Time Entry Cohort of the State Data Profile. It does not work with the Safety portion of the State Data Profile because North Dakota does not submit case-level NCANDS data. However, a State could create a similar Access program to work with NCANDS data. North Dakota advises that the requirements for creating a similar program for NCANDS data should be easily translatable. The CB syntax for creating the Safety Profile is available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/dis/index.htm.

Considerations
As mentioned above, the North Dakota utility can accommodate any AFCARS annual file (in the multiple race format) – either an annual file received from Children’s Bureau, or an annual file that the State creates itself. While the creation of the North Dakota utility was not a collaborative effort between New Jersey and North Dakota, one suggestion under consideration is to streamline the two utilities. New Jersey may add an export function to their program that would create an annual file in the Children Bureau’s text format. Therefore, the end-user could easily import either the annual file created by the Children’s Bureau (the North Dakota utility is designed to import an annual AFCARS file in the Children’s Bureau text layout) or an annual file created by the NJ utility and exported into a text file. Meanwhile the NRC-CWDT has created a brief guide that will allow States to export an annual file created by the New Jersey the Children Bureau’s annual file format. The guide is available for download at http://www.nrccwdt.org/tips_tools_trends/ttt_toolkit_toc.html

As a reminder, technical assistance beyond the scope of this document is available to all States through the NRC-CWDT. The NRC-CWDT can provide technical assistance to States prior to the on-site CFS review, including preparation and analysis of data for the State Data Profiles. Post- review technical assistance is also available and may include helping to develop and implement the Program Improvement Plans.

If you have comments, questions, or need technical assistance on using the program, please contact us at NRC-CWDT or by phone at (877) 672-4829. We would also appreciate feedback on how the utility has worked for you so that we can provide insight to other States.

Also in the Works
Microsoft Access can be an incredibly flexible and user-friendly tool for accommodating child-welfare data. In fact, North Dakota has developed a separate Microsoft Access program that downloads “real-time” data weekly from their mainframe systems. At this time, the utility accommodates Child Abuse and Neglect information, with future plans to expand to other program areas in the near future. The State believes this utility will be useful for monitoring data used in the CFSR and at the same time Administrators feel that this program will supply them with “real-time” information to manage. Please contact Mike Sjomeling (328-4131) if you are interested in learning more about how North Dakota has utilized Microsoft Access.

This document was prepared as a supplement to the material presented in a session at the April 2002 Making IT Work: Using Data for Program Improvement in Arlington, VA. We hope that it will serve to stimulate an exchange of ideas and information among States and between systems and program staff. Your feedback is important to us. If you have any additional information on the topic presented in this sheet, or if you have any comments or suggestions regarding its presentation or content, please contact Elaine Voces of Xtria at (703) 821-3090 x241 or nrccwdt@xtria.com.