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HHS unveils interactive AFCARS dashboard to publish FY2023 foster care data
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Summary
The Administration for Children and Families on May 13 released an interactive AFCARS dashboard presenting fiscal year 2023 foster care data derived from the AFCARS 2020 reporting standard, highlighting new longitudinal measures and interactive cross-tabulation while warning users about preliminary values and data limitations.
The Administration for Children and Families released an interactive dashboard on May 13 that publishes fiscal year 2023 data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), officials said.
Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison said the dashboard is part of an effort to increase transparency around child welfare data. “This new format expands the amount of information we are making available to the American public,” Gradison said, adding that the Children's Bureau hopes the tool will stimulate conversations to help ACF better support children and families.
Jennifer M. Haight, director of the Division of Performance Measurement and Improvement, said the interface is the result of substantial work by state reporting agencies and ACF staff to implement the AFCARS 2020 final rule. Roger Stanton of the Children’s Bureau’s data analytics and reporting team demonstrated the dashboard’s features, which include three primary populations—entries (children who began an out-of-home episode during the federal fiscal year), children in care on Sept. 30, and exits for the fiscal year—and the ability to filter and cross-tabulate by state, age and race/ethnicity.
Stanton said the dashboard will appear on the Children’s Bureau website later the day of the webinar or the following day and that a printable PDF (national-only) will be available. He posted a public link to the dashboard during the demonstration and encouraged users to consult the information pages on each tab for notes about definitions and limitations.
The dashboard is built from AFCARS 2020-formatted submissions and therefore is not directly comparable to prior AFCARS reports based on earlier reporting rules, ACF officials said. The agency also noted that two states had not submitted AFCARS 2020 data when the dashboard was developed and therefore are not included in the national totals at launch.
ACF requested feedback and inquiries via the Children's Bureau data team email (cbdata@acf.hhs.gov) and said the recorded webinar will be posted for later viewing.
