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ACF unveils interactive AFCARS 2023 dashboard, warns users to note reporting changes and limitations
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Summary
The Administration for Children and Families on a webinar released a public, interactive dashboard for AFCARS 2023 that adds longitudinal and cross-tabulated data; officials flagged comparability limits with prior years, two states’ missing submissions, and several preliminary counts.
The Administration for Children and Families released an interactive dashboard displaying AFCARS (Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System) data for federal fiscal year 2023, officials said on a webinar. Andrew Gradison, acting assistant secretary for the Administration for Children and Families, called the dashboard “a new resource” and said ACF is committed to transparency as it expands what it shares about children served by the child welfare system.
The dashboard presents three primary populations—children entering foster care in fiscal year 2023, children in foster care on Sept. 30, 2023, and children who exited foster care during fiscal year 2023—and allows users to filter by state and to cross-tabulate by demographics such as age and race or ethnicity. Roger Stanson of the Children’s Bureau data analytics team led the demonstration and repeatedly cautioned that the AFCARS 2020 reporting structure changed what states submit and that users should consult the dashboard’s information panels when interpreting counts.
“On the data itself, we continue to see a decline in children entering foster care, and we will celebrate reduced numbers of children in foster care only when we see corresponding indicators of improved child safety,” Andrew Gradison said, summarizing the agency’s view of the headline trend. Stanson demonstrated a national entries count of about 175,000 children for fiscal year 2023 and noted that two states did not submit AFCARS 2023 data; the national total therefore excludes those jurisdictions.
Stanson described several substantive changes users will notice compared with prior AFCARS releases. Under the AFCARS 2020 reporting structure, agencies report multiple data elements across a child’s time in care, enabling longitudinal displays—such as every living arrangement a child experiences—rather than single-period snapshots. That change also makes direct comparisons with pre‑2020 AFCARS figures less reliable: Stanson said the dashboard highlights fiscal year 2023 in blue to signal the reporting population changed with AFCARS 2020.
The demo surfaced specific counts and definitions now visible in new ways. Stanson said about 142,000 of the roughly 175,000 entries (about 82%) were classified under a broad category of “child abuse and neglect,” and that 95,000 entries (about 55%) listed neglect as a circumstance; he emphasized that a single child may appear in multiple circumstance categories under the new structure. Stanson also showed first-planned permanency types at entry and said roughly 20% of children did not have an established permanency plan at entry—an outcome he said may decline as states continue to refine submissions.
The dashboard’s living-arrangement displays use a prioritization scheme so categories are mutually exclusive for counting purposes. Stanson said 74,000 children (42% of entries) had a relative or kin first living arrangement and that 28,000 entries (16%) were in licensed relative/kin homes; he explained the team also provides separate licensing detail and the ability to drill down by age and race/ethnicity.
Stanson flagged several user cautions. Cell-level suppression is applied where counts are below 10 and secondary suppression is used to prevent back-calculation from totals; some counts will change as states resubmit AFCARS 2023 data and ACF updates analytic methods. He also noted the dashboard’s time-in-care displays show duration only for the subset of children who exited during the selected period and that ages shown for those metrics reflect ages at exit, not entry.
The dashboard is publicly available and the Children’s Bureau will post a national PDF print version. Stanson said ACF expects to add the 2024 data to the interface when available and to update the 2023 displays as states resubmit and the agency’s analytics evolve. Webinar organizers asked users to consult the dashboard’s information notes and to send inquiries to the email address Stanson posted in the chat.
What’s next: the Children’s Bureau plans regular updates and invited jurisdictions and data users to provide feedback as the agency continues to refine reporting and presentation choices.
(Reporting based solely on a Children’s Bureau webinar demonstrating the AFCARS 2023 dashboard; no public comments or external analyses were provided during the session.)
