[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 145 (Monday, July 29, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49029-49031]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-18377]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Request for Public Comment on the Reporting Period for the 
National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System

AGENCY: Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF), ACF, 
DHHS.

ACTION: Notice of request for public comment.

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SUMMARY: The Children's Bureau, in the Administration on Children, 
Youth and Families administers the National Child Abuse and Neglect 
Data System (NCANDS), through which States collect and report data on 
child maltreatment. The Children's Bureau (CB) uses these data as a 
basis for States' conformity with title IV-B and IV-E State plan 
requirements as determined by a Child and Family Services (CFS) Review, 
among other purposes. States reviewed in 2001 noted a number of 
concerns when NCANDS data were used in this manner. Specifically, 
States and ACF experienced difficulty with interpreting NCANDS data 
because they are reported on a calendar year basis, while the reporting 
period for the other primary data source for the CFS Reviews, the 
Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), is a 
Federal fiscal year. CB is proposing a change in the NCANDS reporting 
period to address this issue. The Administration on Children and 
Families invites comments from States and other interested parties 
regarding the NCANDS reporting period.

DATES: Written comments must be submitted to the office listed in the 
ADDRESSES section below on or before August 28, 2002.

ADDRESSES: E-mail written comments to John Gaudiosi, Children's Bureau, 
at [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John Gaudiosi, Mathematical 
Statistician, Children's Bureau, [email protected] or 202-205-8625.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

NCANDS Background

    Public Law 100-294 amended the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment 
Act (CAPTA) [42 U.S.C. 5101 et seq.] and directed the Secretary of the 
Department of Health and Human Services to establish a national data 
collection and analysis program on child abuse and neglect. The 
Department responded by establishing the NCANDS as a voluntary national 
reporting system. States report aggregate summary data and detailed 
case-level such as the number of children abused and neglected, the 
types of abuse, the number of fatalities due to maltreatment, and the 
types of services provided to address maltreatment and prevent future 
abuse. Public Law 104-235 further amended CAPTA to establish that 
States that participate in NCANDS and receive the Basic State Grant 
would work with the Secretary to provide, to the maximum extent 
practicable, a report that includes several data items, including the 
number of children reported as abused or neglected; the number that did 
or did not receive services; the number removed from their families 
during the year; the number of families that received preventive 
services; the number of deaths resulting from child abuse or neglect; 
and others [42 U.S.C. 5106a]. The Department incorporated these 
requirements into the NCANDS.
    ACF uses NCANDS data for a variety of purposes, including:
     An annual publication on child maltreatment;
     Child Welfare Outcomes Annual Report to Congress;
     The Child and Family Services Reviews;
     Responding to data requests from other Federal agencies 
concerning child abuse and neglect; and
     Research activities.
    In FY 2000, 17 States submitted aggregate data and 34 States 
submitted case-level data. The recent increases in the number of States 
submitting case-level data is linked strongly to ACF's use of the 
NCANDS data to evaluate and report child welfare outcomes nationally.

Interpreting Child Welfare Outcomes Using NCANDS Data

    Although CB has used NCANDS data for more than 10 years to provide 
a national picture of child maltreatment, the use of NCANDS data to 
determine child welfare outcomes and State compliance with Federal 
child welfare requirements is a recent event. The CFS Reviews (see 45 
CFR 1355.31-1355.37) measure compliance with the State plan 
requirements under titles IV-B and IV-E of the Social Security Act by 
evaluating child and family outcomes. As part of these reviews, CB 
provides each State under reviews with data profiles generated from 
data submitted to NCANDS and AFCARS. States report detailed data to 
AFCARS on children removed from their homes and placed in foster care 
and children adopted within a State with the involvement of the State 
child welfare agency.
    Data from both AFCARS and NCANDS must be used simultaneously to 
evaluate child welfare outcomes, because the majority of families and 
children who are reported in AFCARS are also included in NCANDS. Since 
the reviews are comprehensive and cover child protective services, 
foster care, adoption, family preservation, family support and 
independent living, the only means of obtaining critical national data 
on children and families for some of these programs is to use the 
NCANDS and AFCARS data together. These data are used to help States and 
the Federal government understand what happens to children and families 
as they move through State child welfare systems, to identify strengths 
and areas needing improvement in State child welfare systems, and to 
determine the State's conformity with applicable requirements.
    As currently configured, using NCANDS and AFCARS data together 
presents challenges to States and CB. At the November 2001 meeting of 
the Children's Bureau with the first 17 States that had undergone a CFS 
Review, States identified several challenges in using the Federal data 
sets to measure conformity and evaluate child welfare outcomes. One 
challenge noted is the reporting period. AFCARS data are based on the 
Federal fiscal year, on the other hand, PI-CB-98-15, issued September 
19, 1998, gave States the option to submit NCANDS data using the 
calendar year, the Federal fiscal year, or the State fiscal year. 
Presently, all States now submit data on calendar year basis. As a 
result, States must analyze and evaluate their effectiveness in 
preventing child maltreatment and out-of-home placement using data sets 
from different time periods. Furthermore, CB has developed a national 
standard for the incidence of child abuse and/or neglect in foster care 
for the CFS Reviews using both AFCARS and NCANDS data.\1\ To generate 
this measure, CB uses nine months of data (January through September) 
rather than a full year of data because of the different reporting 
periods. CB uses a similar measure in the Child Welfare Outcomes Annual 
Report to Congress that tracks State child welfare agency performance 
on key outcome measures.\2\ Synchronizing the reporting periods will 
make the NCANDS data available three months earlier. This will enable 
CB to generate more timely safety profiles for the CFS Reviews and 
contextual data for the Child Welfare Outcomes Annual Report to 
Congress. CB believes changing the reporting period for NCANDS ensures 
the best use of the data reported by States. Since AFCARS data are used 
in Federal budget projections and State grant allocations,\3\ changing 
the

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AFCARS reporting period would significantly disrupt other priorities.
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    \1\ See ACYF-CB-IM-01-07 for further discussion on the national 
standards in the CFS reviews.
    \2\ Log onto http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cb/publications/index.htm for the most recent report to Congress and a discussion of 
the outcome measures.
    \3\ For instance, AFCARS data are used in determining State 
allotments under the Chafee Foster Care Independence Program under 
section 477 of the Social Security Act. AFCARS data is also used in 
determining whether a State qualifies for incentive payments under 
the Adoption Incentive Program under section 4 473A of the Social 
Security Act. Both programs rely on using available data that are 
consistent with a Federal fiscal year.
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Changing the NCANDS Reporting Period to a Federal Fiscal Year

    To address the above concerns, we are considering changing the 
NCANDS reporting period to coincide with the Federal fiscal year 
(October 1 through September 30). This change will make future NCANDS 
data inconsistent with previous years' data. However, statistical 
procedures can be used to make appropriate adjustments for analytic 
purposes, thus diminishing this disadvantage. The proposed changes for 
submitting NCANDS data are delineated in the table below.

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                                                                                              CB completes draft
            Data year              CB requests data   States submit data   CB finalizes data     annual report
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CY 2000.........................  March 2001........  June 15, 2001.....  October 2001......  March 2002.
CY 2001.........................  March 2002........  June 15, 2002.....  October 2002......  March 2003.
FFY 2002 (Oct. 2001-Sept. 2002).  December 2002.....  March 15, 2003....  July 2003.........  December 2003.
FFY 2003 (Oct. 2002-September     December 2003.....  March 15, 2004....  July 2004.........  December 2004.
 2003).
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Bold-faced text=past or current data collection schedules. Note FFY 2002 would collect October 2001-December
  2001 again from the States. The March 2003 report would be considered the Annual report for 2001; the December
  2003 report would be the report for 2002, etc.

    ACF is interested in public comment on this issue. In particular, 
we invite comments regarding:
     The advantages or disadvantages of calendar year versus 
Federal fiscal year reporting for NCANDS data for States, particularly 
in interpreting child welfare outcome data
     The advantages or disadvantages of calendar year versus 
Federal fiscal year reporting of NCANDS data for researchers and other 
interested parties
     The fiscal and administrative impact on States of changing 
NCANDS to Federal fiscal year reporting (i.e., costs to Statewide child 
welfare information systems, burden of proposed submission dates, etc.)
     Other suggestions for addressing the concerns noted 
regarding the data reporting periods.

    Dated: July 16, 2002.
Joan E. Ohl,
Commissioner, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families.
[FR Doc. 02-18377 Filed 7-26-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-M