Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS)

Investigator(s): Children's Bureau, Department of Health and Human Services
Abstract: The AFCARS, or Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, is a federal data collection effort that provides child-specific information on all children covered by the protections of Title IV-B and Title IV-E of the Social Security Act. On an annual basis, all states submit data to the U.S. Children's Bureau, concerning each child in foster care and each child who has been adopted under the authority of the state's child welfare agency. The AFCARS databases have been designed to address policy development and program management issues at both the state and federal levels. The data are also useful for researchers interested in analyzing aspects of the United States' foster care and adoption programs.
  The Archive distributes two data files for each federal fiscal year since 1995, one file containing the adoption data and the other the foster care data. The adoption file contains 45 data elements concerning the adopted child's gender, race, birth date, ethnicity and prior relationship with the adoptive parents. The date the adoption was finalized, dates parental rights were terminated, characteristics of birth and adoptive parents, and whether the child was placed from within the United States or from another country are also captured. The foster care file contains 89 elements providing information on child demographics including gender, birth date, race, and ethnicity. Information about the number of previous stays in foster care, service goals, availability for adoption, dates of removal and discharge, funding sources, and the biological and foster parents is also included in the foster care files.

Download Multi-Year User's Guide (Data Codebook) 1995-1999: PDF
Download Multi-Year User's Guide (Data Codebook) 2000-present: PDF

NDACAN Dataset Number	AFCARS Year and File Versions	Download Supplement
131	2005  Foster Care Version 1	PDF
130	2005  Adoption Version 1	PDF
124	2004  Foster Care Version 2	PDF
123	2004  Adoption Version 2	PDF
118	2003  Adoption Version 3	PDF
118	2003  Foster Care Version 3	PDF
105	2002  Adoption Version 3	PDF
105	2002  Foster Care Version 4	PDF
101	2001  Adoption Version 3	PDF
101	2001  Foster Care Version 3	PDF
97	2000  Adoption Version 4	PDF
97	2000  Foster Care Version 3	PDF
91	1999  Adoption Version 3	PDF
91	1999  Foster Care Version 4	PDF
86	1998  Adoption Version 5	PDF
86	1998  Foster Care Version 6	PDF
82	1997 Adoption and Foster Care	PDF
80	1996 Adoption and Foster Care	PDF
73	1995 Adoption and Foster Care	PDF

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Relevant links:
Tables and other reports summarizing the AFCARS data are available from the Children's Bureau Web page:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/index.htm

Presentation for states about AFCARS data collection
http://www.nrccwdt.org/nrc_conf/pres2005/pre_conf/pre_conf_p01.html

PDF (Portable Document Format) files can be viewed and printed with Adobe Reader, a free utility available at the Adobe Web Site.