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 |
|
143 |
2007
Foster Care Version 1 |
PDF |
|
142 |
2007
Adoption Version 1 |
PDF |
|
137 |
2006
Foster Care Version 1 |
PDF |
|
136 |
2006
Adoption Version 1 |
PDF |
|
131 |
2005
Foster Care Version 2 |
PDF |
|
130 |
2005
Adoption Version 2 |
PDF |
|
124 |
2004
Foster Care Version 3 |
PDF |
|
123 |
2004
Adoption Version 3 |
PDF |
|
118 |
2003
Adoption Version 4 |
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 |
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.xtria.com/nrccwdt/nrc_conf/pres2005/pre_conf/pre_conf_p01.html
List of AFCARS publications:
AFCARS Publications
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