Agency File Submission Instructions

OMB No. 0970-0424

Expiration Date: XX/XX/XXXX

The Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: The described collection of information is voluntary and will be used to inform the annual Child Maltreatment Report by providing specific data about children who have been maltreated. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 65.4 hours per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and reviewing the collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number and expiration date for the described collection are OMB #: 0970-0424, Exp: XX/XX/XXXX. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to Cara Kelly; cara.kelly@acf.hhs.gov.

PREPARING AGENCY DATA FOR SUBMISSION

The Agency File consists of CAPTA required items not typically collected or documented in state information systems. The Agency File requests aggregate data on:

• Prevention Services;

• Referrals and Reports;

• Additional Data on Child Victims;

• Child Fatalities Not Reported in the Child File; and

• Victims Eligible or Referred to IDEA Part C Services.

Data for the Agency File are submitted via the NCANDS Website. States can enter, review, comment upon, and save the data directly on the NCANDS Website.

Reporting Response Time in the Agency File

Agency Item 2.2-Response Time with Respect to the Initial Investigation or Assessment is used as a federal Performance Measure and is included in the Child Maltreatment report. It should be similar to the average response time computed from the NCANDS Child File. A state may use the computed Child File response time for Item 2.2 if the investigation start date and time fields pass data quality standards. These standards are found in the Data Completeness Validation Report and the Child File Supplemental Report on the NCANDS Website. They are included in the state Agency File Summary Report. The data quality standards are:

• Standard 1: At least 75% of reports must have an investigation start date.

• Standard 2: Of all reports with investigation start date, no more than 20% can have the same investigation start date and report disposition date.

• Standard 3a: For states that report only report date and investigation start date (and do not report the fields, report time and investigation start time): The report date should not equal investigation start date for more than 50% of reports.

• Standard 3b: For states that report the fields, report date, report time, investigation start date, and investigation start time: The report date and time should not equal investigation start date and time for more than 50% of reports.

A state should include a comment regarding the methodology used to compute average response time if the state’s computed value is significantly different from the Child File computed response time.

Item 2.5 Referrals Of Infants with prenatal substance exposure By Health Care Providers Screened Out

Item 2.5 Referrals of infants with prenatal substance exposure by health care providers screened out: Number of Infants was added to the Agency File effective October 1, 2018. This is the number of referrals of infants with prenatal substance exposure referred by healthcare providers (i.e., medical personnel) that are screened out. If a hospital social worker refers to CPS an infant with prenatal substance exposure on behalf of medical personnel, then guidance from the Children’s Bureau is to include those referrals in this count. Only infants with prenatal substance exposure referred by medical personnel or referred by social workers on behalf of medical personnel, should be included in this count. This field should be left blank if the state does not collect these data or does not screen out these infants. In either instance, the state should provide a comment.

Field 2.5 may be reported even if a state is unable to report field 2.1.B Referrals of children screened out during the year: number of children screened out. However, if the state is able to report both fields 2.1.B and 2.5, then 2.5 should be a subset of 2.1.B. This information can also be found in Technical Bulletin # 12_REVISED.