1. Title IV-E

2. Quality Assurance and Accountability (QAA)
QAA Team:
Program Manager
2 Program Supervisors
5 Regional Teams
Central – 5 Program Consultants
Piedmont – 5 Program Consultants
Northern – 5 Program Consultants
Eastern – 4 Program Consultants
Western – 4 Program Consultants

3. Federal Title IV-E Reviews
Periodic and systematic review of title IV-E foster care programs are conducted by the Children’s Bureau.
Ensure federal funds are expended for intended purposes
Recover improper expenditures
Reviews are conducted by a team of federal and state agency representatives.
Reviews provide a snapshot of decisions about a child’s foster care episode and, thus, the agency’s child welfare practice and fiscal accountability.

4. Federal Title IV-E Reviews
Reviews monitor substantial compliance with requirements pertaining to:
Judicial determinations regarding reasonable efforts and contrary to the welfare
Voluntary placement agreements
Responsibility for placement and care vested with the State.
Children's’ eligibility AFDC
Child’s placement in a licensed foster home or child care institution
Safety requirements are met
IV-E expenditures

5. Primary Review Process
On-site review during a 5 day period
Review team examines case records including:
Placement history
Payment history
Court orders
Provider licensing
Safety documentation
Review team completes a Title IV-E Foster Care Eligibility On-Site Review Instruments for each case.

6. Period Under Review (PUR)
The cases that are determined for the review are selected from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS).
Any case that had at least one IV-E foster care maintenance payment made during the PUR is eligible to be reviewed.
80 cases will be randomly selected from the PUR to be reviewed during the on-site primary review.
20 additional cases are pulled as oversamples

7. Substantial Compliance
During the primary review, out of the 80 cases reviewed the State is allowed up to four federal case errors.
A federal case error is a finding of a case to not be IV-E eligible or a finding of an ineligible IV-E payment made during the PUR
If one case has multiple errors, it still counts as only 1 federal case error.
A finding of four or fewer federal case errors means that the State is found in substantial compliance.
If found in substantial compliance, the next review will be in three years.

8. Not in Substantial Compliance
If five or more federal case errors are found during the primary review, the State will not be in substantial compliance
Beyond payment back any ineligible payments found during the review, the state could also face a larger financial disallowance
State must develop a Program Improvement Plan (PIP)
Correct areas of noncompliance
Improve performance on future reviews
Strengthen overall operation
State will undergo a secondary review following the completion of the PIP.

9. Secondary Review 150 cases are pulled from a new Period Under Review
State must not exceed the compliance threshold of more than 10 percent in both the federal case error rate and the dollar error rate.
If not in compliance with a secondary review, a disallowance is assessed on the basis of the agency’s total foster care population for the 6 month PUR.

10. 2019 Federal Review
On-side Review – September 23rd through the 27th, 2019
Period Under Review – October 1, 2018 through March 31, 2019.
80 cases randomly selected
Each agency has an equal chance to have a case selected

11. 2019 Review Preparation
Effective July 1, 2018, the error rate for shared fiscal accountability for title IV-E foster care was reduced to 0%.
QAA consultants continue to conduct quarterly reviews for all new funding cases validations as well as completing a 100% review of all ongoing IV-E foster care cases.
QAA team will conduct thorough reviews on all 80 cases selected for the review.
Case files needed at the time of review include:
Eligibility File
Services File
Resource Home File

12. QAA Reviews
The QAA team conducts two types of agency reviews to ensure proper use of IV-E funding
Child Welfare Case Reviews
Quarterly review of every agency
Reviews all new foster care funding cases to ensure proper IV-E eligibility determination
IV-E Ongoing Reviews
Once a year for every agency
Reviews all ongoing IV-E eligible youth for the agency
Verifies proper use of IV-E funds for services provided

13. Ongoing Reviews IV-E Ongoing Requirements: Age Approved Placement
SSI Payments
Judicial Requirements:
Annual Judicial Reviews
Voluntary Placement Language
Proper completion and documentation of IV-E payments
Clothing Allowance
VEMAT
Child Care
Transportation

14. Ongoing Review Reporting
Thorough breakdown of ongoing reviews for FY 18 was published on Fusion
“4th Quarter and FY 2018 IV-E State and Local Outcomes”
Broken down by State, Region, and Agency
Report Details:
Types of errors found on the report
Number of each type of error
Total number of errors found
Total number of cases with an error
Federal error percentage

15. Total Errors vs Cases with an Error
Total number of errors found
State level, regional level, and agency level
Number of cases with an error
Federal Case Error
Number of cases which had an error regardless of the amount of errors for that case
Example:
One case had three errors found: 2 ineligible payments and 1 safety requirement finding
3 total errors but only 1 Federal Case Error

16. Federal Error Percentage
Number of cases with an error (Federal Case Error) divided by the total number of cases reviewed
Provides a percentage of cases which had at least one error found on the ongoing reviews

17. Ongoing Review Errors Ineligible IV-E Expenditures
Most common error found during ongoing reviews
11.11% of all cases reviewed had an ineligible IV-E expenditure
Pro rating the maintenance payment based on placement dates
Untimely VEMAT
Missing documentation for clothing expenditures
Missing documentation for transportation expenses
No longer accepting corrections on site
Agency can provide any missing documentation while on site but the finding will remain on the report as an error.
While this is the highest occurring error, this is the easiest error that can be addressed within the agency.

18. Ongoing Review Errors Safety Requirements
1.62% of all cases were found to have a safety requirement error
Checklist for provider approval and re-approval dates
Inconsistent or inaccurate
Pulling two resource home files during the review
Verifying that the checks were completed and in the file
Verifying the dates match the dates on the checklist
Background checks are able to kept in the eligibility file
Good working relationship between resource home unit and eligibility unit
Tracking each resource home to know when background checks are due

19. Child Welfare Case Reviews (CWCR)
10 CPS Referrals, 5 CPS Ongoing, 5 Foster Care Cases
Eligibility Determination requirements:
Required Judicial Language
Contrary to the Welfare
Reasonable Efforts to Prevent Removal
AFDC Relatedness
Income/Resources/Assistance Unit
Removed from a Specified Relative
Deprivation
Citizenship or Qualified Alien Status
Age

20. CWCR Reporting Quarterly Reporting Continuous Quality Improvement
Posted to the Fusion website
Shows the number of cases reviews and total number of errors found for each region.
Continuous Quality Improvement
Mirror the ongoing report
Provide more extensive breakdown of the errors found
Provide the Federal Case Error rate
Identify trends and areas needing improvement for correct determinations of IV-E eligibility

21. OASIS Documentation and Agency Practice
Child Information
Eligibility Determination: IV-E vs CSA
Placement Information
Court Information
Maintenance Rates
Agency Practice
Eligibility File
All documentation is in file
All documentation is in the correct section of the file

22. Common Findings: Agency Practice and OASIS
OASIS Documentation
Missing or incorrect funding determination
Incorrect placement dates
Missing or incorrect court information
Agency Practice
Missing Notice of Action
Missing placement agreements
File not maintained based on the Standard File Format
“IV-E Case File Sections” available on Fusion

23. Best Practice of Local Agencies
Internal Reviews
Benefit Specialist to conduct quarterly reviews of eligibility file and OASIS
Identify areas in need of improvement and implement reviews
Technical Assistance
QAA Consultants
Agency to agency collaboration
Communication within the agency
Services, benefits, finance, and resource home staff

24. Title IV-E Training
New IV-E Training is offered every month except for May and November
Each region conducts two trainings a year
Each training should be posted to the Learning Center six months prior to training taking place
Online IV-E modules are available on Learning Center and are prerequisites for the in class training

25. Title IV-E Training Schedule
October Northern November Empty December Eastern January 2019: Piedmont February 2019: Central March 2019: Western April 2019: Northern

26. Contact Information
Morgan Nelson – QAA Program Manager
Matthew Lafrinere – QAA Program Supervisor
Dawn Burtner – QAA Program Supervisor