All Children - All Families participants receive access to an online Agency Self-Assessment tool that guides their review of policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ inclusion.

Currently working on your agency's assessment? Click here for tips.

About the Assessment

Accessing the Online Assessment

The assessment is housed in Qualtrics, an online surveying tool. Each participating agency receives its own unique link. This link will need to be shared among the agency's staff team members who are collaborating to complete the assessment. For access to an assessment for your agency, request to participate today. Already a participant and need your link to be resent to you? Email acaf@hrc.org.

Overview of Online Assessment

The assessment is organized into sections focused on each policy and practice area within the Benchmarks of LGBTQ+ Inclusion:

1. Non-Discrimination
2. Staff Training
3. Rolling Out the Welcome Mat
4. Parent Best Practices
5. Youth Best Practices
6. Sustainability & Capacity Building
7. Innovation & Leadership

The assessment also includes specific sections on policies and practices applicable to CASAs and Adoption Exchanges.

Resources & Support for Completing Online Assessment

Throughout the assessment, additional information and links to ACAF resources are provided to assist those completing the questions and working on the related policy/practice updates. All participating agencies are highly encouraged to 1) take a team-based approach to completing the assessment, and 2) ensure that at least one staff person working on the assessment attends an orientation.

Tips for Completing the Assessment

For All Participants:

• Username and Password: Each time you work on the assessment, you will click on the link provided to you by ACAF via email and enter your organization’s unique username and password on the login page. Feel free to share the link with colleagues (maximum of five people). The ASA will alert you if another team member has worked on the assessment within the last 60 minutes.
• Enter All Contributors: As you complete the assessment, please make sure that all contributors have entered their information in the "Contributors" section. Up to five people may work on the assessment, one of whom must be designated as the Official Submitter. (Note: Multiple people working on the assessment at the same time from different computers may cause errors and is not recommended.)
• Use the Table of Contents: A Table of Contents is available from a clickable icon in the top left of the survey page and allows you to navigate throughout the assessment sections. (Note: This icon is only available on the benchmark-specific assessment sections. In order to navigate past the "Welcome," "Contributors," or "Agency Information" pages, you must use the button on the bottom right.)
• Save Your Work: Here is what you need to know about saving your work:
  • As you work, click "Save and Continue" to save your work.
  • Each time you return to the assessment, you will be taken to the page that was last worked on.
  • Before the assessment can be submitted to HRC, all sections must be saved as "Final." The assessment will check to make sure you've entered all required information before saving a section as "Final." If you know you still have work to do on a section, you can keep the section saved as "Draft."
  • To check the status of each section, go to the "Submission Form" page.
• Provide Sufficient Details & Documentation: Throughout the assessment you will be asked to provide additional details on practices reported by typing into text fields. Please provide as much detail as possible to help HRC verify and understand the practices you are reporting. (Think 5 W's: Who, When, Where, What, Why.) You will also be asked to upload documentation of policies/practices reported. The majority of follow up questions include help text links to more information and model policies.
• Review Your Preliminary Results: At the bottom of each benchmark section, the assessment will show you your preliminary results as they relate to that specific benchmark. These results are pending HRC's review of your assessment and supporting documentation.
• Submit to HRC: When your work on the benchmarks is complete, you will submit your assessment to HRC. You won't be able to access the "Submit to HRC" button on the "Submission Form" page until all assessment sections are successfully saved as "Final." At this time, you will also see your agency's preliminary Tier of Recognition. This tier designation is pending HRC's review of your assessment and supporting documentation.
• Get Printer-Friendly Version of Your Assessment: You can now access a printer-friendly version of your agency self-assessment from a link the login page. This will create an HTML file of your assessment with all current responses entered. You can then print it as a PDF or send it to your printer.

For Returning Participants:

• Responses Pre-Populated. Your responses from your last year’s submission are pre-populated throughout the assessment. Please review all previous responses and make any necessary updates.
• Review Files. Your file uploads from last year are available as highlighted hyperlinks throughout the assessment. If these files are still accurate you do NOT need to upload the files again.
• Updated Staff Training Section. The Staff Training section outlines the adjusted webinar participation requirements for returning participants.
• New Questions. Any new questions in the assessment are highlighted in blue.

Troubleshooting Tips

• Browser Compatibility: Please use Chrome or Firefox browsers while completing this assessment. There are known compatibility issues with Internet Explorer/Microsoft Edge, and we recommend you avoid using that browser if possible.
• Logging In: If copying and pasting the login information doesn’t work, try entering it manually instead.
• Use an Incognito Window: Sometimes, cookies and saved data can interfere with the survey. Try opening an incognito window if you are having problems logging in.
• Saving Sections as Final: When saving as final, if you receive an error message, it is because a question was missed; review the page for any responses that need to be added.