Search Tips

To search by keyword, you can look for a single word. Or, use the tips below to refine your search to find more specific results.

• Look for a phrase. Example - type foster care to find documents that contain the exact phrase foster care. Since the search is not case-sensitive, this is equivalent to Foster Care.
• Look for two or more words at once by using the AND operator. Example - type foster AND care to find documents that have both the word foster and the word care anywhere in them.
• Look for words that are close to each other by using the NEAR operator instead of the AND operator. When you use NEAR, the closer together the words are, the higher the rank of the page, so the higher it appears in the list of search results. Example - type foster NEAR care to match documents where the word foster is within 50 words of the word care.
• Look for synonyms or similar words by using the OR operator. Note that if you don't use the OR operator and search using multiple words, the words are treated as a phrase. Example - type child OR youth to find the word child or the word youth, but not necessarily both.
• Limit your search by using the AND NOT operator to exclude words. Example - type QMB AND NOT SLMB to find all instances of QMB, as long as QMB is not followed by the phrase SLMB.
• Use quotes if you want to use AND, OR, NOT, or NEAR literally. Example - type "houses near parks" using the quote marks to find documents with the phrase houses near parks. Without the double quotes, this query would use the NEAR operator instead of the phrase.
• Use a single asterisk (*) to look for words that begin with the same letters. Example - type key* to find key, keying, keyhole, keyboard, and so on.
• Use a double asterisk (**) to look for all forms of a word. Example - type fly** to match fly, flew, flown, and flying.