43-4404. Child welfare information system; department; duties; objectives; capacity.

(1) The department shall develop and implement a web-based, statewide automated child welfare information system to integrate child welfare information into one system. Objectives for the web-based, statewide automated child welfare information system shall include: (a) Improving efficiency and effectiveness by reducing paperwork and redundant data entry, allowing case managers to spend more time working with families and children; (b) improving access to information and tools that support consistent policy and practice standards across the state; (c) facilitating timely and quality case management decisions and actions by providing alerts and accurate information, including program information and prior child welfare case histories within the department or a division thereof or from other agencies; (d) providing consistent and accurate data management to improve reporting capabilities, accountability, workload distribution, and child welfare case review requirements; (e) establishing integrated payment processes and procedures for tracking services available and provided to children and accurately paying for those services; (f) improving the capacity for case managers to complete major functional areas of their work, including intake, investigations, placements, foster care eligibility determinations, reunifications, adoptions, financial management, resource management, and reporting; (g) utilizing business intelligence software to track progress through dashboards; (h) access to real-time data to identify specific child welfare cases and take immediate corrective and supportive actions; (i) helping case managers to expediently identify foster homes and community resources available to meet each child’s needs; and (j) providing opportunity for greater accuracy, transparency, and oversight of the child welfare system through improved reporting and tracking capabilities.

(2) The capacity of the web-based, statewide automated child welfare information system shall include: (a) Integration across related social services programs through automated interfaces, including, but not limited to, the courts, medicaid eligibility, financial processes, and child support; (b) ease in implementing future system modifications as user requirements or policies change; (c) compatibility with multiple vendor platforms; (d) system architecture that provides multiple options to build additional capacity to manage increased user transactions as system volume requirements increase over time; (e) protection of the system at every tier in case of hardware, software, power, or other system component failure; (f) vendor portals to support direct entry of child welfare case information, as appropriate, by private providers' staff serving children, to increase collaboration between private providers and the department; (g) key automated process analysis to allow supervisors and management to identify child welfare cases not meeting specified goals, identify issues, and report details and outcome measures to cellular telephones or other mobile communication devices used by management and administration; (h) web-based access and availability twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week; (i) automated application of policy and procedures, to make application of policy less complex and easier to follow; (j) automated prompts and alerts when actions are due, to enable case managers and supervisors to manage child welfare cases more efficiently; and (k) compliance with federal regulations related to statewide automated child welfare information systems at 45 C.F.R. 1355.50 through 1355.57, implementing section 474(a)(3)(C) and (D) of Title IV-E of the federal Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. 674(a)(3)(C) and (D), as such regulations and section existed on January 1, 2012.

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