Regulatory and industry changes present both opportunities and challenges to child welfare agencies. In June 2016, the Administration for Children and Families, Children’s Bureau (ACF/CB) within the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) published the final rule of the optional child welfare case management system model called Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS).

The final ruling started a two-year transition planning period, during which states have been evaluating the CCWIS model as an alternative to maintaining the existing SACWIS through the end of its system life.

CGI has been working with states on strategies to right-size their child welfare systems through modern technology choices and improved data quality design with the aim of putting better tools and information in the hands of child welfare workers.

States have been developing their long-term strategies. They understand the requirements for improved user access, greater interoperability, reduced program cost and improved quality while being responsive to regulatory change. Now, CGI is collaborating with states in the implementation of accelerators, mitigating risk and providing benefits to users. Accelerators include:

  • Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) – supports modular child welfare system design, reduces IT operating costs and can be built to enable individual module upgrades
  • Smartphone/Tablet Mobile Integration – empowers caseworkers to engage clients in the field, reducing paperwork with real-time case updates and improved data quality
  • Business Rules Engine – migrates child welfare program rules away from legacy application code and into an external business rules engine for streamlining of program policy edits in a dynamic policy environment
  • Agile Development – recognizes the opportunity for a more flexible and iterative implementation framework
  • Balanced Governance – provides a proven governance framework including project oversight, shared technology services, risk management and organizational change management roles

More than 35,000 users depend on CGI-implemented child welfare systems every day.

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