Child Welfare: HHS Begins to Assume Leadership to Implement National and State Systems
AIMD-94-37
Published: Jun 08, 1994. Publicly Released: Jul 08, 1994.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) progress in developing and implementing a nationwide adoption and foster care data collection system, focusing on: (1) whether HHS has provided adequate leadership to states for developing their systems; and (2) innovative state approaches to developing child welfare information systems.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Health and Human Services | The Secretary of Health and Human Services should direct the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families to: (1) work with states and child welfare experts to identify other information necessary for developing federal, state, and local child welfare policy that AFCARS will not provide; and (2) establish goals to obtain this information. |
According to HHS, it added a new financial data element during fiscal year 1995, and has encouraged states to submit suggestions for additions to AFCARS data. However, due to the mandatory requirements for AFCARS, most states prefer to complete their systems before considering new elements. HHS is planning no new initiatives in this regard.
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| Department of Health and Human Services | The Secretary of Health and Human Services should direct the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families to work with states, vendors, and child welfare and information system experts to: (1) determine the functional capabilities of a comprehensive statewide automated child welfare information system; and (2) evaluate the feasibility of developing a data dictionary defining uniform child welfare elements. |
HHS issued initial functional requirements for a statewide automated child welfare information system. Pursuant to an August 1994 contract, HHS has also developed a conceptual design, final functional requirements, and a data dictionary for a prototype system.
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| Department of Health and Human Services | The Secretary of Health and Human Services should direct the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families to establish an approach to routinely collect and disseminate information to the states on innovative state and vendor systems. |
HHS has established a child welfare information system bulletin board to facilitate the networking and sharing of information between those states planning to develop or developing child welfare information systems. Information on innovative child welfare systems is collected and disseminated via this bulletin board, as well as through national conferences.
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| Department of Health and Human Services | The Secretary of Health and Human Services should direct the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families to work with states, vendors, and child welfare and information system experts to determine the key capabilities of a comprehensive automated child welfare information system and provide a model of this system to the states to aid their system development efforts. |
In response to this recommendation, HHS: (1) incorporated some GAO-identified desirable capabilities into functional requirements for a Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS); (2) developed a core model of this system based on extensive user involvement; and (3) developed a SACWIS prototype implementing a small piece of the overall functionality of the core model. The objective of the prototype is to allow potential customers to envision a possible completed solution, but not necessarily the only solution. Using the Internet, HHS has now made this SACWIS prototype available to all states to download and use. Information on the prototype is found at http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/oss/ssacwis.htm.
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Topics
Child adoptionData collectionFederal regulationsstate relationsFoster childrenInformation systemsNational policiesReporting requirementsRequirements definitionSystems designChild welfare