§ 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.

Legislative History

Source: Laws 2012, LB1160, § 4.