The OR-Kids Project

About SACWIS

Overview

SACWIS stands for Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF) oversees SACWIS activities. For more information on SACWIS, visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services SACWIS Web page.

Oregon History

Oregon uses the Integrated Information System (IIS), the Family and Children Information System (FACIS), and various ancillary applications to manage its child welfare program. FACIS and associated systems track clients, providers and services statewide, and produce management and federal reports.

IIS was developed in phases from 1979 to 1984 and utilizes IBM's IMS database management system, Cobol II, CICS Command Level, and MVS-JCL technology

FACIS development began in 1994 using Cincom SmallTalk (Object Studio), Delphi, Sybase RDMS, and Sybase Direct Connect technologies. Development relied on preserving the original IMS hierarchical database and utilized EHLLAPI screen scraping technology to gather and display mainframe information on FACIS windows. This technology is still used today.

Although FACIS is considered Oregon's primary SACWIS, it does not meet many existing business needs. While multiple functional areas were originally planned for FACIS, only the intake and assessment modules were actually completed, leaving Oregon workers with a partial solution to meet their day-to-day business and case management needs. Additional work has been done in other areas, such as eligibility, court reporting, and adoptions, but has not been completed.

Many adjunct systems, that were either in existence prior to FACIS or have been developed by the user community since FACIS, assist with managing Oregon's child welfare business for those specific areas. Having multiple systems means users must sometimes re-key information, manage multiple security access passwords, and follow convoluted business processes based on fragmented systems.

Subsequent research and analysis have revealed that building on the current system as it exists today would not be cost effective or provide for a viable SACWIS

SACWIS Replacement Project

Current Status - FACIS and associated systems track clients, providers and services statewide, and produce management and federal reports.

Although FACIS is considered Oregon's primary SACWIS, it does not meet many existing business needs. While multiple functional areas were originally planned for FACIS, only the intake and assessment modules were actually completed, leaving Oregon workers with a partial solution to meet their day-to-day business and case management needs. Additional work has been done in other areas, such as eligibility, court reporting, and adoptions, but has not been completed.

Many adjunct systems, that were either in existence prior to FACIS or have been developed by the user community since FACIS, assist with managing Oregon's child welfare business for those particular areas. Having multiple systems means that users must sometimes re-key information, manage multiple security access passwords, and follow convoluted business processes based on fragmented systems.

Subsequent research and analysis have revealed that building on the current system as it exists today would not be cost effective or provide for a viable SACWIS.

Replacing Existing Child Welfare Systems

Developing and implementing a new SACWIS will be a large and complex project.

• OR-Kids is funded through certificates of participation and federal match.
• DHS will continue to support child welfare business through existing technologies during the OR-Kids project.
• Ten major activity tracks of the OR-Kids project have been identified. Each of these activity tracks are coordinated within the overall plan, and are managed individually as sub-projects:
  1. Project Management
  2. Federal Approval of APDs and Procurements
  3. Oregon Child Welfare Practice Model
  4. Organizational Change Management
  5. Budget and Funding
  6. Recruitments and Contracts
  7. Planning and Oversight
  8. Data Migration (Conversion)
  9. Interfaces
  10. Implementation
• CGI Group, Inc. was awarded the implementation Request for Procurement (RFP) effective March 10, 2008.
• Walter R. McDonald and Associates was awarded the Planning & Quality control RFP contract.
• MAXIMUS was awarded the Quality Assurance RFP contract.

Benefits of the new SACWIS

• The new SACWIS will support many of the themes under development in the DHS strategic plan. In addition to cost savings and cost avoidance a new SACWIS will bring the following benefits:
• Align technology systems and support with needs of the Children, Adults ad Families Cluster (CAF) - The new approach will provide a system that is better aligned with CAF needs
• Reduce the complexity of systems and procedures - The current multiple platform environments in the FACIS system are very complex and difficult to maintain. A new system will reduce the number of technology platforms and simplify maintenance.
• Modernize - Many of the technology components of FACIS are obsolete or un-supported. The new approach will implement modern technologies that will have continued technical support through the life of the new system.
• Standardize Processes - The new approach will standardize child welfare practices within Oregon and will bring Oregon practices into alignment with other state and federal standards.
• Transform Skills - The new approach includes transition planning and training to transform the skills of current maintenance and development staff from obsolete technologies to current technology skill sets.
  

Next Steps

• System design is in progress through mid-2009.
• Business process modeling will be a major activity in 2009.
• System development will commence as design is completed in incremental steps.
• Data conversion and interface development will be a major activity in 2009.