SACWIS is a Web-based system that will help county caseworkers and managers with several functions including eligibility, case management and administration of adoption, foster care and child protection cases. The system will be accessible 24 hours a day to more than 5,000 county caseworkers across the state as they work to support and improve the safety, permanency and well-being of children and families.
"The safety of children is an around-the-clock responsibility and Ohio's new system will provide county caseworkers with real-time access to critical case information from the entire state no matter the hour," ODJFS Director Barbara Riley said. "Having access to information across county lines will help local and state administrators make informed decisions about the services provided to children and families."
Currently, six Ohio counties (Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas, Montgomery and Summit) operate their own child welfare information systems. Information from those systems is uploaded to the state on a nightly basis. The remaining counties are connected via a statewide network that provides access to information during scheduled hours.
The new system, which supports cases from intake to closure, will be accessible to workers anywhere there is Internet access and will include tools such as alerts and reminders that will help in the day-to-day management of their cases. The pilot of the system in the Muskingum County Public Children Services agency is scheduled to operate for 90 days. After that, the system will be rolled out to the remaining 87 counties with statewide implementation scheduled to be compete by mid-2007. Several county public children services agencies from across the state have been actively involved with the design and user acceptance testing of the system.
The Ohio Office of Information Technology awarded a competitively bid contract to Dynamics Research Corporation to develop and implement the new computer system. The $35 million contract is in effect through 2008. The federal government is paying for half of the cost of the system, according to ODJFS.
