Enhancing Data Quality in Child Welfare Systems

1. CCWIS WebinarData Quality (Part 2)June 26, 2019Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System Strengthening CONNECTIONS for caseworkers, children, and families • Call-In Details: • US Toll Free: 844-633-8697 • Local: 518-549-0500 • Access Code: 647 043 991

2. Panelists OCFS CCWIS Team: Sandra Carrk Meneek Jones Shawntell Mills-Sanchez Devo Olufunmilayo OCFS Child Welfare/SPPD: Jason DeSantis Vajeera Dorabawila Linda Gorthy Don Butler Jennifer Redman ITS CONNECTIONS: Megan Scullin LDSS: Christopher Anderson (Erie) Voluntary Agency: Wanda Medina (Graham Windham) Melissa McMahon (GA Child and Family Services) Tom Castelnuovo (SCO)

3. Agenda Multiple PID Issue (5/22 topic) – Recap and Next Steps Work-arounds Entry of known “bad” data Supervisory reviews/approvals Alerts/To Do’s Duplicate data entry OCFS oversight – data quality issues How to measure data quality

4. Multiple PID Issue (5/22 topic) – Recap and Next Steps Multiple PIDs is the biggest data quality issue in CONNX 30+ new requests for access to Multiple PID Report (MPR) State leads: Brian Washock and Meneek (MJ) Jones Multiple PID Specialists – points of contact/statewide list Aggregate report by county/by month, quarter, year to measure progress MPR improvements MPR training/technical assistance sessions

5. Work-arounds Are you doing any ‘work-arounds’ in CONNECTIONS where you use fields for purposes other than their original/probable intent? Some examples: Visitation dates/durations are not accurately collected Open FAD stage, home study (issue is being fixed in upcoming build)

6. Entry of known “bad” data Are there areas in the system where you are forced to enter data that you don’t have yet, resulting in “bad” or low-quality data just to get past that point? Some examples: CIN required on adoption screen, people are making one up (issue is being fixed in WMS) SOGIE – CWCS is working on guidance to help workers with how to ask these questions Tribal affiliation Home Name has to be truncated. Issue with adoption subsidy and KinGap. Court date differs from discharge or movement date - have to enter the court appearance as of the movement date because if we enter it on the real date, we will lose all reimbursement for the days in between.  “Effective date” would be beneficial.   No entry to reflect “Court Order Terminated,” which is not the same as Withdrawn or Dismissed.  It would be better if we were able to reflect closure and a clean end to our legal involvement.

7. Supervisory reviews/approvals Throughout CONNECTIONS, supervisory reviews/approvals are required.  Is this sufficient to help support good data quality; are there any other ideas to improve practice? For example: VAs can submit the FASP to county case manager, who can do a final approval, but the system should require supervisory approval. Is this a system issue or a practice issue?

8. Alerts/To Do’s Are alerts/to do’s helpful/effective tools to impact data quality? Initial responses: No, there are far too many and they are mostly ignored. Placements functionality is emailing reminders instead. We should review and limit these to tasks to which the system can provide a link/navigation. These are of most value to workers.

9. Duplicate data entry How does duplicate data entry (into CONNECTIONS and your local systems) impact the quality of CONNECTIONS data? COFCCA has done significant analysis over the past year to identify areas of duplicate data entry. Data flows developed in the areas of foster care placement and billing; organizational hierarchy; adoption; education; health; PHR; and resource tracking The short answers are that: 1) Duplicate entry into CONNX and agency systems may not, in and of itself, negatively affect CONNX data quality. Other factors are driving that. 2) Data matching between CONNX and agency systems occurs but is limited and could be more extensive. 3) Putting the minimum data into CONNX is a consideration in only a couple of areas: Adoption and homefinding. For example, agencies are not going to write longer FASPs or more progress notes or add movements. 

10. OCFS oversight – data quality issues What issues are noticed by OCFS where data quality could be improved (likely related to case practice)? Some examples: Progress Notes indicating “present” when not the case (i.e. emails) Progress Notes indicating “casework contact” when not the case (i.e. not actual contacts) Race/ethnicity data collection Permanency Hearing Reports (PHRs) due – state requirement is 6 months; federal is 9 months; we aren’t meeting either. Issues: court lags, then data entry lags.

11. How to measure data quality How do we measure data quality to know if we are improving over time/if our efforts are working? CQI, Case File Reviews Data Quality biennial reviews (CCWIS requirement) Data Governance Committee SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Time-bound)

12. SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Time-bound) DRAFT/EXAMPLES:

13. ? ? Q & A ? ? ? ?

14. Ideas for future Webinar Topics CONNECTIONS Functionality Review tentative build schedule How can the system better support work processes? Areas noted in local system surveys for potential inclusion in CONNECTIONS Dashboard landing page What information do you want at your fingertips when you open the system? Stages with missing AFCARS info; list of placed youth; alerts? Data Quality Workgroup Present the work done to date on data flow diagrams and other discussion points, and invite more counties and agencies to participate Mobility What functions would be most helpful in the field? Progress Notes Data Exchanges Predictive Analytics

15. Thank you! Reaching out for Child Passport feedback (health tab users) Next monthly CCWIS Webinar: July 24th 11am-12pm Send topics, suggestions, or questions to: CCWISTeam@ocfs.ny.gov CCWIS Strengthening CONNECTIONS for caseworkers, children, and families