Our Mission | FaSTech Vision | Caseworkers | Challenges

	Significant investments in technology and innovation are only now beginning to reach the caseworker with the introduction of mobile devices designed to streamline access to information and improve service delivery.

Challenges

Challenge to the States and Local Government

In an effort to improve family services and protect children, states invest at least $22 billion annually on a broad range of social welfare activities through a combination of federal, state, and local funding. According to the Urban Institute, federal funding accounts for 51% of total spending, 37% in state funds and 12% from local funding.

More than $4.5 billion dollars has been invested in child welfare technology to create efficiencies and improve outcomes. These significant investments in information technology and   data infrastructure has been primarily focused on the implementation of Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information Systems (SACWIS) aimed at improving data collection and information sharing across social welfare departments and organizations.

This technological innovation is only now beginning to reach the caseworker with the introduction of mobile devices designed to streamline access to information and improve service delivery.

For example, real-time access to information and the integration of state and county databases puts valuable information in the field where the caseworker needs it most. Developments in wireless technology open up the possibility for data sharing and synchronization between caseworkers and the state's central computer system helping to reduce caseloads and enable greater time for analysis and decisions.

However, the integration of SACWIS back-office systems with the mobile workforce is still not optimized as states consider performance objectives and the IT investment necessary (or unnecessary) in order to achieve desired outcomes.

The challenge to state and local governments rests on how to leverage current and prior technology investments in the data center to meet the needs of caseworkers in the field. Best practices are necessary to guarantee caseworker needs are met and optimized for current and future SACWIS implementations.