Board to debate gathering, sharing child-abuse data

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday is scheduled to take up the thorny question of how to beef up county efforts to gather and share among key front-line departments relevant information concerning children at risk of abuse or neglect.

Child welfare experts agree that collating and utilizing such information from health, law enforcement and social service agencies about troubled families and at-risk children helps ensure that social workers and courts make the best decisions about a child’s placement, whether it’s with parents or other relative guardians, in foster care, or through permanent adoption.

What they do not always agree on is the best design for such a system. Critics have argued that technological shortcomings and legal constraints regarding privacy and confidentiality have hindered effective deployment of comprehensive information-sharing networks. Others point to inadequate implementation by participating agencies.

Since 1993, federal funds have subsidized development of statewide automated child welfare information systems (SACWIS) around the country. Los Angeles County at that time also adopted a model known as the Family Child Index (FCI), a separate database that depends on public agencies to enter key information such as criminal records, abuse complaints, substance-abuse referrals, doctors’ visits, mental health treatment and public-assistance status. Social workers accessing a child’s/parent’s case files should see “pointers” directing them to relevant reports in various departments. A special Multi-Disciplinary Team, meanwhile, is responsible for ensuring that social workers appropriately access and utilize the system.

Despite being in place, FCI was for years underutilized because key county departments were not entering data regularly. Last year, the Board of Supervisors ordered departments to retrain personnel to boost FCI participation. That training was completed in January. Since then, FCI is being used more often, according to the county’s Chief Executive Office.

A recent CEO analysis suggested exploring alternative models, such as an “information-portal” system currently being developed and refined in New York City. Such portal systems would function like search engines, scouring department databases and creating customized viewable reports containing the relevant data. Critics, however, have raised questions about design, implementation and potentially prohibitive costs.

Scheduled for discussion Tuesday is a motion by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas instructing the CEO and other county departments to explore the feasibility of establishing a new “interagency information sharing system” for child protection. The motion specifically asks that an examination be undertaken of legal requirements and funding issues. If passed, the motion would require the CEO’s office to report monthly progress to the supervisors.

Either way—working to improve the existing FCI through incremental changes or considering its replacement with a new model—the effort will need changes in state law and compliance with federal law to maintain the county’s eligibility for congressional funding.

Posted 4/8/2010