More fixes ordered for child-welfare database

Pushing to improve a key tool in child welfare investigations, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a motion Tuesday to increase the use and utility of a multi-departmental database for child social workers.

The motion, authored by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, instructs the county CEO and other departments to make and track improvements to the Family and Children’s Index system over the next year.

The FCI system is a computer database that provides child welfare social workers with key medical, law enforcement and social services information, The system came under review last year after a series of high-profile deaths of children in county care prompted a new examination of potential holes in the child-welfare safety net.

County officials discovered that the FCI system was badly underutilized by county agencies, including the Department of Children and Family Services, its primary beneficiary. Supervisors agreed on ordering improvements, but opinion divided over whether the ultimate goal was to repair the FCI system or to scrap it for another computer-based system.

This week’s vote was an endorsement for reform rather than replacement.

“We are going to move full speed ahead” with reforming FCI, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said at the conclusion of the discussion.

The motion also gives the CEO’s office 60 days to suggest ways to augment FCI using “best practices” from alternative systems in use elsewhere, provided they are legal in Los Angeles.

“This moves us forward in a way that doesn’t discard FCI, but augments it with the benefit of looking at other systems,” Ridley-Thomas told colleagues during the board meeting.

FCI is designed to be especially useful in the early stages of investigating child-welfare allegations, as emergency social workers prepare for a first visit to an at-risk child’s home.

Social workers need a quick, comprehensive way to understand the history of the family’s interactions with county agencies.

In the past, departments often failed to log relevant information, and some DCFS social workers did not check the database before launching investigations. Some departments hadn’t even completed memoranda of understanding about rules that would govern their work with FCI.

Last year, supervisors ordered county departments to begin aggressively implementing the system, including uploading more complete data and retraining staffers in its use. Training was completed in January, and FCI use has risen significantly. The number of “queries” rose from about 13,700 per month last summer to over 23,000 in March, according to FCI figures.

Still, problems remain that can’t be solved with technological fixes. The county is trying to resolve concerns over sharing certain information by working toward changes in state law and ways to keep in compliance with federal health-care privacy concerns.

“We need to have complete real-time information when we knock on that door,” Mike Ross, a supervising children’s social worker at DCFS in El Monte, told the board during Tuesday’s meeting.

Posted 4-29-10