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ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES

JESS McDONALD, DIRECTOR

CWAC SACWIS ADVISORY COMMITTEE

December 5, 2000 Meeting Minutes

Members in Attendance

Jan Schoening, CCA Priscilla Parker, LCFS

Stephen Bradshaw, DCFS / POS Liaison Zack Schrantz, Uhlich Children�s Home

Rommel Sangalang, CCA Sam Traylor, DCFS SACWIS

Lory Sandburg, LSSI Don Vacca, DCFS

Kevin Singletary, CSS � Peoria Joyce Scott, YMCA

George Thibeault, Catholic Charities Theresa Riley, Center for New Horizons

Darlene Sweeney, Allendale Dennis Egolf, DCFS SACWIS

Deverrick Crawford, Lakeside Comm. Cmt. Susan Klein-Rothschild, Spectrum

Sherman Nelson, Lakeside Comm. Cmt. Alicia McCree, Reaching the Mark

Sharon Bourne, The Family Link Mary Debose, CHASI

Members Absent

Gaylord Sheffey, Ada S. McKinley Frances Barnes, Volunteers of America

Richard Calica, Juvenile Protective Assn. Lori McCurdy, Ill. Assn. Of Rehab Facilities

Jim Erickson, New Life Social Services Greg Kurth, Central Baptist Children�s Hm.

Review and Approval of Minutes

The minutes were distributed and stamped draft. Attendees noted no changes. Any changes are to be sent to Steve Bradshaw.

Update on SACWIS Project � Sam Traylor

	Sam Traylor announced that AMS has changed the project manager. Dawn Tatman is acting project manager. It is somewhat of a concern to the Department.
	The project is in the process of reviewing the architectural specifications.
	The Department is in the process of converting to the windows 2000 operating system.
	Application server applications are due to the Department this week. Prices are dropping so the Department is hoping to save some money.
	AMS is currently putting together a proposal for a financial piece of the system. Roy Miller has asked for more financial and accounting processes than were in the original RFP.

Survey of POS Staff � Steve Bradshaw

	Steve Bradshaw stated that AMS needs to know the type of work performed by each of the private agency staff that will be users of SACWIS. AMS need to plan to have enough classes for each type of type so every staff member is trained in areas directly related to their job tasks on SACWIS.
	The project will define the broad categories such as investigators, follow-up workers.
	At this point the project needs to know general information about the staff that perform each type of work responsibility. The names of specific staff are not needed until it is closer to the actual delivery of training.
	The committee asked if training was mandatory. In the past, the Department has not provided user log-ons until each staff person has completed training. This procedure is expected to continue.
	Questions were raised about keyboarding skills, spell-check and grammar check in the application. The Department agreed to follow-up on the spell-check issue with AMS.
	Questions were also raised about meeting the needs of staff with disabilities. It was noted that employers, that is private agencies, are responsible for meeting these needs.
	It was agreed that a draft of a survey on staff positions in private agencies would be brought to the January meeting.

Update on Best Practice � Don Vacca

	Best Practice is creating another expert panel. Four individuals from private agencies are on this expert panel. A few more people may be added to the list distributed including a few more university representatives. The expert panel will review the Best Practice documents and give good, solid input. After the expert panel reviews the documents, the final draft will be sent to policies and procedures. The first meeting of this new expert panel is scheduled for next Friday.
	There has been considerable work in the design and detail of the SACWIS side of Intake and Investigations.
	The Resources / licensing piece is under development. This group is co-chaired by Jeannette Hamilton and Sharyn Wilson . Mary Debose who joined the project in September, and other Best Practice staff have participated in the development of this piece. They are working to develop a uniform assessment guide for all type of caretakers (kinship, adoptive, foster). Focus groups have been used to get feedback on draft materials. The private sector has had input, primarily through focus groups. Drafts of the material will be shared with the expert panel and additional focus groups will be held.
	Best Practice has added Hector Avilas from the Office of Latino Services. His primary focus will be on the language issues. Anything that goes to a client must be available in Spanish and English. The committee noted there are workload issues. This should be considered in any workload analysis.

Status on Interfaces and Reports � Sam Traylor

	Foster Centola and Bob Lloyd are setting up a meeting to talk about system reports. Kim Kline will be invited to this meeting and other meetings on phase 1 reports.
	The only interface in phase 1 is to the federal government for NCANDS

Bridge Between POS and SACWIS � Sam Traylor

	In a previous meeting, this advisory committee agreed to establish a sub-group to work on this issue in further detail. The focus on this work group is to discuss how SACWIS data could be downloaded into local automated systems. Private agencies noted that at a minimum, agencies will need to manager their resources and pay their caretakers.
	POS agencies will give names of private agency staff to participate in this sub-group. Kevin Singletary, Zack Schrantz, Priscilla Parker, George Thibeault and Theresa Riley volunteered to participate, Joyce Scott will name a person, also.
	Sam Traylor agreed to approach AMS to learn of their perspective on this issue. This could provide a starting point for the discussion.
	The meeting on the bridge is set for January 25, 2001 from noon until 2:30 p.m.

Change Management, Communication and Training Plans � Sam Traylor

	The AMS change management plan has been given tentative approval based on a few changes.
	Sam Traylor suggested that the AMS change management, Best Practice and SACWIS staff present the plans at the next advisory committee meeting in January. Sam indicated he will try to get the written plans to committee members before the January meeting.

Medicaid and Residential � Sam Traylor

	There has not been any progress in these areas.
	The committee has not written a document outlining the issues as previously discussed.
	There are now weekly meetings with SACWIS and the support services group. These meetings may provide an avenue to further these issues.

Case Responsibility and Data Creep � Jan Schoening

	These are issues from previous meetings. The issues relate to who enters case data in SACWIS and are we collecting too much data.
	Private agencies have completed a review of the user requirements and identified areas where data creep may be a problem. This will be shared with DCFS in the near future.

Focus Groups � Jan Schoening

	The private agencies are preparing for focus groups on topic areas to be included in the SACWIS design phase 2. The kick-off meeting for the focus groups will be held on January 26.
	Sam Traylor agreed to contact the legal department and identify if use case materials can be shared with private agencies for this meeting.
	Sam Traylor will talk to AMS about providing a presentation on the prototype or the New Mexico system in the morning for about 1 � hours.
	Susan Klein-Rothschild will provide brief background on SACWIS.
	Separate focus groups have been identified for each topic area for the afternoon. Focus group may be combined depending upon the number of participants.
	Don Vacca will talk to Best Practice about providing a 15-minute orientation to Best Practice. Mary Debose noted that she had spoken to Marilyn about this presentation.

Certification and Availability of Funding � Jan Schoening

	Committee members expressed concern that the private agency sites will need to be ready for site certification with equipment in place and a connection to the terminal server established before the agencies receive the third year funding.
	Committee members recommended one of two alternatives:

	Make the funding available earlier
	Provide more time for the certification

Jan Schoening agreed to write the concern in a letter to Sam Traylor.

Committee members further noted that since many of the agencies will have had the machines for a while, they will already have received training and 2 �3 days of office automation training may not be necessary. The certification date was originally identified in part based on the amount of time needed to provide office automation training for all POS staff.

Site Visitation Analysis � Steve Bradshaw

	Steve distributed a summary of site visits for 42 private agencies. The summary is based on agencies and not sites. This is not a comprehensive summary, but was based on what was available a few weeks ago.
	Committee members discussed the benefits of such a summary and requested that Steve continue to develop a full summary by agency.

Three Year Plan and Budget Progress - Steve Bradshaw

	DCFS has received one plan from a private agency. A review of the plan results in many questions and follow-up will be needed.
	Steve Bradshaw continues to receive calls for information to assist agencies with plan preparation.
	The committee discussed the need to amend the plan if there were changes over the three-year time period. If the amount of an item cost less than is stated in the plan, there is no need for a contract amendment. However, if the funds are to be spent on something not in the plan, or the amount is greater than the plan states, there is a need for a contract amendment.
	Concerns about variances in costs and purchases were discussed. Dennis Egolf agreed to pursue the possibility of allowing variance within categories of the budget without a contract amendment.
	Steve Bradshaw agreed to mail agencies another copy of examples of how the money could be spent to prepare for SACWIS.
	Dennis Egolf noted that if private agencies have any comments about the language in the draft contract, they contact him as soon as possible.

Terminal Server Connection - Steve Bradshaw

	Steve Bradshaw distributed a handout describing the steps to establish the terminal server connection. This handout is the result of a meeting with staff from DCFS, SPECTRUM / MAXIMUS, and Getronics related to the technical side of the connection.
	Steve agreed to send this handout to private agencies. He will indicate who to call if they have any questions related to the technical aspects.

Meeting Dates and Locations for calendar year 2001

Meeting dates and locations were established for the first six months of 2001:

	Jan. 9^th, Springfield
	Feb. 13^th, River Forest
	Mar. 6^th, Springfield
	Apr. 3^rd, River Forest
	May 1^st, Springfield
	June 5^th, River Forest

It was also agreed that the "Bridge" meeting between DCFS, POS, and AMS would be held on Jan. 25^th at the Hyatt Lisle. This is the day preceding the POS focus groups meeting at the same location.