ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES
JESS McDONALD, DIRECTOR
CWAC SACWIS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
July 25, 2000 Meeting Minutes
Members in Attendance
Priscilla Parker, LCFS Sam Traylor, DCFS SACWIS
Kevin Singletary, CSS � Peoria Steve Bradshaw, DCFS/POS Liaison
Zack Schrantz, Uhlich Dennis Egolf, SACWIS
Jim Erickson, New Life Social Services Don Vacca, DCFS
Sue Grady, Youth Svc. Bureau, IL Valley Susan Klein-Rothschild, Spectrum
George Thibeault, Catholic Charities Jan Schoening, CCA
Darlene Sweeney, Allendale Rommel Sangalang, CCA
Deverrick Crawford, Lakeside Comm. Cmt Lory Sandberg, LSSI
Gaylord Sheffey, Ada S. McKinley Greg Kurth, Central Baptist
Valerie Riley, Center for Hew Horizons
Members Absent
Richard Calica, Juvenile Protection Assoc. Frances Barnes, VOA
Toleda Clark, Reaching the Mark Foster Centola, DCFS
Lori McCurdy, IARF Kevin Velten, DCFS
Jan Schoening convened the meeting at approximately 10:40 a.m.
Review and approval of minutes from June 7, 2000 meeting. Approved with no changes or comments.
Best Practices Project � Don Vacca
 | Ruth Ann Scott has joined the Best Practices project on a full time basis. Ruth Ann was the initial co-chair of Best Practices, and also co-chaired the Intact/In-home services manual. |
| Jeanette Hamilton (Chicago area) has joined the project effective 7/24 and will work with Sharyne Wilson on resources and licensing. David Sheets, formally of Spectrum Consulting has been retained to assist Sharyne and Jeanette (on a part-time basis). |
| Mary Debose starts on 9/1 officially. Mary has attended as many summer meetings as practical. |
| Mike Ruzicka, a DCFS attorney, is currently on the project part-time. Don is encouraging Mike to go full-time. |
| Carmen Alvarez (Burgos consent decree) is being recruited to the project. |
| Carol Foltz will be joining Best Practices to assist in the financial area. |
| Sandra Hughes from the Chicago area is being recruited. |
| Intake and Investigation piece has been through its final consideration by the Expert Panel. Written confirmation, from Richard Calica, has been requested by Don Vacca. The staff are currently working on an assessment tool. The Expert Panel will be used in development in this area. Mary Debose has been involved in this process. |
| In response to several questions Don stated that Best Practices design must stay ahead of SACWIS. He also stated that Mary will identify groups of POS people in advance and then schedule them in as AMS schedules are known. The time commitment for the licensing piece could be heavy depending on the amount of automation and the definition of the work. Use cases will help determine what will be automated; this will be common throughout the design process. POS members again stated that it is necessary to know when and how much commitment is needed in order to get staff involved. |
Jan stated a desire for POS people to get the opportunity to review the results of the use case meetings. Don stated that people who "know content" will be at the SRS meetings. A lot of best practices is finalized, but not agreed to by the Expert Panel. A lot of detail is left to be decided later. Priscilla proposed an hourly rate of compensation be considered for POS staff to assist in best practice design. Don said he will consult with the Director about this. Gaylord pointed out that it "can�t be Best Practice" without the POS involvement in the process.
Update on SACWIS Project � Sam Traylor
| Finished the requirements validation sessions in June |
| SRS sessions (use cases) start today. |
| Staff attended training on object oriented application development and an overview of OOAD was held for people attending the SRS sessions. |
| A meeting with CMS was successful in reaching agreement in the following areas: the 3-tiered system will require applications servers (these will be housed at the IOC), DB2 requirements, MIPS needed, mainframe access, and CMS appointed a project manager for the SACWIS project. |
| Windows 2000 operating system is installed at the AMS project site. The rest of DCFS should migrate to 2000 by February, 2001. Getronics and AMS are working together on this very labor-intensive process. The user will notice only a cosmetic change. |
| Sam and Steve presented to the full CWAC on 7/19. The topic was the equipment procurement process. There were no questions or comments. |
| Jan requested an additional OOAD overview session. Don Vacca thinks AMS is open to this. The membership would like this to be held in the Chicago area. |
| Jan asked about the user requirements deliverable review process. Sam stated that the review is due to be completed by the end of the week. George and Jan have copies of the user requirements document. As Best Practices change, will the requirements change? Yes, this is an on-going process, there will likely be "clarifying requirements." |
| Zach asked if the categorization of the groups will continue in the SRS sessions? Yes, and the session will probably be longer. Don will attempt to get a more detailed schedule for the next two months. It was requested to get more detail on the content of each session, also. |
SACWIS/POS Equipment (reports from work groups of June 21, July 6 and July 18)
 | Funding Methodology � Cost Add-on Approach |
| Cost Add-on Approach |
| Plan Changes/Flexibility (handout) |
| What Can/Cannot be Included for Reimbursement (handout) |
| Equipment Specifications & Differences from DCFS Initial FY98 Equipment Specifications (handout). The specifications were agreed upon by the membership. |
| Agency Plans, Part 1 and Part 2 (Drafts) (handouts). The forms were approved by the membership with some minor edits. It was noted that it is necessary to plan for computers for the right people, teen parenting programs may fall within one of the categories, residential staff are excluded from needing to use SACWIS. It was noted that there may be a potential problem on how to count a child vs. a family case after a child is returned home, i.e. reunification vs. extension of foster care services. Dennis Egolf will research and provide an answer at next meeting. Also discussed and needing further information was the issue of intact family services funded by other sources, and how they would/could be counted. |
| There was in issue raised over the desire to have SACWIS connectivity to an agency�s corporate office, where there are no caseworkers housed. This will need further research. |
| Suggested August Activities (handout). A clear message must be made to the POS agencies at the sessions of the importance of getting the information back to DCFS. Staff from program, IT, administration and finance should be invited to the sessions. Catholic Charities of Chicago, Uhlich, and LSSI agreed to host a session. Steve will plan sessions in Springfield and the southern part of the state, also. |
Other Issues
 | Revised Membership Roster was distributed. It was noted that Rommel and Susan Klein-Rothschild should be added to the roster. This will be done for next meeting. |
| DCFS Certification of Driver�s License and Automotive Insurance Liability Coverage was distributed and completed by the membership. This form is required to be on file to receive auto mileage reimbursement from the State. |
Adjournment � With no further business to discuss, the meeting adjourned.