Policy & Practice February 2015

VIEW FROM THE FIELD The success of NEICE has been remarkable. As a past ICPC Compact administrator for Florida and nowa consumer of interstate home study requests, I have been able tomake the comparison between requests processed throughNEICE and those done through paper andmail. NEICE is a no-brainer; the transparency and accountability coupledwith the cost savings are clear. Everyone in the system, butmostly the children awaiting placement decisions, benefit fromNEICE. Expanding this to a national platformshould be an easy decision. —STEPHENPENNYPACKER, PRESIDENT/CHIEF EXECUTIVEOFFICER, PARTNERSHIP FOR STRONG FAMILIES, INC., AAICPC IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT

children’s placement rather than fol- lowing it perhaps by days, weeks, and months. This enables better decision- making and enhances the opportunity for a successful placement. This suggests NEICE holds promise to transform child welfare interstate placement processes. A rigorous, robust evaluation is underway, by WRMA, that will be available in May 2015. Rather than developing separate NEICE applications for each of the pilot states, NEICE was built as a web- based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. This model allows for central- ized changes to the system, rather than having to test and roll out changes in each pilot state. This design enhances cost efficiency and facilitates the opportunity for national expansion. NEICE allows child welfare workers to communicate and provide timely updates to courts, relevant private service providers, and families awaiting placement. Additionally, NEICE improves accountability and transparency of all parties involved in What NEICE Means for Child Welfare

the child welfare process (caseworkers, compact administrators, attorneys, judges, Court Appointed Special Advocates [CASA], etc.). NEICE Translation and Transfer of Data and Documents The technical vendor for NEICE is the Tetrus Corporation. When devel- oping NEICE, the Tetrus team used the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) standards to create an Information Exchange Packet Document (IEPD) “guide” on how to structure and code the data needed by the NEICE system to improve the ICPC process. To our knowledge, NEICE is one of the first human service software platforms to have created an IEPD to serve as a data translator and inter- preter across systems. As such, it can be expanded to allow all states to par- ticipate without the need for creating specific interfaces between each state and has the potential to link to other human service information systems, reducing development costs. Potential Cross-Program Benefits Not only can NEICE send data from one state to another in real time, the system could one day serve as a framework for additional data- sharing efforts within human service programs and with external sup- porting programs. In addition, with its highly secure search function, NEICE could eventually be used by other public entities, including law enforce- ment, working to keep children safe by

tackling tough issues such as human trafficking. Another potential benefit would give health and human service workers timely access to data, give them the ability to eliminate dual eligi- bility benefit payments, and help them better provide services, such as access to health care, to the homeless. Other program administrators are also inter- ested in the functionality of NEICE. Vision for NEICE Beyond the Pilot Because NEICE has been built in an easy to use web-based system and with NIEM standards, it will allow all 52 jurisdictions governed by the ICPC to directly transmit and receive ICPC data and related docu- ments. For children known to the state child welfare system, caseworkers would not be required to re-enter data into the interstate system, thereby eliminating the need for dual entry. The results achieved by the six pilot states to date—quicker placement of children, reduced administrative costs, and workforce relief from a labor-intensive process—make a strong case for scaling NEICE nationwide. The current funding for the NEICE pilot ends in April 2015, and there are ongoing efforts seeking resources to make NEICE a national, state-of-the- art, modernized, technology solution to help children realize permanency outcomes quickly and safely. For more information, see http:// www.aphsa.org/content/AAICPC/ en/actions/NEICE.html or contact: Marci Roth, NEICE project director at mroth@aphsa.org.

Anita Light is APHSA’s senior deputy executive director.

Mical Peterson is the president of the Association of Administrators of the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children and Children’s Services supervisor at

the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

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