Policy & Practice | Winter 2024

A Groundbreaking Partnership Supports a Bold Vision The ICPC was created in the 1950s to ensure the safety of interstate foster care and adoptive placements for children. All fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are party to this compact, agreeing to follow the articles and regulations when assessing and processing the placement of children from other juris dictions. Over time, societal changes and advances led administrators to recognize the compact’s language as outdated. In 2002, the Association of Administrators of the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (AAICPC) and the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)

began rewriting the compact, now called the Revised ICPC. This revision significantly improves the compact’s infrastructure, legal framework, and administrative procedures. Eighteen states have enacted the revised version but passage in 35 states is needed to ratify the Revised ICPC as the new governing law. In addition to updating the compact language, the AAICPC recognized that the mechanics of processing cases across state lines also needed an overhaul with new advances in technology and a national web-based data system. In early 2012, AAICPC, consisting of professionals from state child welfare agencies, identified an opportunity to leverage modern technology to develop an electronic data system that could seamlessly connect all U.S. states. Together with APHSA as its Secretariat, the AAICPC presented the idea to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Collaborative Forum to advocate for a Partnership Program Integrity Innovation award. The proposal intrigued the review panel and gathered momentum and input from this cross sector of gov ernment, community, and industry experts about how to streamline and strengthen the initial idea for a pilot. This bold vision for a national elec tronic ICPC data exchange required a groundbreaking partnership to make it possible. AAICPC and APHSA reached out and engaged leaders across multiple levels and branches of govern ment; administrative, IT, legal, judicial, and program staff; public and private stakeholders; and profit and nonprofit organizations. These partnerships continue to sustain the project. In 2013, OMB allocated federal funds to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration of Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF), Children’s Bureau, as lead federal agency for a pilot. The Children’s Bureau selected APHSA, as Secretariat to the AAICPC, to manage and govern the pilot via a coopera tive agreement. ACYF, AAICPC, and APHSA worked together with federal, state, and local governments; non profits; and the private sector to build and test the pilot. Five states—Florida,

Indiana, Nevada, South Carolina, Wisconsin—and the District of Columbia—participated. The Tetrus Corporation was chosen as the tech nology vendor through a request for proposal (RFP) process. An external evaluation of the pilot found significant decreases in time for the pilot states using NEICE in 2015. Since then, the Children’s Bureau, AAICPC, APHSA, and states have continued to work together to scale the system across the United States. NEICE is now fully implemented in 46 states, including the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands; four additional states are working to onboard in the next year. “At the Children’s Bureau, our goal is to help children in foster care and adoption find safe, permanent homes without unnecessary delays. That’s why we have supported this part nership—the NEICE system makes it easier for states to exchange the information they need, speeding up placements and improving outcomes for kids. It’s a powerful example of how technology can support col laboration across agencies and jurisdictions to make a real difference for children and families nationwide,” said June Dorn, National Adoption Specialist, ACYF. “NEICE provides an easy way to communicate with the other state regarding a child and the case. Ongoing safety concerns can be quickly and easily communicated and NEICE allows tracking of the commu nication on a case,” said a member of the Wisconsin state ICPC office. Collaboration Critical to Implementation Success In addition to the Children’s Bureau, AAICPC leadership, and APHSA, key partners include hundreds of state government administrative, program, technology staff, and contractors. Initially, the vision of a compact system connecting child welfare systems across state lines was thought to be too complex to achieve, given the variety of state technology systems and the complex web of federal and state statutes and regulations gov erning the delivery of services and

Shannon Freeman is the Deputy Compact Administrator for the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children at the Washington State Department of

Children, Youth, and Families.

Carla Fults is the Director of

Interstate Affairs and Compact Operations at APHSA.

Marci McCoy-Roth is the Chief Impact Officer at APHSA.

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Policy & Practice Winter 2024