Policy & Practice | Winter 2024

protection of highly sensitive data for children and families. However, the NEICE project team has effec tively navigated each state’s unique administrative, technical, and legal challenges. Through shared vision and collaboration, partners have resolved issues without any insurmountable obstacles. Each state joining the system acts as a strategic partner, offering new expertise and generously sharing insights, code, and solutions with one another. NEICE staff provides ongoing support to state users, regularly communicating and responding to requests. Support includes sched uled meetings, listservs, technical and program staff workgroups, and AAICPC presentations. The NEICE team also offers training via webinars, NEICE Benefits for Children No matter how great the partnership and the electronic mechanisms work to streamline service delivery and ease staff workload, the most impor tant test is improved outcomes for the children, youth, and families served. External evaluations of NEICE found improvements in both process and outcome measures. And data pulled from the system continue to confirm these improvements. A recent analysis found that since 2014, information for 167,956 children has been processed and placement decisions timelines were shortened by nearly 40 percent. Using the tools available in NEICE, state agencies can monitor case progress and share needed informa tion with partners within and between states in real time. NEICE alerts remind users about Safe and Timely and other timeframe requirements for permanency improving performance, and more importantly, improving outcomes for children. No child is lost in the system. The New York State (NYS) Office of Children and Family Services shared that NEICE has transformed their ability to process ICPC cases. They reported that every county in New York uses NEICE, and it has significantly improved their case management a help desk, job aids, and an on demand eLearning platform.

capacity. Sharon Jocelyn, NYS ICPC Deputy Compact Administrator, added an example in which they “used NEICE to send a placement request to Florida for a child to be placed with his grand mother in the morning, and by 3:30 pm had a response and were able to buy the plane ticket for the child to leave for the grandmother’s house the next day.” Opportunities: Leveraging NEICE Lessons and The NEICE serves as a model for how programs and divisions within and across government agencies can work together to achieve data interop erability and improve outcomes for children and families. For example, Wyoming has already utilized NEICE to help improve information exchanges across programs within their state. Maureen Clifton, Deputy Compact Administrator at the Wyoming Department of Family Services shared, “The Wyoming Department of Family Services and Medicaid partnership regarding NEICE has worked great! We have always had to work closely for foster and adoptive children, and this is just one more way. WY Medicaid has been able to go into NEICE, determine if a WY family has been approved by the WY ICPC office and issue Medicaid for a child, avoiding delays when staff are out of the office.” Wyoming has further improved interoperability across programs by incorporating ICPC functionality into their Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System and connecting to NEICE through the Clearinghouse. In addition, Florida uses the “view only” function to give authorized users, such as court personnel, real-time access to cases within the purview of their job to expedite per manency for children. The Family First Act of 2018 directed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Secretariat for the ICPC to assess how the electronic interstate case pro cessing system, NEICE, could be used to better serve and protect children that come in contact with the child welfare system. Specifically, the Act Partnership to Extend Data Interoperability

directs the Children’s Bureau, the Secretariat, and states to explore how to connect with other data systems (such as law enforcement and judicial systems, or the child abuse and neglect registries), how to assist with reporting of children who had been victims of sex trafficking or runaways, and how to assist with interstate checks of child abuse and neglect registries. The Future of NEICE and ICPC Modernization System modernization is not a one-time event. By listening to users’ wants and needs, the AAICPC continues making significant system improve ments and upgrades to NEICE. We have established a NEICE Guidance Committee made up of AAICPC members. We have also created a NEICE Technology Advisory Committee, made up of state technology and business staff, to provide recommendations on new technologies, security ques tions, and ways to ensure the system continues to operate efficiently and effectively for AAICPC members. Just this year, we provided state data snapshots that allow states to compare their ICPC timelines to national averages. We have convened an AAICPC data committee to examine these data in order to help us under stand where we can improve processes. Over time, NEICE data reports will grow more robust and informative as additional states implement the system and all states enhance consistency in data entry and exchange. We look forward to welcoming the final six states into the NEICE partnership as they work to imple ment an interstate case processing system by 2027 as required by the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018. As NEICE continues to expand and evolve, we believe it stands as a powerful example of how innovation, collaboration, and shared commit ment can drive lasting improvements in outcomes for children and families across the nation. Contact Lynnea Kaufman, APHSA’s Associate Director of the NEICE at lkaufman@aphsa.org for more information.

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Winter 2024 Policy & Practice