communication in their response.
Only 10 States use simultaneous transmission to send information from a State’s local agency to both sending and receiving States’ ICPC Administrators and to the sending and receiving local agency; however, over half of the States (52 percent) would like to. It should be noted that a similar strategy is discussed in Section 3.8.2; however that strategy specifies “electronic” transmission of data, whereas this
strategy may include other modes of transmission, including e- mail, fax, regular mail, or postal courier.
Fewer than half of the States (19 States) reported that they use a tickler tracking system to alert caseworkers of time- sensitive events such as expected date of home study
completion, although 50 percent would like assistance or are investigating this strategy. One State noted that they
integrated their ICPC data into the Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS), which includes “a series
of alerts for caseworkers.”
3.6.4 Assessment of Potential Supports to Facilitate Communication
States were provided with a list of potential actions that could be implemented at the national or Federal level to support State efforts. These actions are designed to facilitate the timely placement of children through improved communication at the local and State level. States were asked to rate these supports on a scale of one to five, with one meaning not effective and five meaning very effective. To illustrate the supports for which States have the most enthusiasm, Figure 3-12 shows
the percentage of States that rated each support as a four (somewhat effective) or five (very effective).
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Figure 3-12. Effectiveness of Potential Supports to Improve Communications
Establish an appeal system for denial of a home study that can be used by both individual families and agencies Modify ICPC regulations to simplify the steps in the process Modify ICPC forms to include any treatment or service needs of the child Create a mechanism for timely communication and documentation
of legitimate reasons for delays in home study completion Modify ICPC forms to include frequency of contact needed (sending State) and conditional requirements for placement (receiving State) Facilitate State access to FPLS so that child welfare agencies may assist in locating parents Develop a Web site with links to all States’ home study requirements, POS contracting requirements, and postplacement standards
% Very Effective % Somewhat Effective
17 21 27 33 31 38 46 48 25 23 19 21 21 27 25 29 42 44 46 54 52 65 71 77 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 19 17 36 13 17 30 21 8 29
Revise ICPC procedures to allow local agencies to directly send forms to one another while simultaneously providing copies to the appropriate State officials Explicate policies and procedures for interstate communication between caseworkers and between caseworkers and families, and define the range of acceptable networking activities across State lines
Modify ICPC procedures to encourage direct communication between local agencies at all stages of the process Develop curriculum on foster parents’ rights and responsibilities and
the court system to be shared with the States
About two-thirds to three-fourths of States assigned the highest ratings of effectiveness (four or five) to three strategies:
Develop a Web site with links to all States’ home study requirements, POS contracting requirements, and post- placement standards (77 percent).
Facilitate State access to the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS) so that child welfare agencies may assist in locating parents (71 percent).
Modify ICPC forms to include frequency of contact
needed (sending State) and conditional requirements for placement (receiving State) (65 percent).
Access to the FPLS could be used to locate a non-custodial parent in another State, and through that parent, identify other relatives for possible placement resources.
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States were invited to add supports in addition to the ones listed on the survey. Two supports were added:
Develop an online checklist.
Encourage and support consistent liaison between the State ICPC administrator and their own staff and providers within their jurisdiction.
However, the second support listed above could be
accomplished at the State level more realistically than at the national or Federal level. When asked to identify the single support out of 11 that would facilitate the most positive change in interjurisdictional placements of children, the top 3 rated supports were:
Develop a Web site with links to all States’ home study requirements, POS contracting requirements, and post- placement standards (11 States).
Facilitate State access to the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS) so that child welfare agencies may assist in locating parents (8 States).
Modify ICPC regulations to simplify the steps in the process (8 States).
(See Appendix E.)
3.6.5 Summary
Clearly, States place great importance on facilitating communications between caseworkers and the ICPC administrator and between caseworkers in sending and receiving States. Most of these States find their procedures highly effective. Interestingly, only 29 percent of States rated the support for modifying ICPC procedures to encourage these direct communications as effective. One explanation may be that States are already encouraging direct communication between caseworkers in sending and receiving States and do not require a change in procedures to do so.
At least half of reporting States are interested in implementing a system to transmit ICPC information across State lines simultaneously from and to local agencies and ICPC
administrators. More than three-quarters of States would like to use a Web-based system for data transmission. However, only 31 percent of States gave an effective rating to the support to
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modify ICPC procedures to allow local agencies to directly send forms to one another while providing copies to the State
offices.
The majority of States thought an effective national or Federal support to facilitate communication would be to develop a Web site with links to all States’ home study requirements, POS contracting requirements, and post-placement standards. As with the support suggesting a national level Web site linking to State requirements for coverage of medical and education expenses (Section 3.4.4), more States would need to put their home study requirements, POS requirements and post
placement standards online for a national Web site with links to be effective. The second most popular support was to facilitate access to the FPLS to allow child welfare agencies to search for parents.