v Wisconsin » Systems integration

Agency integration, 2016

• Child welfare

  Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF), Office of Youth Services, Division of Safety and Permanence

  Does not centralize child welfare administration services at the state level.

• Integration level

  One or all are decentralized

• Juvenile corrections

  Wisconsin Department of Corrections, Division of Juvenile Corrections

  Does not centralize administration of delinquency services at the state level.

Coordination, 2014

• Uses for coordination
• Does not use for coordination

• Data sharing

  Facilitated through the use of statewide information systems allowing for consistent data sharing between systems.

• Committees or advisory groups

  Multidisciplinary groups that often have regularly scheduled meetings to brainstorm ways to improve systems integration.

• Formal interagency MOUs

  Collaborative agreements to guide systems integration efforts

• Informal interagency agreements

  Commonly based on historical practice, mutual trust, and recognition of the need to collaborate in order to serve dual-status youth.

• Statute and/or rules

  Rules that mandate systems integration efforts

Summary

In Wisconsin, child welfare is administered at the state level by the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS); whereas delinquency services are organized at the local level in a variety of statute-structured and locally determined administrative scenarios. Some statewide data sharing occurs. Specifically, delinquency service jurisdictions enter information concerning delinquent youth in the DCFS state wide automated system (WISACWIS), but only for those delinquent youth in out-of-home care. Further, a state statute was passed in 2010 authorizing broader information sharing between DCFS and local juvenile justice services departments. However, the statute has yet to be widely applied and innovations occur at the local level, with Outagamie County's efforts receiving the most national attention.

Outagamie County is a Robert F. Kennedy Children's Action Corp. dual status model site The jurisdiction has benefited from ongoing RFK consulting. The case coordination procedures focus on protocols for state DCFS and locally operated juvenile justice services to notify one another when dual status youth are identified. Outagamie further is among the jurisdictions that elect to enter information into WISACWIS concerning delinquent youth with out of home placements and can coordinate information in that regard. The Outagamie County data sharing and coordinated case management efforts have been memorialized in a coordination guidebook and describes joint-system decision point mapping and strategies to coordinate case management. The Outagamie model also engages state resources for trauma informed services and safety planning for dual status youth that are returning from substitute care, but have underlying sexual abuse allegations in a delinquency matter.

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