7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Registration - Exhibit Hall Foyer

7:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
Continental Breakfast - Exhibit Fair Hall

9:00 a.m. - 12:00 Noon
Pre-session - Regency EF
Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS): Technical Assistance Session
This is a hands-on workshop for State information technology and program staff on issues related to AFCARS data collection, file format, and data transmission. There will be time allowed for participants to ask questions specific to their State. Presenter: Angelina Palmiero (ACF/CB)

12:00 Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Lunch (on your own)

1:00 p.m. - 1:45 P.M
Opening session - Regency EF
Welcome and Federal Updates
Presenters:Angelina Palmiero (ACF/CB), Robert McKeagney (CWLA), Susan Orr (ACF/CB)

1:45 P.M. - 2:30 P.M.
Keynote Introduction
Joan Ohl, Commissioner
Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF)

Keynote
Fred Boothe, Commissioner Bureau for Children and Families
West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

2:30 P.M. - 2:45 P.M.
Break - Exhibit Fair

2:45 P.M. - 4:00 P.M.
A-1 – Regency E
Ways to Track Quality Assurance Review Results
This session includes a panel of States who are using innovative ways to track and report on Quality Assurance review results or national standards. The discussion will include how to do regular reviews on cases using the CFSR instrument as well as how to track cases by supervisory unit, worker, office and county.
Presenters: Cindy Walcott (Vermont Division of Social and Rehabilitation Services), Bill Hindman (Division of Children and Family Services, Oklahoma Department of Human Services), and Brad Pierson (Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services)

A-2 – Regency F
Characteristics of Successful Technology Implementations
Acquiring technology is the first, and sometimes the least important step, in deploying an information system. This presentation focuses on the business and clinical process and end user characteristics that have proven to be critical for successful technology implementations in child welfare, at any level. Mr. Ewell will describe a true “systems” approach to child welfare technology implementation that has proven successful in both large and small implementations. Participants will receive a roadmap that describes the detailed steps to take in deploying this process as part of a larger technology implementation.
Presenter: Keith Ewell (Harmony Information Systems)

A-3 – Washington A
Case Studies in Tribal Data Collection and Use: Implications for Policy Makers, Researchers and Advocates
Who owns data? Who defines the meaning of data? Increasingly, tribal peoples are taking charge of their own data and asserting control over its use. Central objectives for this deliberate exercise of tribal political sovereignty include attempts to influence public policy and shape allocations of resources. Tribal peoples today are setting the agenda for data collection and use and how research will be conducted in their communities. In this workshop, the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) will share findings from “Case Studies in Tribal Data Collection and Use,” a report prepared for the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Sociological Initiative Foundation and will discuss the implications for policy makers, researchers and advocacy organizations.
Presenters: Jody Becker-Green and Jaime Smith (NICWA)

A-4 – Conference Theater
AFCARS Promising Practice Update (Part I)
The Children’s Bureau conducts reviews of States’ AFCARS data mapping, extraction procedures, data quality, etc., to determine the degree of accuracy in the process the State is using to collect and report AFCARS data, as well as to provide technical assistance to States to remedy areas needing improvement. This workshop will provide information, gathered from an analysis by the National Resource Center for Child Welfare Data and Technology of the Federal AFCARS Assessment Reviews conducted to this point, with an emphasis on strengths, promising practices, and the challenges identified most often during the AFCARS assessment reviews, and how many of these errors can be corrected.
Presenters: Gene Thompson (NRC-CWDT) and Angelina Palmiero (ACF/CB)

A-5 – Washington B
Records Retention Management in the Digital Age: A Key Element In Minimizing Agency and Worker Liability
Adoption and foster care agencies need to manage digital and paper records. Access to accurate and helpful documents can prevent potential litigation from ever getting started; can affirmatively rebut inadequate allegations; and, should it be necessary, the agency can initiate legal action.

Presenters: Daniel Pollack (Yeshiva University and Center for Adoption Research, University of Massachusetts) and James Marsh (Private Practice, New York and Center for Adoption Research, University of Massachusetts)

A-6 – Potomac 6
Alternative Response and Its Impact on Reporting and on Services
Alternative Response is a current child welfare reform initiative in Minnesota that allows for a strength-based, family assessment approach to addressing child maltreatment reports that do not allege substantial child endangerment. This workshop will provide information on the development and implementation of Minnesota’s Alternative Response Program. The impact on Minnesota counties related to workload, service delivery, and data will be discussed, along with a presentation of preliminary outcome findings of the related four-year longitudinal study.
Presenters: Carole Johnson (Minnesota Department of Human Services Child Safety and Permanency Division) and Anthony Loman (Institute of Applied Research)

4:00 P.M. - 4:15 P.M.
Break - Exhibit Fair

4:15 P.M. - 5:30 P.M.
B-1 – Regency E
AFCARS Promising Practice Update (Part II)
This session is a continuation from A-4 providing information gathered from an analysis by the National Resource Center for Child Welfare Data and Technology of the Federal AFCARS Assessment Reviews conducted to this point, with an emphasis on strengths, promising practices, the challenges identified most often during the AFCARS assessment reviews, and how many of these errors can be corrected.
Presenters: Gene Thompson (NRC-CWDT) and Angelina Palmiero (ACF/CB)

B-2 – Regency F
How to Use Data in a Foster Care Recruitment Strategy
During the CFSRs one of the systemic factors assessed is the recruitment of foster and adoptive families. Substantial conformity with this requirement has been a challenge to a number of States. This workshop will focus on using data to assess the race and ethnicity of the children in care versus the race and ethnicity of foster families in order to assist in the development of a diligent recruitment plan as required by the Multi-ethnic Placement Act. It will also address how States and counties can better plan to recruit foster families who live in the neighborhoods from which children are removed.
Presenters: Alice-Lynn Ryssman (ACF/CB) and Patsy Buida (ACF/CB)

B-3 – Washington A
WiSACWIS
This session will discuss the Wisconsin experience related to the challenges of migrating from a PowerBuilder to a Java based application language. This will include the specific technical development challenges due to unique differences between PB and Java capability, the unique eCycle development, test and acceptance processes, the specific challenges presented by county managed infrastructure, end user migration training and new mobile case worker technology being employed by Wisconsin.
Presenters: Joyce Rose (Wisconsin Department of Children and Family Services) and Amy Johnson and Mark Johnson (American Management Systems, Inc.)

B-4 – Conference Theater
Good Data as the Key to Surviving the CFSR and the Program Improvement Plan
At the Children’s Bureau, we love better data. You should, too - even if it is “bad” news. Come learn why this is really true, and hear our best hints on how you can achieve accurate baseline data. Also learn which AFCARS elements are critical for creating the data profile and how we use them.
Presenter: Sharon Newburg-Rinn (ACF/CB)

B-5 – Washington B
Case Tracking: ASFA Timelines and Data Collection
This presentation will explore technology that has improved the collection of key data in child protection cases. During the past three years Utah has been developing a statewide management information system called “CARE” (Courts and Agencies Records Exchange) and has designed elements to improve the courts’ case tracking ability for juvenile abuse and neglect cases. CARE will enable the courts to track hearing dates, measure delay, pinpoint the reasons for delay, and share information with other agencies. This session will address how the collection of child welfare timeline information has dramatically improved compliance with ASFA timelines and describe the automation of data collection for case tracking.
Presenter: Alicia Davis (Utah Administrative Office of the Courts)

B-6 – Potomac 6
Creating a Tribal Child Abuse and Neglect Data Collection System
This session will present the current status of the tribal data collection effort being piloted by National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA).
Presenters: Jody Becker-Green and Jaime Smith (NICWA)

5:30 P.M. to 7:30 P.M.