CW XML Mission

VISION:

The Child Welfare Extensible Markup Language (CW XML) Workgroup envisions a future for Child Welfare data exchange, whereby information essential to the well being of children, transports and translates rapidly through secure channels across geographical and organizational boundaries to enable the delivery and management of quality services that can assist children and their families.

MISSION:

The mission of the Child Welfare XML Workgroup is to develop and promote the adoption and use of national non-proprietary Child Welfare XML-based vocabularies and schemas for representing and exchanging Child Welfare data across heterogeneous systems and organizations delivering vital services to children and families.

BACKGROUND:

The Child Welfare XML Work Group, representing the national Child Welfare IT data exchange community, works collaboratively to promote system interoperability and the efficient transmission of data among State child welfare agencies and their stakeholders.

Support of this group is essential and beneficial to the entire Child Welfare community and related health and human services areas. Currently, the use of different system platforms, varying interpretations of policy/regulations, and the lack of a uniform understanding of the definitions of child welfare data elements has contributed to sometimes slow, cumbersome, and inefficient data exchange among State child welfare agencies and their stakeholders.

In response to the identified child welfare data exchange issues, the CW XML Workgroup is working to create a set of national data definitions and XML schemas. These national standards will create both business and IT benefits in terms of increased:

• Staff Effectiveness
• Process Efficiency
• Cost-Effectiveness

STAKEHOLDERS:

The data exchange of child welfare information is the focus of this effort. Therefore, the primary stakeholders are the State IT staff administering and managing state automated systems. The CW XML Workgroup is aware that some child welfare XML initiatives have already begun in the States. As a result, the group will partner with States to incorporate current efforts in order to minimize any system and labor costs associated with the future adoption the national XML standards.

The following stakeholders will benefit directly through the IT and business benefits of national standards:

1. State IT Staff
2. Other State agencies that interface with child welfare automated/SACWIS systems
3. Other States (Interstate Compact)
4. Contractors/Vendors
5. Courts
6. Service providers
7. Federal reporting (e.g., NCANDS/AFCARS)

The following stakeholders will benefit indirectly through the business benefits of national standards:

1. Child welfare clients
2. Caseworkers
3. Child welfare managers
4. Tribes
5. Federal, State and Local governmental entities including the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Congress, state legislatures, the Governor’s office, State Attorney Generals, etc.
6. Other standard groups/entities
7. Advocacy groups

SCOPE: Child Welfare Data

• The creation of national child welfare data definitions and XML Schemas after identifying and categorizing, and prioritizing the child welfare data elements
  • The group’s work will begin with a primary focus area. The group is considering the use of AFCARS/NCANDS, a focus on person data, maltreatment, or subject areas within the child welfare domain.
  • Exploring the use of entities from other standard bodies to adapt and tailor data elements for child welfare
  • The group will investigate the data in terms of content and formatting instead of focusing on process and implementation

GUIDING PRINCIPLES:

• Focus on child welfare data elements by separating the data/information from the “source” and exploring all child welfare areas that use this data
• Ensure that our work is applicable across all States/organizations in the child welfare arena
• Work to create a set of universally agreed-upon non-proprietary standards that define vocabularies for data elements and processes that meet the needs of Child Welfare (e.g., tool-neutral)
• Leverage existing work in XML and work with other agencies
• Provide a central repository for Child Welfare XML wor
• Promote interoperability with an adaptive approach able to support a wide variety of applications that can evolve as technology changes.
• Ensure that standards are tested and can be used and incorporated into State information systems
• Provide a forum for consolidated XML efforts and information sharing
• Document Child Welfare XML implementation efforts across the states
• Provide a forum for consensus on the definitions of Child Welfare business/process, data elements, and structures
• Provide assistance with Child Welfare XML implementations

TEAM STRUCTURE:

1. Core Team – The Management and Technical Teams

• Management Team
  The CW XML Management Team is an all-volunteer group that provides the overall governance and structure to sustain the workgroup’s on-going efforts. As established during the National Child Welfare XML Workgroup meeting held in Washington, D.C. in September 2003, the team is comprised of representatives from the following States and private sector partners: Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, West Virginia, AMS, Deloitte., Dynamics Research Corporation and XTRIA. Through the support of the Administration for Children and Families, the State Information Technology Consortium (SITC) also plays a key support role in this initiative.
  
  Workgroup members have committed to attend up to three workgroup meetings during the next year, and to participate in “remote” workgroups as assigned throughout the year. The team is co-chaired by the representatives from the states of Massachusetts and Ohio during the first year, with support from the representatives from West Virginia and Rhode Island.
  
  The team maintains responsibility for reviewing, testing, and approving all workgroup processes, policies and products, and for promoting awareness of our activities throughout the nation.
  
  
• Technical Team
  The technical team is responsible for research and development of the Child Welfare XML standards that the Workgroup decides to pursue. A member of the technical team will head each initiative under this team and that lead will have the responsibility of bringing the effort to fruition. The technical team will maintain a docket of projects and associated research as this effort moves forward. The team’s initial focus will be assessing what currently exists and determining how any current XML work can be reused as a basis the growth of national XML standards. The team will also focus on the current XML standards that exist, which of these standards has relevance to our work, and how those standards are being applied.
  
  Finally, this team will also work to facilitate the provision of reference implementations for those states and organizations wishing to use XML to provide Child Welfare services. This provision will be provided in a number of ways: code generated by team members and donated code from states or organizations that have already implemented Child Welfare XML.

2. Extended Team

• Others with Child Welfare and technical expertise
  The Child Welfare XML workgroup will welcome others from outside the workgroup who may wish to volunteer their time and expertise in needed areas. Even if for only a short duration or for a single project, expertise in the field of Child Welfare or in any related technical field will be of value to the group.
  
  
• Other Stakeholders
  The Child Welfare XML workgroup recognizes that without input from the various stakeholders (some of which have been defined above), this effort will not get the community moving in a coordinated fashion. The workgroup welcomes input from our stakeholders. The group wants to make the group process as open and accessible as possible. To this end, the group plans to actively solicit input from our stakeholders as often as possible.
  
  
• Communications and information dissemination (Public Relations)
  The Child Welfare XML workgroup will meet twice annually, once in the spring, once in the fall. In between these working sessions, the individual team sub-groups will work and collaborate remotely. It will be up to the individual teams as to how often they will report status and status reports will be posted to the CWXML website as they are made available.
  
  The workgroup will use a number of existing outlets to communicate their vision and mission, report progress on existing projects, call for participation, and maintain a repository of Child Welfare related XML information. The group fully expects the workgroups leads to be visible and available at all major Child Welfare gatherings of professionals (e.g. Child Welfare National Training Conference, National Child Welfare Data Conference, CWLA National Conference, HPHSA-IMS Conference).

[ Top ]