Data gaps put child protectors in the dark.

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

SALEM - A state computer system meant to aid in the protection of children is drawing criticism from federal regulators and Oregon caseworkers for shortcomings - including missing data, changed addresses and a failure to meet most federal requirements.

State officials characterize the Family and Child Information System, in use since 1995, as a low-cost, no-frills computer system that they've gradually improved as funds have become available.

As many as 3,000 hotline call-takers, child-welfare caseworkers and others rely on FACIS, as it's called, to record and search out critical information about child abuse and neglect, as well as to keep track of day-to-day changes in the cases of children and their families.

Given the importance of accurately maintaining and quickly retrieving information from the database, critics say this go-slow, low-budget approach carries a hefty price: unreliable information, lost or incorrect records that must be redone, and inadequate training that leaves workers to devise their own "work-around" solutions to computer glitches.

And a federal review released last month concluded that Oregon's child-welfare computer system fully meets only 16 of the 63 requirements imposed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. These are among the findings in a joint investigation by The Register-Guard and KATU-TV in Portland.

Computer-caused errors are frequent and serious enough that children's safety and well-being has been compromised, said Michael Simpson, a veteran child protective services caseworker.

"We depend on this system, so if it's not working the way it should, yes, kids are at risk," said Simpson, who works in the state Department of Human Services' Children, Adults and Families Group in Portland. "If we can't pull up a database, if we can't get the correct address, then kids are at risk."

Small kinks or worse?

Top management at DHS, along with some caseworkers, say the criticism by workers such as Simpson are either unfounded or outdated.

Margie Lowe, the DHS administrator who oversees FACIS, said concerns raised by caseworkers have indirectly prompted her to spend several weeks looking into whether cases are falling through the cracks because of lost or changed computer data.

"People are just adamant that the system does not lose cases, but that sometimes our workers don't know how to retrieve what they've entered," she said.

Libby Marshall, a veteran screener of child-abuse referrals in Eugene, said the system had quite a few bugs when it first went online in the mid-1990s. But with those glitches worked out, the system's value as an information-gathering tool far outweighs any "annoyances" caused by the few bugs she's aware of these days.

"My bottom line would be, it works well. I'm happy with it," said Marshall, a screener who was asked by supervisors to respond to a reporter's request to interview caseworkers in the Eugene office of the Children, Adults and Families Group, which does child protective services work.

Some of Marshall's fellow Eugene caseworkers have contacted their agency's computer system "help desk" to report problems in recent months.

According to a July 30 log entry, a state child protective services worker in the Eugene office was trying to assign a referral to a screener, but the computer wouldn't save or update the report she'd compiled.

The caseworker declined to be interviewed, saying such requests should be directed to a supervisor.

Statewide, caseworkers and supervisors have made 689 requests for assistance because of problems with FACIS between Aug. 11 and Nov. 10. They've involved problems such as missing forms, reports that have gone blank, and cases that could not be retrieved to update police reports. Some problems took less than an hour to resolve, others took a full day or several days - one took as long as 378.4 hours - to resolve.

Pat Loewinger, a former caseworker from the Eugene office, said such computer-caused problems were commonplace right up until she retired last June - and that her former co-workers tell her they've persisted since then.

Loewinger said the most upsetting glitches involved the computer system's reversion to old addresses, even after a caseworker had entered an updated address for a child who had been abused or neglected. Such errors, she said, can delay a caseworker's arrival at a residence where suspected abuse has been reported, because the investigating caseworker ends up first going to the old address before calling into the office to have somebody research the correct address.

The worst-case scenario, Loewinger said, has never occurred to her knowledge, but it is a risk: that such a delay will prevent an investigator from reaching the correct address until it's too late.

"And when they see it, it's a case where a child has to go to the hospital," Loewinger said. "It could be bad. It could be very bad."

Below the radar

Unlike some of the state's more spectacular computer-related fiascoes, the FACIS system has been a low-budget project that's never drawn much scrutiny from lawmakers or other political leaders. It cost $12.3 million to bring online and $2 million a year to operate. Such figures are dwarfed by the 1996 disclosures that the $48 million computer upgrade for the state Driver and Motor Vehicle Services was running up to $75 million over budget.

FACIS "is not something somebody's approached me about," said Rep. Rob Patridge, R-Medford, co-chairman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Information Management and Technology. "But if it's not doing what it should be doing, then we should look at it."

The recent federal review of Oregon's FACIS, released Oct. 9, concluded that the state's computer system failed to meet 24 requirements, was "incomplete" but in the process of meeting 24 other standards and fully complied with 16 requirements.

These requirements included computer-generated reminders to keep caseworkers apprised of court dates or case-review deadlines, changes in a child or perpetrator's status, and standards for automation and ease in searches.

Lowe, the administrator over FACIS, said the review's conclusions were based on information gathered in a 2002 site visit and that many of the problems identified in the report had been addressed or are being fixed.

When federal regulators raised the concerns with the state system, Lowe said, she asked them for advice - in part to determine whether a new system should be considered.

"They said, 'You have a good system. You have a really good start. You just have to finish it,' ' Lowe said.

A report issued last week by the congressional General Accounting Office suggested Oregon wasn't alone in this regard. Forty-six other states were still working to complete their child welfare computer systems, too. And, the report said, "many states continue to face challenges developing their systems," resulting in a median delay of 2 1/2 years beyond their initial completion target dates.

Debra Fery, an independent computer consultant who reviewed the federal report on FACIS, reached an opposite conclusion from the one Lowe said she got from federal regulators. Considering the system was designed nearly a decade ago and still isn't meeting caseworkers' demands or regulators' standards, Fery said the state should consider scrapping FACIS.

"I would probably say, let's start over," said Fery, a former systems analyst with the state. "The problem is, they don't have money to fix it."

The state's revenue crisis of the past two years could carry into 2004 and beyond if voters reject a tax package meant to provide $800 million to state government and local schools.

Given such fiscal constraints, Lowe said, she and her staff have concentrated limited dollars on what she called the "front end" of FACIS, where initial reports of possible child abuse or neglect are collected.

If the system still creates problems for workers, Lowe said, it's because limited funding has left her department without enough money for adequate training. Before the state's budget crisis, four trainers were on staff to help FACIS users; now there's only one trainer. That led Lowe to conclude that inadequate training and a computer system she calls "a work in progress" has made their jobs more difficult - but hasn't compromised her agency's ability to protect children.

Caseworkers disagree. Even if child safety is not jeopardized, computer errors are severe enough that FACIS hinders them from doing their jobs.

"I keep asking, if it's making our job easier and more efficient, why am I spending most of my hours looking at it, and not out there with the kids?" said Simpson, the veteran caseworker from Portland. "I'm repeating work, redoing it. It should be efficient so we can spend more time with our kids."

CASEWORKER COMPLAINTS

Here are excerpts from child welfare workers' reported computer problems. The reports were submitted to the "Help Desk" technicians who work with the state's Family and Child Information System (FACIS) computer:

Roseburg: A caseworker used pointed language in his e-mailed report of the system's failure to retain updated addresses. "You keep making our job harder!!!" he wrote. "It would be time efficient if an address would stick when the change is made."

Newport: A child welfare caseworker reported that FACIS refused to accept the updated address for a father's residence. "It is now reverted back to the old address ... prison." It was a common issue: "Another address problem Yikes! This problem is continually happening."

Grants Pass: A screener reported that after completing an intake form called a "307," revisions weren't being retained in the final printed version. "Now I have a 307 which has not been spell checked is incomplete and a mess that I can not change. I looked in back-up and my changes are not there."

Portland: An employee at a child-abuse hotline adds names to an intake referral form. When the names disappeared from the computer file, she pulled an older report on the same child to retrieve the names. But when she finished, the worker discovered the names from the earlier computer report had been removed, as well.

Albany: A caseworker logged a call and printed the intake form - only to discover that none of the information she'd entered was on the form. The response of a computer technician suggested it was not an isolated problem: "Losing information is an ongoing problem for many workers."