New Web-based system will help place foster children sooner

May 21, 2015

A new, innovative Web-based tool that helps place foster children with families much sooner and at substantial savings recently received funding in a $3.6 million three-year grant to the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) and its affiliate, the Association of Administrators of the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (AAICPC). The grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families’ Children’s Bureau for the awardees to administer and further develop the system nation-wide.

The system, known as the National Electronic Interstate Compact Enterprise (NEICE), is a Web-based electronic case-processing system that supports the administration of the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC) by exchanging data and documents across state jurisdictions to facilitate the safe placement of foster children quicker and more efficiently than ever before.  When fully implemented, it will also save states potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in administrative costs and staff time.

The NEICE is also helping enable states to exchange data by acting as a translator of that data.  NEICE sends data from one state to another nearly instantly and could one day serve as a framework for additional data sharing efforts within human service programs and with external supporting programs.

Quick Facts

  • The NEICE was piloted in six states over the past 17 months with significant results.
  • Since its launch in August 2014, over 6,000 children from those six states were entered into the system.
  • Almost 4,000 children received ICPC placement decisions.
  • Placements times were reduced between 20 and 40 percent using the electronic system versus the antiquated paper copy process.

Quotes

“The Children’s Bureau is very excited about the potential of the NEICE to quicken the safe and timely placement of children across the 52 ICPC jurisdictions and for the potential to operate with other related key systems that provide services for and to children and families.”
— JooYeun Chang, Associate Commissioner of the Children’s Bureau.
“The NEICE is a game changer for the ICPC and children nationwide. It has already shortened the time it takes to process ICPC cases and children impacted by system have been able to move into their new family in record time.”
— Mical Peterson, Deputy Compact Administrator, Minnesota and president of the AAICPC
“Having proven its effectiveness in the placement of children across states, we believe this modern technology tool can also be helpful in supporting other pressing issues such as human trafficking, homelessness, and access to health care.”
— Anita Light, Director with the American Public Human Services Association and principal investigator for the project

Contact

Administration for Children & Families
Office of Communications
330 C Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201

Phone: (202) 401-9215
Fax: (202) 205-9688
Email: media@acf.hhs.gov

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