(Radio Iowa) – A new I-T system child protective service workers in Iowa rely on to track foster and adoption cases is set roll out in December. The new federally-compliant system, called VISION, replaces the state’s current system which was created in the 1980s, known as FACS. Janee Harvey, director of the Family Well-Being and Protection Division, says FACS relies on “F” keys on a keyboard to navigate the system instead of a mouse.
“We have literally had people go through training who want to be social workers in Iowa who have left training when we get to the point of trying to teach them how to use FACS,” Harvey says. “We have had people say, ‘Call me when you have a more modern system.’” Iowa Department of Health and Human Services officials said in a webinar the new, user-friendly IT system could help with workforce retention and recruitment.
Harvey says the current system is inefficient, and social workers have quit because of it. “It keeps our social workers from having timely information, so not having that right info at the right time is both inefficient, but the nature of our work it actually invites risk into the work we do,” Harvey says. “We are less capable of keeping kids safe.”
The state entered into a near-42-million dollar agreement with Google last year to build the new VISION system.
