[{"_1":2,"_88":-5,"_89":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_26":27},"root",{"_5":6,"_17":10,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":10,"_23":-5,"_24":-5,"_25":10},"user",{"_7":8,"_9":10,"_11":10,"_12":-5,"_13":-5,"_14":15,"_16":-5},"roles",[],"isAuthenticated",false,"isPremium","planName","subscriptionStatus","featureFlags",{},"insightsBudget","isDevelopmentHost","userPreferences",{},"recaptchaSiteKey","6LcvOJcUAAAAAHsB-gPGfGktcRlKpH7OTIU_dMTD","isImpersonating","impersonation","affiliateStatus","isFreedomPortal","routes/v2/article/layout",{"_28":29,"_30":31},"notFound",true,"relatedArticles",[32,76],{"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":60,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},"mediaId",6343609,"mediaKeyId","2251929-dfa5f8be972d7c11e5f7a2b080328571","parentId",2251929,"title","House committee hears update on Vermont Child Development Division’s CDDIS rollout and phase‑2 plan","audioSeconds",1447,"startMs",96000,"endMs",1543000,"viewUrl","/Search/View?dp=1&key=2251929-dfa5f8be972d7c11e5f7a2b080328571&start=96&end=1543","thumbnailUrl","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2251929-dfa5f8be972d7c11e5f7a2b080328571/thumbnail_96000.jpg","articleUrl","/articles/6343609/Vermont/House-committee-hears-update-on-Vermont-Child-Development-Divisions-CDDIS-rollout-and-phase2-plan","mediaUrl","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6343609-005f28346218d242fc0fd12c65476b54/orig.mp4?Expires=1775186485&Signature=VkG4ThjH7hFbx7R~shbBsGy9kRQ~td53Tq0dmP1-nID8EIfCG1C7Ft3gnAKZi6lmIdOTpkrUiMcB04ipk0~dRHwu9SlevnvWsgBoIIs7fYSeuXqUUZWabXrV-rdb62wT93L~HWdr3pliCE~9mZbubDCxOUkrNc4zSad56U5glCvQIwTOxgqICv4tIzmDlVkhRnon5la0PMOrxC-v4ITqOQCjh2lrC1aDU2TcHn-vG0RgZxQfWos-a8voBdOdLmO3JwE7CJqD9IWHxf0vCVQC7aw5v4uxw6-kecRwuaXOM81uSfYWn~xP8vEGs2crFAdT~W3l8n~pNjbR8Ao2wg5zug__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","author","Vermont House Energy and Digital Infrastructure","date","2025-02-06T00:00:00Z","article","MONTPELIER, Vt. — State officials updated the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee on Thursday on the Child Development Division Information System (CDDIS), saying the system’s first phase is live and functioning and that leaders are preparing a separate procurement and budget request for a second phase to bring childcare licensing and provider case management onto the platform.

The Child Development Division’s information system “is really a backbone for our childcare functions,” Jan McLaughlin, deputy commissioner at the Department for Children and Families, told the committee. She described CDDIS as central to licensing, the childcare financial assistance program and program quality supports for providers and families.

Committee members were told CDDIS replaced an aging legacy application and has already handled major policy changes. “We went live with our phase 1 on July third of 2022,” Pearl Long, director of operations for the Child Development Division, said. Long said phase 1 covers eligibility determination and direct payments to providers. She described the first release as an MVP — minimum viable product — that the division is continuing to refine.

Why it matters: Officials said the new system enabled implementation of Act 76 of 2023 changes to eligibility and rates and reduced the manual failures that had disrupted provider payments under the older platform. Committee members pressed staff about ongoing workarounds, data interfaces and how the CDDIS build will coordinate with other state systems and future legislative work.

Key details: Long and other presenters said the division still uses the Bright Futures Information System (BFIS) for some licensing and workforce modules and that BFIS is about 25 years old, vendor‑unsupported and prone to breakage. The state has been building CDDIS in phases: phase 1 (eligibility and provider payments) is live on a Salesforce‑based platform contracted to a vendor named Brightsystem; phase 2 is planned to add program licensing and renewal, complaints and compliance management, and provider credentialing and workforce/case management functionality.

Officials gave preliminary budget figures: approximately $5.0 million spent on phase 1 (about $3.0 million of that from state general funds) and a proposed phase‑2 budget of roughly $3.7 million. Long told the committee that the project has used federal grant dollars in prior years (described at the hearing as about $667,000 per year), but that some federal funding availability has changed and the division is continuing to clarify funding streams and the impact on the timeline.

Integration and operations: Committee members asked whether CDDIS talks to the state’s other systems. Long said the system already exchanges data with Vision (the state financial system) and other division and department systems via APIs and nightly feeds, and that planned phase‑2 work will broaden interfaces (for example, family services and abuse/registry checks). Andrew Delaverre, deputy secretary at the Agency of Digital Services (ADS), participated in the discussion and described ADS as project manager and integration partner for the build.

Timeline and procurement: Long said the division expects to post an RFP for phase 2 in March and will open the procurement to multiple vendors; she said the phase 2 procurement may or may not use the same Salesforce platform, and ADS will be highly involved in evaluating proposals. Committee members asked why CDDIS costs appeared modest compared with other state IT projects; presenters said the phase‑1 build was complex and that phase 2 — primarily a case management and licensing build — could be less costly but added that a complete buildout for the whole division could be larger.

Questions and limitations: Members raised operational questions about how case managers avoid duplicate data entry and whether CDDIS will directly integrate with the tax department or federal databases; presenters said tax and federal submissions currently occur via file transfers, not a live two‑way connection, and that some interfaces are batch or nightly APIs. Presenters also emphasized the need for ongoing maintenance funds and the process for change requests when legislation requires rapid system updates.

Next steps: Officials said they will finalize the RFP and return with more precise cost and timeline estimates. Long asked for continued coordination with the legislature on scheduling major policy changes so the division can phase work without disrupting benefits and payments.

Ending: Committee staff said they will follow up with ADS and the Joint Fiscal Office on state IT budgeting practices and on long‑term maintenance funding for CDDIS.","mediaType","Video","parentTitle","House Energy and Digital Infrastructure - 2025-02-06 9:00am","oneSentenceSummary","MONTPELIER, Vt. — State officials updated the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee on Thursday on the Child Development Division Information System (CDDIS), saying the system’s first phase is live and functioning and that leaders are preparing a separate procurement and budget request for a second phase to bring childcare licensing and provider case management onto the platform.","taxTitle","Environment & Energy, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Committees, Legislative , Vermont","taxId",30749,"location","Vermont","headline","","shortSummary",{"_33":77,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":78,"_41":79,"_43":80,"_45":81,"_47":82,"_49":83,"_51":84,"_53":85,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":86,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":87,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},6343604,"Family Services division outlines need for new CCWIS, says legacy systems cost staff time and risk federal funding",1970,2601000,4571000,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=2251929-dfa5f8be972d7c11e5f7a2b080328571&start=2601&end=4571","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/2251929-dfa5f8be972d7c11e5f7a2b080328571/thumbnail_2601000.jpg","/articles/6343604/Vermont/Family-Services-division-outlines-need-for-new-CCWIS-says-legacy-systems-cost-staff-time-and-risk-federal-funding","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6343604-63fe754c27dea3ee355a7585e6902a18/orig.mp4?Expires=1775186485&Signature=kpfh3wDI3-XFaPRr4gHNEQDPhshH6iQ8oOtrm045EChKQ7ViZb5Ngt7MnFdrIyB05e8dq9Dczkg-2vHzToH3bYd0Vhr~1aQ3pY2qEU6x~tyx6mT4Tl6LbnH-oO2GWt0fav35gACOqAOTWu7JNo-0PfrWO5N3z5L1NkuFNjjf2FDmI0JMBchzValQiwC2upNirMxctkEh8HsmVd11WHdNQYlyXCUJeO5ylaKxR3G7T-loawV9MO3pONkHRIwvQTDM0zPSiBpu9KMrFoId1Uu2l9GoO-eVCHXcpE~jHrNWih8Uh5Vz0bp1m4hH7LVuuuGEFVZ5Iv5Bz-OMzQJTvYMz0Q__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","MONTPELIER, Vt. — Officials from the Department for Children and Families’ Family Services Division told the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee on Thursday that the division’s child welfare and juvenile justice IT systems are obsolete, create significant manual work and have contributed to losses in federal funding; the division is preparing a competitive procurement for a comprehensive child welfare information system (CCWIS) to replace SSMIS and FSDnet.

“We are definitely at the beginning of our journey,” Erica Radke, deputy commissioner of the Family Services Division, told the committee as she outlined the division’s reliance on outdated systems and spreadsheets. Radke described two primary legacy systems — SSMIS (Social Services Management Information System) and FSDnet — that “do not communicate well together” and force staff to duplicate data entry.

Why it matters: Staff testimony described the operational consequences: district administrators reported spending about 25–30 hours a week manually entering case information across multiple systems and fixing data errors, and the division said the lack of automation impedes federal reporting and the ability to draw down federal funds for foster care and related services.

What officials said: Carly Tebow, the division’s quality assurance administrator, said staff use more than 30 individually maintained spreadsheets and paper files to track critical items such as foster‑parent fingerprinting, serious‑injury reporting and safety plans. “Most colleges don't teach coding for this thing because it's largely obsolete,” Radke said of SSMIS, noting the system predates modern interfaces and is difficult for staff to use.

Cost and funding: Committee members were shown national comparisons and told that modern CCWIS builds nationally range widely. The division cited a nationwide 2023 inquiry that found new child‑welfare systems costing between about $29 million and $120 million; based on Vermont’s size and needs, officials estimated a typical statewide replacement could range roughly from $30 million to $50 million, but cautioned that a precise figure depends on RFP responses. Radke said the department has accumulated approximately $7.8 million in prior appropriations and carryforward funds toward the work and noted there can be a federal match of roughly 50% for certain CCWIS expenses.

Procurement and timeline: Division leaders said they are finalizing an RFP and expect federal review before issuing it; earlier attempts required rework to the RFP and scoring approach. Andrea Delaverre, deputy secretary at the Agency of Digital Services, described ADS’s role as a close partner on the effort and favored incremental approaches that produce “small significant wins” rather than a single “big bang” replacement.

Operational impacts: Witnesses told the committee that the current setup reduces staff time available for direct services: one district administrator survey indicated extensive weekly hours spent on manual entry and troubleshooting. Officials said improved automation would allow staff to focus more time on children and families, reduce errors and reduce the state’s exposure to federal non‑compliance penalties.

Next steps: The division said it will finalize procurement materials, seek federal approval, and then accept competitive bids. Officials cautioned that precise cost and funding needs will be clearer after RFP responses and that any large budget request would be timed to forthcoming budget cycles rather than immediate supplemental asks.

Ending: Committee members asked ADS, the Joint Fiscal Office and DCF to continue coordinating on procurement, federal match opportunities and the state’s approach to funding ongoing IT maintenance and integration.","Family Services Division deputies told the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee that the division relies on two obsolete main systems (SSMIS and FSDnet), more than 30 manual spreadsheets and paper files, which hinders casework, risks federal drawdowns and prompted a planned CCWIS procurement with estimated multi‑million costs.","actionData","errors"]

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House committee hears update on Vermont Child Development Division’s CDDIS rollout and phase‑2 plan

Family Services division outlines need for new CCWIS, says legacy systems cost staff time and risk federal funding