Committee approves $40 million amendment for SSIS modernization; bill sent to Ways and Means

The Children and Families Committee on Oct. 12 approved an amended A1 appropriation of $40,000,000 to modernize the Social Services Information System and re‑referred House File 1169 to the Committee on Ways and Means.

The A1 amendment, as moved by Representative Nelson, would appropriate $40,000,000 for an SSIS modernization effort; committee members were told roughly half of that amount is expected to be matched with federal funds. Committee members adopted an oral change to the A1 amendment to remove a fixed availability date that had read June 30, 2027.

Vice Chair Representative Nelson told the committee the bill — labeled in the packet as the "Paperwork Reduction Act" — is intended to update the department’s SSIS platform. "About half of that, or there's also a federal match of roughly about half of that, so, to update this system," Nelson said when moving the amendment.

Cynthia Schipolski, who identified herself as "comprehensive child information system supervisor at the Department of Human Services," told members the department will begin a comprehensive assessment of platform needs within the next couple of weeks and expects that assessment to take about six months. "We're looking for that to start within the next couple of weeks and we anticipate that that will take about 6 months for it to be completed," Schipolski said, adding the department has run a formal RFO process and secured a third‑party vendor for the assessment.

Schipolski and other staff described a modular implementation approach: rather than switching from the old system to a single new system all at once, the department said it plans to prioritize modules that deliver immediate value to frontline caseworkers and to work with Minnesota IT services on staged rollout plans.

Sarah Florman, identified in the record as "legislative director for the child safety and permanency administration at DCYF," said that when the appropriation is made it will be deposited into the agency’s systems fund and used as needed through the modernization process. Florman explained the committee removal of the June 30, 2027 date: "Part of our request to remove the date was because it creates confusion and it implies that that money might disappear when in fact because it's already in our fund it won't." She added the iterative nature of the work meant staff could not guarantee a fixed completion date.

Representative Nelson offered an oral amendment to strike the availability date language from the A1 amendment; members adopted the amendment to the amendment by voice vote and then approved the A1 amendment as amended. The committee then adopted Representative Nelson’s motion to re‑refer House File 1169, as amended, to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Next steps: House File 1169, as amended, will be considered by the Committee on Ways and Means. Committee members said they will continue conversations with MNIT and the department about staging and federal match timing as the project moves forward.