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

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deputy commissioner of the Family Services Division, told the committee as she outlined the division’s reliance on outdated systems and spreadsheets.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.