Resource Family Approval Collaborative Database and Portal

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2020

In January 2017, as part of Continuum of Care Reform, the California legislature required all counties to implement a streamlined, family-friendly, and uniform Resource Family Approval process for all new and existing caregivers. In response to this mandate, Los Angeles County's Department of Children and Family Services (LA County DCFS) worked with Binti, Inc. to develop and implement a set of mobile, web-based tools to support engagement of families in the process. These included:?A publicly available website to assist with recruiting new families;?A public portal that allowed applying families to complete and renew their application and track progress online; and?A web-based portal for staff and community agencies to complete and track all of the steps necessary for approval and renewal, including training, family evaluations, background checks and home inspections.The partnership achieved measurable positive results. LA County DCFS steadily increased the number of families approved from less than 1,000 families in 2017 to over 3,500 in 2019 and decreased the number of days to approval by 46% during that period, from 153 to 105 days. Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) also used the platform to track their work in assisting relative caregivers to obtain approval, resulting in enhanced collaboration amongst LA County DCFS and CBOs working in the community.