NC S88

Department of Health and Human Services must contract with a qualified organization by June 30, 2022 to implement a statewide child welfare practice model designed to standardize business processes and training across county departments.

Contracted organization must conduct culture change readiness training by December 31, 2022 to identify efficient use of existing county resources, determine additional resource needs (technology and staff), and develop tailored county-specific service enhancement plans.

Department of Information Technology must assign a staff person to the NC FAST child welfare project to oversee adequate progress toward goals, efficient funding use, taxpayer investment protection, and provide additional reporting to the General Assembly.

Department must prioritize software usability in future vendor contracts for the child welfare case management component and submit a usability requirements report by April 30, 2022.

Vendors providing additional software for NC FAST must provide a free proof of concept demonstrating their technology's ability to work with the system, validated against use cases and features defined by the Department by April 30, 2022.