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DCF And GPS: State Tests Tracking On Caseworkers

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By JENNIFER KAY, The Associated Press

Published: February 22, 2008

MIAMI - Florida's child welfare workers soon will be carrying handheld GPS devices, similar to those UPS uses to track packages, to electronically update case information during home visits and show they were made.

The touch-screen devices will track the amount of time caseworkers spend with each family, and will provide a photographic record of children in state care, officials said Thursday.

Gov. Charlie Crist and Department of Children & Families Secretary Bob Butterworth showed off the book-sized devices during a news conference in front of a UPS truck. Florida is thought to be the first state to use such technology to track child welfare cases, Butterworth said.

The devices could help cut down the illegal conduct and inefficiency for which DCF has been criticized.

In 2002, the department discovered that Rilya Wilson, a 4-year-old Miami foster child, had been missing for more than a year, and her caseworker lied about visiting the home. The girl was never found and her caregiver has been charged with murder. The caseworker was fired and pleaded guilty to official misconduct, getting probation.

Last year, a 2-year-old foster girl was missing from a central Florida home for four months before police began searching for her. She was found at a Wisconsin home, where she apparently had been taken by her mother in violation of a court order rescinding her custody. The mother and others have been charged with murdering another woman whose body was buried in the yard.

A child protection task force Butterworth created after that case recommended better coordination and communication between law enforcement and child welfare agencies. The panel also suggested changing laws to simplify reporting and finding missing children.

Butterworth has said he is intent on turning around the troubled agency. His priorities for the department this year include faster access to food stamps and mental health care.
Child welfare workers currently record home visits on paper forms, then type the information into a state database when they return to the office. That process can take up to 60 days, Crist said.

Officials said the handheld devices will eliminate the paperwork, allow caseworkers to update and track files in the database throughout the day and automatically flag problems. For example, an alert would be sent to supervisors if no home visit was recorded for a child within 31 days, Butterworth said. Supervisors also would be able to send alerts to caseworkers traveling to home visits.

"This device will keep welfare workers in the field, not in the office doing paperwork," Butterworth said.

Each device will include GPS technology and a camera. At a home visit Thursday morning with a Miami Shores foster mother to demonstrate how the device works, Butterworth said future generations of the technology will include voice-activated recorders and telephones.

"This can serve as a national model, truly," Crist told the mother. "Having modern technology will help us care for beautiful girls like hers that much better."

Crist has recommended $10 million in the next fiscal year's budget to provide the devices statewide. Fifteen of the devices will be tested first in Miami-Dade County, Butterworth said. Hillsborough County also will test software for the device, officials said.

Marichelle Nelson, a DCF protective investigator in Miami-Dade County, estimated that more than half her time was spent on filing paperwork alone. The new devices could reduce that, she said.

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