State launches ‘gamechanger’ foster care communication tool, $5M price tag
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The communication tool, mandated by lawmakers, is meant to improve communication in foster children’s cases.
This story was originally published by West Virginia Watch.
West Virginia has launched a new online chat tool, mandated in a Republican bill, that is supposed to improve communication between foster parents, social workers and others involved in a child’s case.
While the project missed its initial July deadline from lawmakers, the state Department of Human Services partially rolled out the system last week and said it will soon be statewide. The project will cost more than $5 million over five years.
“I believe it can be a gamechanger for every aspect of child welfare, and I look forward to the full implementation as quickly as we can,” said Del. Adam Burkhammer, R-Lewis, a sponsor of the bill.
West Virginia’s foster care system has more than 6,000 kids.
Lawmakers have struggled to address widespread problems in West Virginia’s overwhelmed system, and they’ve tried to use legislation to mandate changes from DoHS.
House Bill 4975, signed into law last year, was the brainchild of Burkhammer and Del. Jonathan Pinson, R-Mason, who are both foster parents.
The pair said – based on their experiences fostering – there were major communication breakdowns between foster parents, Child Protective Services workers, attorneys and others involved in a child’s case. The problem contributed to children lingering in the system without permanency and foster parents closing their homes due to frustration, bill sponsors said.
The legislation required DoHS to create a centralized communication tool for individuals involved in a child’s case by July 1.
DoHS pushed the launch to September mainly to secure federal dollars to help pay for the technology. Brandon Lewis, chief of technology and information for DoHS, told lawmakers that the tool – named “COMET” – partially rolled out last week.
“Right now, we started in Randolph County,” Lewis told the Joint Committee on Children and Families, which met Sunday during September Legislative Interim Meetings in Charleston.
“You reduce the risk of other issues and problems that can be addressed by one county at a time,” he continued. “We will slowly roll out over the next, I would say two to three months.”
COMET stands for “communication and operations mobile engagement tool.”
Lewis said the state’s contract with Cardinality.ai, an AI-solutions company for government, would cost $5.4 million for five years. Additionally, the state is paying Optum, which facilitates many online DoHS systems, to help roll out COMET.
The state’s roughly $300 million contract with Optum has been a source of frustration for some lawmakers after DoHS and the tech company failed to meet the 2020 deadline for creating an online management system for foster care, Medicaid and more. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the project, a DoHS leader said last year. The system, known as PATH, is now operational.
CPS workers and others in Randolph County have begun using the COMET system for communication, Lewis said. State foster care leaders are working on communicating to foster parents and others that the chat tool is now available.
“I think as we start rolling this out, we will start seeing more and more and more utilization of other tools,” Lewis said.
DoHS is required, according to the bill, to provide quarterly reports to lawmakers about the communication tool’s use. Lewis said those reports will begin now that the product has launched.
West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.