Fostering Efficiency in Social Services

Caseworker Karen Sanchez carries a smart phone and laptop. Xora software’s GPS capability allows supervisors to look online at a caseworker’s “breadcrumb trail.” [Photo: Daniel Portnoy]

Eight years after Rilya Wilson disappeared from her Miami foster home, monitoring Florida’s foster children — and the caseworkers who look after them — is still a work in progress. So Our Kids of Miami-Dade/Monroe, the lead agency for foster care in Miami and the Florida Keys, has put together a high-tech, easy-to-use system called OK Connect.

Starting last September, the agency’s 220 caseworkers began carrying a Samsung Blackjack II smart phone and a lightweight Panasonic laptop to their monthly foster home visits. The phones, equipped with Xora’s GPS software, let caseworkers verify that the visit took place. Caseworkers take a picture of the child that is time-, date- and location-stamped and send it to the state system. For privacy purposes the photo is not stored on the phone. "What we really wanted to know was, ‘Is that child OK? Has that child been seen?’ says Pat Smith, chief information officer for Our Kids.

The Xora software’s GPS capability on the caseworker’s phone also lets supervisors look online at what Smith calls a "breadcrumb trail" that tracks the caseworker’s location at any time, allowing the supervisor to make sure caseworkers are where they are supposed to be and send assistance if they are in trouble. For the caseworker’s convenience and safety, the phone also includes mileage tracking and turn-by-turn navigation to foster homes, courthouses or other destinations as well as a panic button.

The laptop can be used for web-based reporting of home visits, court appointments and other meetings. Both the phone and the laptop use data encryption and are username- and password-protected. The laptops are equipped with LoJack in case they are stolen. And data on the devices can be remotely killed and wiped clean. "To roll this program out without the best security would be an utter failure," says Frances Allegra, executive director of Our Kids.

The laptop includes wireless broadband that operates in conjunction with the phone, which serves as a wireless air card.

Through AT&T, Our Kids pays less than $100 a month per caseworker, says Smith, for unlimited phone and data service, GPS, mapping and the Xora software. The $1.5-million, three-year contract also includes installation of high-speed internet lines in foster homes so that foster parents can stay in touch with caseworkers through a secure portal. Smith says the low-cost laptops were purchased off the shelf, and Our Kids negotiated a free deal on the phones.

Gov. Charlie Crist endorsed the idea of an all-in-one mobile system in his State of the State address in 2008, and last fall the state began looking for a vendor to develop a statewide system. But funding is uncertain. Says Smith, "We’re an incubator for the state."