Making it easier to
help children in
difficult situations

The questions child welfare caseworkers ask every day can have life-altering consequences: Is the child safe in this home? Are there signs of abuse or neglect? Can they remain with their biological parents, and if not, what’s the right foster home for them? What’s the likeliest path to a permanent home? It’s a demanding job and the stakes are incredibly high.

Child welfare caseworkers within the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (DHW) worked hard to help families, but they also needed help. Their caseloads were too high; their jobs were extremely stressful—then the pandemic strained the system further.

Every day, these dedicated professionals were making decisions that impacted lives—but gathering data to inform those decisions was often challenging. Some information had to be captured in the field and manually entered into databases hours or days later. Caseworkers often required additional information from disparate parts of the human services or justice systems. Inefficiencies and outmoded systems cut into time caseworkers could otherwise spend helping children and their families.

While the primary objective of child welfare is the safety and well-being of children, DHW also valued its staff’s safety and well-being. To better meet the needs of the department, its caseworkers, and—most importantly—children and families, DHW needed better tools.