Improving Child Welfare: Safety Revisions The Division of Safety and Permanence (DSP) continues to deliver updates on and improvements to child welfare practice through the Improving Child Welfare package. Improving Child Welfare is a collection of efforts aimed at better supporting families and the child welfare workforce by streamlining the work and centering family engagement. Safety Revisions is one of four projects within the Improving Child Welfare package. The Safety Revisions work has two primary focuses: Access Response Time Pilot February 2025 eWiSACWIS enhancements Access Response Time Pilot On November 1, five local child protective services (CPS) agencies and the Division of Milwaukee Child Protective Services (DMCPS) began testing the Access Response Time Pilot – a new method of assigning response time. Currently, when a report of child maltreatment is screened in at Access, CPS agencies use the information in the report to assign one of three response times based on the presence or absence of danger threats. Data shows that these decisions vary widely across the state, and local CPS agency staff and supervisors have said that the process is often ambiguous. In total, DMCPS and ten local CPS agencies are participating in this pilot; over the summer, these agencies partnered with the Division of Safety and Permanence to develop a streamlined list of factors to determine whether to respond to a screened-in report within 24 hours or five business days. The new criteria and response times are intended to allow more time in situations where there is less urgency and will ensure Initial Assessment professionals meet with families to gather more information before safety threats are identified. The first cohort will be testing the new criteria and response times through April 30, 2025, and a second cohort will run from July 1, 2025, through the end of the year. February 2025 enhancements The Safety Revisions project is also focused on highlighting and supporting two important elements of CPS practice: identifying protectiveness and collaborating with tribes. Small changes are being made in the safety plan template (SAAP) in eWiSACWIS this coming February as a step toward elevating these crucial practices, centering families and supporting the workforce. These eWiSACWIS enhancements will support and strengthen best practice and set the foundation for future safety revisions. In addition, there will be some modifications to Appendix 5 in the Safety Intervention Standards. There are no changes to practice guidelines coming in February. Instead, the updates will make the appendix more usable, remove buzzwords and problematic concepts from the parent/caregiver protective capacities and include a more intentional focus on identifying a family’s strengths by gathering input from families and their support networks. For additional information about the safety-related enhancements coming February 2025, read this overview.
