Random Moment Sampling (RMS)

Random moment sampling and “rolling” time studies are a type of “substitute systems” used for allocating salaries and wages to Federal Awards.

The Department of Children and Families (DCF) administers three separate “substitute systems” that have been approved by the federal government. These systems allow DCF to consistently allocate certain county agency costs to the appropriate federal, state, and local programs.

Note: none of these processes are methods for evaluating county worker performance. As the sampling results are used for claiming federal reimbursement, it is imperative that programs and activities are accurately reported by the county employees being sampled.

Each of the three systems are designed to:

  • sample county staff
  • record their answers about what they’re working on right in that moment
  • generate statistics based off the answers
  • apply these statistics to relevant cost pools, enabling the State of Wisconsin to claim federal funding

To learn more about each substitute system expand the sections below.

Income Maintenance/Childcare (IM/CC) RMS

The IM/CC RMS is used to document staff effort in support of federal, state and local programs administered by the Department of Children and Families (DCF), the Department of Health Services (DHS), and Department of Administration (DOA).

  1. Staff are sampled, with quarterly statistics developed from their answers.
  2. These statistics, plus certain program recipient counts, are applied to county financial reporting* uploaded via DCF’s SPARC (System of Payments and Reports of Contracts).
  3. The resulting RMS Cost Allocation Report is used by DCF and DHS** for federal claiming related to IM/CC activities.

*For more information about county financial reporting related to IM/CC RMS, visit the Employee Count Report & Cost Pool Report web page.

**IM/CC RMS was designed through interagency collaboration and remains a federally-approved system for both DCF and DHS.

Child Support (CS) RMS

The Department of Children and Families Bureau of Child Support developed the CS RMS to allocate county agency costs to the child support program. All county child support agencies use RMS to allocate costs between IV-D and non-IV-D (NIVD) program areas. CS RMS is designed to measure county child support agency staff activities that qualify and do not qualify for federal financial participation (FFP)

For more information visit the Child Support Partner Resources(CSPR) site, Random Moment Sampling resource page.

Users must request access to CSPR by completing the Access Request Form.

Social Services (SS) Random Moment Time Study (RMTS)

The SS RMTS is used to identify the proportions of such service time devoted to foster care and preventing foster care activities eligible for federal reimbursement.

For more information about the SS RMTS visit the RMTS Home web page.

Note: If you have staff who work directly with clients in both the IM/CC and the social services functional areas, these staff should be included in the IM/CC RMS only and excluded from the SS RMTS. The IM/CC RMS has been designed to collect effort related to social services in these cases.