Child Welfare Services

Child Welfare Improvements and the COAS

For more information phone 858-614-9127 or send us an email.

The County of San Diego Child Welfare Improvements was developed to respond to the California Outcomes and Accountability System (COAS). This was formerly known as the California-Child and Family Service Review (C-CFSR).

The COAS stems from legislation (AB 636 2001) aimed at improving California's child welfare system. The COAS encourages State and County leadership to identify and replicate best practices to assure the unique and critical needs of children and their families are met.

The COAS is designed to be a new child welfare outcomes and accountability system for counties as they provide child welfare services.  The COAS includes the outcomes measured by the federal government as well as enhanced outcomes that support the federal outcomes

 

County of San Diego Child Welfare Improvements and the California Outcomes and Accountability System (COAS)

The County of San Diego Child Welfare Improvements was developed to respond to the California Outcomes and Accountability System (COAS). The COAS stems from legislation (AB 636 2001) aimed at improving California's child welfare system. The COAS encourages State and County leadership to identify and replicate best practices to assure the unique and critical needs of children and their families are met.

The COAS is designed to be a new child welfare outcomes and accountability system for counties as they provide child welfare services. The COAS includes the outcomes measured by the federal government as well as enhanced outcomes that support the federal outcomes.  

 

COAS Process

The COAS process has four components.  

1. County Self-Assessment (CSA)

The purpose of the self-assessment is to focus the county on areas needing improvement and to involve the entire child and family service community in developing an assessment of where strengths and needs exist. The County is required to conduct a comprehensive self-assessment every three years. This includes a report and analysis of how the county performed on each of the COAS outcomes and indicators.   

2. Peer Quality Case Review (PQCR)

The purpose of the PQCR is to learn, through intensive examination of County child welfare practice, how to improve child welfare services practice. This is done by bringing in outside expertise to help shed light on the strengths and areas needing improvement within a County's child welfare services delivery system and social work practice.

3. County System Improvement Plan (SIP)

The purpose of the SIP is to create an operational agreement between the County and the State. This agreement outlines county strategies and actions to improve the child welfare system of care.  The County will provide the CDSS with an annual update to the County SIP.  These updates will show both progress made during the year and changes needed based on additional information. 

4. Quarterly Data Reports

In order to measure the county's progress in meeting outcomes, the State provides the County with data reports. The data source for these reports is the Child Welfare Services/Case Management System (CWS/CMS), which became fully operational in all 58 counties on December 31, 1997. Counties are responsible for inputting data on CWS/CMS as part of their process to manage their caseloads of children and families who receive child welfare services. The accuracy of the information derived from CWS/CMS is continuously improving.

Comparison of data across counties should be done with caution. First, counties may have different data management practices. Though data are recorded on one statewide database system (CWS/CMS), differences in data entry and update may influence outcome measures reported here. Second, the social and economic contexts within which child welfare services are provided vary widely among the 58 counties of California. Data on the outcome measures can be found on the University of California - Berkeley Child Welfare Research Center's website:http://cssr.berkeley.edu/ucb_childwelfare/

 

 

For more information phone 858-614-9127 or send us an email.