We made some enhancements to KinderWait, allowing printing of Child Care Action Notices (CCAN) and tracking those in the system. We also added the ability to assign case managers to clients, and voila, we have a simple case management system built on top of a world-class wait list.

A number of primary AP agencies maintained their CEL as internal wait lists. Some agencies that used to subscribe to their county CELs came to us and requested there own waiting list systems. So we lost some customers, gained some new ones, and some changed their structure.

What will happen, however, if the governor’s “realignment” of moving responsibility for childcare subsidy to the counties takes place? Won’t this create a renewed need for CELs all over again, and this time with even added importance?

Might it be possible that just a year after dismantling the CEL system in California we have to create a new one?

I would appreciate any comments very much.

In Wake County, North Carolina, the system is used for a countywide waiting list and subsidy management. KinderWait produces the Child Care Action Notice (CCAN) and allows case managers track their subsidy clients. North Carolina has a swipe card system to track attendance and process payments, so attendance and payment processing is not needed in a county subsidy management system.

Note that we recommend to use the Search/Mail version, since the Child and Family utilities filter by eligibility and status, while Search/Mail does not. Search/Mail will provide most likely the best way to access the data for California Stage 3, which is implemented using a Child Flag.

First, it’s not easy to add another “flag” to a family, since there aren’t any family flags now. The only entity that has generic “flags”  that we could add are children, but there is no such thing as a military child.

We could add a “military” parent characteristic to those that are already  there:

You could then search for military families using  the Search/Mail Utility and find them.

You would NOT be able to see them in the Family or Child Utility. We’d have to do some work to display them.

However, I am not sure whether this is the right way.

Please insert comments below this post or email me directly with your ideas or comments. As always, we don’t want to make any changes to the system without fully understanding the need first.

I got a lot of good feedback and requests which I will summarize and report on separately. It was good to see everyone at the meeting.