We have received a variety of "Quick Tips" and "How To's" from current users of the system and we have decided to share these very useful hints.
Did You Know... Closing a case in CONNECTIONS does NOT automatically close the associated WMS case. The WMS case must be closed manually after the CONNECTIONS case has been closed. Therefore, you can close the case in CONNECTIONS when services end but keep the WMS case open long enough for outstanding bills to be paid without additional FASPs becoming due! If the case remains open and the child still appears to be in placement, there will be a requirement for a casework contact for that child as well as AFCARS information.
Similarly, recording the child's discharge (M990) and closing the track in CCRS (M999) when services end will not affect the ability to pay outstanding bills and will increase the accuracy of time-in-care statistics.
Did You Know... That it is not necessary to create a new Visitation Plan in CONNECTIONS in order to change the plan brought forward from the previous FASP? For example, if the visitations are increasing from bi-weekly to weekly, the change can be made in the active Visitation Plan. To do this, access the visiting plan tab (from the Visiting Plan node in the FASP) and highlight the appropriate row on the grid. The information from that plan will populate the data values. You can make the necessary changes and save the updated plan. This will result in the updated plan going forward. It is important to avoid creating a duplicate plan, because creating a new plan and having both plans “active” implies that both plans are occurring and will result in multiple plans displaying on your FASP print out.
Note: You can use the visitation plan that is in the current FASP or if the current FASP has been approved and you want to change the visiting plan, you will need to launch the next FASP due, if available for launch, or launch a Plan Amendment if the next FASP is not yet available.
Did You Know...That WMS Services applications that have not been processed within 90 days of the last transaction date are at risk of being system withdrawn. Once the application is withdrawn, it will no longer be available; therefore it is important that the WMS case be opened within this 90-day window. Since WMS Services applications must be created through CONNECTIONS, in order to create a new WMS application after the 90 days, the FSS would need to be closed and a new FSS opened. This would allow the worker to create a new WMS application. (Please note that if it becomes necessary to open a new FSS, the new FSS should be merged with the closed FSS).
Did You Know...When an FSS/CWS stage is progressed to a CCR stage; the WMS case needs to be maintained. If the freed child was the only child tracked in the WMS case, that case should be closed. If there are other tracked children in the WMS Services case who continue to receive services, the child who is freed for adoption should be deleted from the active WMS Services case and a new WMS case should be opened. The freed child's CCRS track should be closed when the child is deleted or when the WMS case is closed. Once the new WMS case has been opened, the child's CCRS track should be re-opened using a tracking indicator of Y. The supplemental registration should reflect the CID date from the child's previous track. The track start date should be the day after the M999 was posted closing out the child's previous track.
Did You Know...The due date for the first reassessment FASP (for all program types: placement, preventive, protective) has been changed to 210 days from the CID. This change has been made in order to bring the completion of this FASP into compliance with the timeframe prescribed in the permanency law. This alters the FASP cycle as we currently know it. The initial FASP is due 30 days from CID (unless indication of a CPS report is the CID trigger, then it is due seven days from CID). The Comprehensive FASP is due 90 days from CID. The first Reassessment FASP is due 210 days from CID. The second Reassessment FASP is due 6 months from the first Reassement FASP. All subsequent FASPs are due every six months thereafter. The first Service Plan Review for children in foster care and for children placed by a court, directly in the custody of a relative or other suitable person pursuant to Article 10 of the Family Court Act, is to be held in conjunction with the Comprehensive FASP (if the CID was triggered from a removal) or in conjunction with the 90 Day Update Plan Amendment (if a removal occurred after the CID was established). A permanency hearing satisfies the requirements for a Service Plan Review if the permanency hearing is held and completed within six months of the previous Service Plan Review.
Did You Know...To close a duplicate CPS case (DUP) users should highlight the case in your Assigned Workload with the type of DUP, click on the Options drop down and select Intake Priority/Closure from the list. On the Intake Priority/Closure window click on the drop down arrow for the Reason Closed field, select Closed Duplicate Report from the drop down list. The Save pushbutton does not enable. Once you have completed the closure reason click on the File menu and select Save and Close from the drop down list. The case will no longer appear on your Assigned Workload. Refer to Module 7 of the Build 16 Training for CPS caseworkers Step-by-Step.
Did You Know...When submitting for approval, users should not change the Due date of the approval under the To Do Data section. The To Do list displays To Do's with dates due within 7 days from Today's date. If approvers are expecting to see a To Do, they may advance the To date field on their To Do list using the Dates section (Approvers should consider advancing the To date on the To Do list window four weeks out.)
Did you know... that a casework contact with a foster parent may be recorded using the selections from the following fields:
Type: Casework Contact
Family Participant/Focus: Child about whom the casework contact is made
Other Participant: Foster/Adoptive Parent
Did You Know...that you can review a series of Progress Notes on line without having to open each individual note? To do this, you would search for the set of notes you want to review, choose Select All and then choose Print. This will generate a Print Preview view of the set of notes. Closing the Print preview window will cancel the print request. In addition, users can select the notes they want to read by holding down the 'Control' button and clicking on each note individually (either before or after searching) and view the notes through Print Preview.
Did You Know...That all foster children over the age of eighteen years who reside in foster boarding homes... (more)
Did You Know...There are two types of Event Lists in CONNECTIONS-one for a stage and one for a case... (more)
Did You Know...Events in CONNECTIONS can also be viewed as a printed report... (more)
Did You Know...There are three types of To-Do's in CONNECTIONS... (more)
Did You Know...That To-Do's can be sorted to make them easier to use... (more)
Did You Know...The buttons that appear near the bottom of most windows serve as shortcuts to frequently performed functions or frequently visited windows from that window... (more)
Did You Know...The columns on the Assigned Workload window provide an abbreviated view of relevant information about each stage assigned to you... (more)
Did You Know...To access events for all stages in a case you can highlight a stage on the Assigned Workload, click on the Options drop-down menu and select Case Summary... (more)
Did You Know...That a report made that describes the same incident(s), involving the same subjects and child(ren), occurring within the same time frame as a previously made report...(more)
Did You Know...That to close a duplicate report you have to...(more)
Did You Know... At times a reporter will provide the SCR with additional information that is relevant to a CPS case...(more)
Did You Know...That to close an Additional Information you have to...(more)
Did You Know...There are Reports available in CONNECTIONS to help you manage your workload... (more)
Did You Know...The OCI Management report is actually made up of three Separate Reports... (more)
Did You Know...Having an Implied Role in a case allows CPS workers to access all past cases listed on an IRI Report even if a case was open in another district... (more)
Did You Know...If you are a secondary worker on a stage, you may receive an assignment that has been progressed to the Investigation stage, but not yet accepted... (more)
Did You Know...There are two types of Event Lists in CONNECTIONS-one for a stage and one for a case... (more)
Did You Know...Events in CONNECTIONS can also be viewed as a printed report... (more)
Did You Know...There are three types of To-Do's in CONNECTIONS... (more)
Did You Know...That To-Do's can be sorted to make them easier to use... (more)
Did You Know...The buttons that appear near the bottom of most windows serve as shortcuts to frequently performed functions or frequently visited windows from that window... (more)
Did You Know...The columns on the Assigned Workload window provide an abbreviated view of relevant information about each stage assigned to you... (more)
Did You Know...To access events for all stages in a case you can highlight a stage on the Assigned Workload, click on the Options drop-down menu and select Case Summary... (more)