A fraught foster care case management system that had its implementation indefinitely delayed earlier this month is expected to become the system of record by the end of this year.
However, it’s unclear exactly when that will happen, officials told lawmakers of the Legislative Science, Technology and Telecommunications Committee on Thursday.
Members of the team charged with developing the often-delayed and nearly $100 million software, known as New Mexico Impact, said they would not announce a new date for when the program would become the Children, Youth and Family Department’s go-to system until they were sure they could hit such a target.
“We are close, but once we lock in on that date, we’re going to be happy to share it,” said Jason Habedank, deputy cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Information Technology. “We don’t want to mislead folks — you know, give you a date and then be off by a week. Want to make sure that we are sticking to our commitments here.”
Despite assurances by officials that the state is rounding the corner on the project, and doing so in a cautious manner to protect the sensitive information of vulnerable children, lawmakers expressed concerns over the system’s rising price tag and open-ended timeline.
“We’re frustrated, and really concerned that children and families are not being supported the way they could with a program that, quite frankly, should have been implemented a long time ago and for far less money,” Sen. Nicole Tobiassen, R-Albuquerque, said.
CYFD originally launched its efforts to modernize its antiquated foster care case management system, known as the Family Automated Client Tracking System, or FACTS, in 2017. The project was originally expected to cost $32 million and be completed by October 2022 but has suffered numerous delays. So far, the state has spent more than $57.6 million on it, and the project is expected to cost at least $90.4 million — though analysts have predicted it will cost more.
New Mexico Impact technically launched, in a limited capacity, in mid-August. However, that was intended largely as a trial run for employees to become accustomed to the program, and an analyst for the Legislative Finance Committee noted at the time that the launch came without a number of promised functions, such as a mobile app designed to make the system usable in the field.
“What we got on Aug. 17 was a data transfer from the legacy IT system that CYFD has,” analyst Emily Hilla said during a meeting the week after the initial launch.
CYFD promised at the time it would make New Mexico Impact the agency’s system of record — which is to say, the only program used by employees — on Oct. 13. But after that day passed, the agency said software defects, data validation and system functionality issues had continued to plague the project, and indefinitely postponed the rollout.
While 1,836 staff members have been trained in New Mexico Impact, caseworkers are not using it in any capacity for day-to-day activity, CYFD’s New Mexico Impact deputy director Joshua Fulkerson said.
He added the state and its contractor, RedMane Technology, are working through 205 “critical items,” like bugs in the system, and must validate roughly 30 years worth of data before New Mexico Impact is functional and becomes CYFD’s only system of record.
Doing so is critical to keeping confidential and sensitive information about vulnerable children safe, the state has argued.
Lawmakers criticized the state for allowing the project to languish for years without yielding a functional system and expressed concerns about its uncertain future.
“We’re so far down this path now that there’s no way we can back out,” said Sen. Ant Thornton, a Republican of Sandia Park. “… We’re already being held hostage in some form or fashion. But at the same point, we need to get to a deliverable that everybody feels comfortable with, that we’ve actually achieved the goals that we set out to do.”
Rep. Tara Lujan, D-Santa Fe, also noted the high price tag of the project so far. However, she acknowledged the challenge of developing New Mexico Impact, particularly with ensuring it has the proper safety mechanisms in place to guard children’s information.
“I think we need to be careful, very particularly, with this type of information that you’re dealing with and how we’re handling it,” she said.
Esteban Candelaria is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. He covers child welfare and the state Children, Youth and Families Department. Learn more about Report for America at reportforamerica.org.
