Minnesota's 'archaic' technology wastes critical caseworker time, counties say

MINNEAPOLIS — County workers and lawmakers have some choice words to describe the 25-year-old state information system used to manage child protection cases and social service programs: Slow. Archaic. A nightmare.

"It's the most vulnerable people that we have in the state of Minnesota that are in this system," Pine County Commissioner Terry Lovgren said. "They need the most care, they need the most help, and we can't give it to them because we are working on a broken system."

Gov. Tim Walz recently proposed spending $15 million to update the Social Services Information System (SSIS). It was one of the biggest items in his supplemental budget plan.

County officials say more efficient technology could save child protection workers — who are in high demand and short supply — hours every week, allowing them to spend more time with kids and families. And lawmakers and advocates stressed that without a technology update, some other efforts at the Capitol to improve child welfare must remain on hold.

But the money Walz proposed is only a portion of the estimated $80 to $100 million needed for a full SSIS replacement.

Half of that money could come from a federal government match, said Tikki Brown, assistant commissioner for children and family services at the Department of Human Services. Last year, lawmakers devoted $2 million to analyze SSIS issues and look at what new system would entail, she said, and they will have a report out in the fall.

If lawmakers approve the $15 million, Brown said it would allow the state to start building a framework for a replacement system and help "stabilize" the existing system to prevent crashes that have become more frequent in recent years.

The system will shut down for hours, or even crash for a full day. County and tribal government workers will lose what they had been writing because the technology often doesn't automatically save it.

Nothing can be copied and pasted, so staff must laboriously enter the same information again and again. The "spinning wheel of death" is a familiar sight as screens slowly load.

Modernizing SSIS is complex, DHS officials said, because agencies use it to manage many types of services.

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