"Child protection is really sensitive, important, high-emotion work," said Laura Bartsch, a child and family intake supervisor in Dakota County. "If we don't have the best, most accurate information or equipment systems to work with, I feel like that's a liability on how we're serving families."

County officials said they hope improvements to SSIS will help them retain staff. They noted that young employees, who recently graduated from college and are passionate about working with kids and families, end up particularly flummoxed by the antiquated technology.

Across Minnesota, child protection workers are juggling higher-than-recommended caseloads and thousands of social work jobs remain unfilled.

Scott County's child protection division had a 40-50% employee turnover rate in recent years, said Deputy Health and Human Services Director Suzanne Arntson,who does exit interviews with departing employees.

"Every one of my staff that have left either attribute SSIS as the primary driver, or a secondary [reason]," she said.

One morning last year, DHS staff visited Scott County. They had planned to sit with county workers and see what it is like to work with the technology, Arntson said.

Instead, the system was down the entire time they were there.

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