As we transition into August, agencies continue to make strong progress across cleanup focus areas.

Progress Update

August Focus: Inactive SSIS User Access Cleanup

This month’s cleanup priority is an important one for both system security and IT resource management. Inactive User Access Cleanup should focus on users with 90+ days since last login who still have an active SSIS role or temp role and/or Active Directory access setup.

Agencies should review SSIS access for all staff who have not logged in for 90 days or more. Currently, over 4,000 agency users, statewide, still hold an active SSIS role despite being inactive for 90 or more days, including many who have never logged into SSIS.

To assist with this review, SSIS Admin’s User Search grid includes optional grid columns for Last Logon Date and Days Since Last Logon, each of which was added last year to assist agency administrators with effective user management.

Why this cleanup matters

Inactive accounts pose security concerns as well as monthly costs. DCYF is charged $17 per user per month for SSIS Active Directory access—regardless of whether the user logs in. Cleaning up inactive accounts ensures that IT dollars are being used effectively and not lost on users that don’t need current SSIS access.

Resources

Agencies can use the following resources to assist in reviewing/inactivating inactive SSIS user accounts:

1. User (Search, Add, Edit, Inactivate) – Guidance for searching, adding, editing and inactivating users.

2. SSIS Administration Overview – Overview of SSIS Admin features.

3. SSIS Coffee Talk Archive –the April 21, 2026 Coffee Talk archive - slides 31-32 shows how to set up the User Search Grid in SSIS Admin to quickly identify inactive users. When reviewing the grid, filter out blanks, State Employee, and External Placement Case Manager from the Employee Type column, since these staff are not included in inactive user counts. Then sort or filter by either the Days Since Last Log On or Last Log On Date column to locate users who may need access review. A more detailed reminder on adjusting the grid for this use will also be included in the next SSIS Update.

4. NEW: SSIS User Inactivation One‑Page Reference SSIS User Inactivation

Engagement & Communication Updates

Outreach will continue to agencies with high totals of inactive users and to agencies still carrying significant backlogs in earlier clean up focus areas.

Thank you for your continued engagement in strengthening statewide data quality. Your efforts are making a noticeable difference. For questions or support, please check out resources and information shared in this and previous data cleanup posts, and when needed contact dcyf.ssishelp@state.mn.us for additional assistance.

As we continue our statewide data clean-up work, the SSIS/CCWIS data cleanup team will maintain regular tracking and monitoring of agency progress on Clearing and Intakes Needing Action. While these remain key metrics, this month we are expanding our efforts with a new focus area: Unassigned Intakes and Unassigned Workgroups.

Quick Update on Cleanup Progress Thus Far

Statewide efforts continue to show strong momentum with significant decreases in clearing and Intake Needing Action backlog totals.

More than half of agencies have made measurable progress in reducing backlogs. Thank you for your continued work—your efforts are making a noticeable impact across the state.

New Focus Area: Unassigned Intakes & Workgroups

This month, agencies are encouraged to prioritize resolving unassigned intakes and unassigned workgroups. These items represent important workflow handoffs and are essential for:

• Maintaining accurate worker history
• Ensuring timely progression from intake → assessment → case management
• Reducing gaps that complicate data mapping during CCWIS conversion.

As of early June, there were 1500 (775 intakes, and 725 Assess/CM) unassigned intakes/workgroups – all open for 30+ days.

What Agencies Can Expect

Outreach:

Over the next several weeks, the SSIS/CCWIS data clean‑up team will

• Continue to review statewide trends within this new focus area
• Monitor agency-level reductions
• Offer support to agencies with rising or persistent totals (for earlier efforts), and proactively contact agencies with the highest totals in the new focus area
• Continue to track Clearing and INA progress alongside this new effort

Resources:

• Intake Searches
• Workgroup Searches

These tools can assist in identifying and resolving unassigned items. Agencies are encouraged to review the above job aids for how to utilize the Unassigned Intakes and Unassigned Workgroups grids.

Ongoing Updates:

Updates will continue to be posted at least monthly on the Sentiment & Feedback site. Progress will also be shared at Coffee Talks, Technical Meetings, through SSIS Update articles and other communication opportunities.

Looking Ahead: Recognizing Agency Efforts

To support momentum, we are exploring some friendly competition or recognition ideas as part of cleanup efforts. Agencies vary widely in size and starting points (some are just starting to clean up large backlogs, and some have no backlogs and are working on maintenance), we welcome creative ideas from agency mentors. We hope to roll out our first initiative by the end of summer.

Thank you for your continued engagement in strengthening statewide data quality. Your efforts are making a noticeable difference. For questions or support, please contact dcyf.ssishelp@state.mn.us.

Over the past several months, we have been working diligently to plan and prepare for the future modernized Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS). The CCWIS effort is not a rebuild of SSIS but an opportunity to assess functionality and processes to find opportunities for improvement in how Minnesota supports child welfare work. The focus is on creating flexible tools, reducing duplication, improving auditability, and using automation and data exchanges where they make sense. The goal is to better support today’s case management needs and build a system that can adapt over time in order to better serve the children, youth and families of Minnesota.

Work done in phase 1

During Phase 1 of Readiness, much has been accomplished. This phase of readiness has included collaboration with MNIT and vendor partners to define scope, develop requirements, prepare procurement solicitations, submit required federal planning documents- Planning Advance Planning Document, Implementation Advance Planning Document, and Operational Advance Planning Document (PAPD/IAPD/OAPD)- and to ensure a strong foundation for project’s success moving forward. A wide network of partners have been involved, including Tribal Nations, counties, and state agencies.

More than 40 focus groups and review sessions were held with over 300 participants. These sessions covered requirements for all major program areas such as intake, investigations, case management, Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act (MIFPA), Minnesota African American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act (MAAFPCWDA), fiscal, licensing, and more. End-to-end reviews were completed in late April through mid-May. Additional work has been underway on template and document planning and RFP development, including the Data Quality Plan. All documents required by our federal partners as part of the IAPD were submitted to the Administration of Children and Families (ACF) in May and are currently under federal review.

Moving towards phase 2

Next steps include starting Phase 2 of readiness with our vendor, focusing on data clean-up and data migration readiness, future-state business process design, and continued partner engagement. Opportunities for engagement will come for multiple groups, including counties and American Indian Child Welfare Initiative (AICWI) Tribal Nations— as we will need participation in reviewing and re-imagining processes and evaluating vendor proposals. An inter-agency Request for Proposal (RFP) evaluation team, including county and tribal members, has been established to participate in the upcoming procurement process, which will begin once federal approval of the IAPD has been granted. Counties and Tribal Nations are also encouraged to continue to focus their efforts on the data cleanup efforts.

Thank you to all partners who continue to contribute time, expertise, and insight as we, together, shape the future of Minnesota’s child welfare information system.

SSIS Data Cleanup Efforts Continue to Show Strong Progress Across Minnesota

Minnesota’s SSIS data cleanup efforts continue to show strong, measurable progress. Counties and tribal nations have significantly reduced both the Clearing Log and Intakes Needing Action (INA) backlogs through sustained focus and collaboration.

Statewide Highlights (as of June 9):

• Clearing Log Backlog: Now at 15,236 records — a 48% reduction since March.

• Intakes Needing Action: Down 37%, now at just under 14,000 statewide.

Agency Level Progress

Agencies across the state continue to make steady improvements in both Intakes Needing Action and Clearing work:

• 52 agencies reduced their Intakes Needing Action between March and June 9.

• 68 agencies reduced their Clearing Log totals during the same period.

These reductions reflect your dedicated cleanup work and strong collaboration—both within agencies and between agencies and SSIS state staff. This progress also demonstrates a shared understanding that quality data supports better outcomes for children, families, and workers.

Thank you for your continued engagement and partnership in these cleanup efforts. Your work is making a real, measurable difference.

For questions or support, please email dcyf.ssishelp@state.mn.us.

As we continue our statewide data clean-up work, SSIS/CCWIS will maintain regular tracking and monitoring of agency progress on Clearing. While Clearing remains an important metric, this month we are expanding our efforts with a new primary focus area: Intakes Needing Action.

Quick Update on Clearing Progress

Agencies across the state continue to make measurable progress in reducing the number of uncleared clients and workgroups. Over 50% of agencies statewide saw significant reductions in clearing log totals this past month. Though we did see some increases in totals for around 10 agencies, some of the increases may be related to inaccurate counts of reconcile records on the clearing logs in previous months so may not actually constitute an increase in clearing log totals.

Moving forward these will be included in the total clearing log counts and should be reconciled timely along with uncleared clients.

The chart below highlights the top 10 agencies contributing to statewide clearing‑log reductions. These agencies collectively reduced their clearing totals by 4,168 clients, representing most of the statewide progress from March to May. Showing the percentage of contribution of each agency helps illustrate their impact on overall improvement.

Thank you for your ongoing focus and efforts—your work is making a noticeable difference.

New Focus Area: Intakes Needing Action

This month, agencies are encouraged to prioritize reviewing and resolving Intakes Needing Action, with an emphasis on reducing backlogs and improving timeliness.

Addressing these older intakes supports accuracy throughout the entire child welfare workflow — from intake to assessments and case management — and helps ensure that children, families, and adults do not fall through the cracks due to incomplete or delayed information.

Over the next several weeks, the SSIS/CCWIS data clean up team will:

• Review statewide Intakes Needing Action trends and progress
• Monitor agency-level reductions
• Reach out/offer support to agencies with high or persistent backlogs
• Continue to track and report Clearing progress alongside this new focus area

What Agencies Can Expect

• Outreach: Agencies with high numbers of uncleared clients and/or high volumes of Intakes Needing Action will be contacted before June 1^st
• Resources:
  • SSIS Data Cleanup – Strengthening Our Data for What’s Next (4 minutes), is a short video that can be shared with agency staff. It provides a brief, high‑level look at the cleanup effort for mentors, agency staff, and others supporting this work.
  • Intakes needing Action job aid
  • Intake Module
• Ongoing Updates: Updates are posted at least monthly on the Sentiment & Feedback site. Short updates will also be provided at various coffee talks, Technical mtgs as well as SSIS Update articles.

Thank you for your continued engagement and leadership in improving data quality statewide. Your efforts are making a noticeable difference. For questions or support, please email dcyf.ssishelp@state.mn.us.

SSIS Data Cleanup Efforts: Clearing Log Trends & What’s Ahead

Statewide Clearing Log totals continue to trend in the right direction. The number of uncleared clients on the log for 30 days or more decreased from 29,240 in March to 25,522 in April, a reduction of 3,718 records (12.7%). This progress reflects the continued attention agencies are giving to data reconciliation and long-standing items.

To help support continued progress, the 15 agencies with the highest number of uncleared clients as of April 27 have now been contacted directly. These outreach efforts ensure agencies have the information, clarity, and support they need as we work together to strengthen statewide SSIS data quality.

To better understand agency‑level trends across the state, we also reviewed March‑to‑April changes in Clearing Log totals for all agencies. A strong majority showed improvement:

• 58 agencies decreased their number of uncleared clients
• 18 agencies increased
• 3 agencies saw no change

The chart below shows this distribution and highlights how widespread the progress has been:

Clearing Resources:

• NEW – SSIS Data Cleanup – Strengthening our Data for What’s Next (4 minutes) – This short video provides context on why this effort matters, how improved data quality supports modernization, and what agencies can expect moving forward.
• Full Clearing Document
• Clearing FAQs
• Client Clearing (eLearning Module)
• NEW - 2026 April SSIS to CCWIS FAQ.pdf - Google Drive – developed from agency questions raised during the April Coffee Talk. This resource provides clarifications, examples, and guidance to help agencies navigate common clearing log scenarios along with additional Q&A topics covered during the Coffee Talk.

What’s Coming

• We will continue to track Clearing Log trends, monitoring progress and supporting agencies working through larger backlogs.
• In June, we will begin the Intakes Needing Action cleanup phase. More information, tools, and support materials will be shared ahead of that launch.

Thank you for your continued partnership and dedicated work towards improving SSIS data quality across Minnesota. Every resolved item strengthens our systems, prepares us for modernization, and ultimately supports better outcomes for the children, families, and communities we serve.

SSIS Data Cleanup Efforts: April Kickoff

Minnesota is preparing for the transition from SSIS to the state’s future CCWIS‑compliant child welfare information system. A major part of this work is early, consistent data cleanup. As this work begins, we will share early steps agencies can take to strengthen the data that will move into the new system.
Selecting the Category on the Sentiments and Feedback page labeled “Data Cleanup Efforts” will bring you to the articles that provide monthly priorities, statewide progress updates, and helpful resources.

Checkout our new overview video, SSIS Data Cleanup – Strengthening Our Data for What’s Next (4 minutes), which provides a brief, high‑level look at the cleanup effort for mentors, agency staff, and others supporting this work.

Why Start Cleanup Now?

Early cleanup:

• Improves accuracy for data conversion
• Prevents backlogs during training and transition
• Supports current reporting and audit needs
• Reduces the risk of data failing to migrate

Focus: Clearing Log (Uncleared Clients)

Clearing is the first statewide priority. Uncleared clients create major conversion risks, and statewide backlogs remain high.

Agencies should:

• Resolve uncleared or mismatched clients, including “ZZ Help Desk SSIS/D” entries
• Use Reconcile when needed
• Address existing Clearing backlogs and create a plan to prevent new ones

Statewide baseline (March 2026): 29,234 uncleared clients
Targeted support for agencies with continued high numbers will begin in May. Below is the agency breakdown – in the future we will post agency names along with percent of improvement for each.

Clearing Resources:

• Full Clearing Document
• Clearing FAQs
• Client Clearing eLearning Module

Note: Intakes Needing Action will be the statewide cleanup focus next month.

Ongoing Support

Agencies can expect monthly cleanup guidance, direct outreach when needed, and access to job aids, Coffee Talks, training links, and documentation through the SSIS Update, Sentiment & Feedback platform, and SSIS technical meetings.

Get Started This Week

• Clear overdue clients
• Identify staff responsible for Clearing
• Set weekly or biweekly cleanup routines
• Review available Clearing resources

These early steps will help reduce future workload and support a smoother transition to the new CCWIS system.

Agencies can review the Data Cleanup Efforts Kickoff Coffee Talk from April 2026 and FAQ reference sheet from the presentation for additional information. https://mnchildwelfaretraining.com/more/ssis-training/

Engagement Across Tribal Nations and Counties

Focus Group Participation Highlights

Intake / Screening Focus Group Engagement Across Tribes and Counties

At-a-Glance Summary

Across six functional focus groups, counties participated 52 times (with several counties attending multiple functional areas), generating more than 1,245 challenges and enhancement criteria over 15 days of engagement.

Follow-up sessions included 55 participants representing 38 county participation instances, focused on clarifying and validating initial themes.

This breadth and repeat participation across intake, investigation, case management, fiscal, administration, and permanency highlights that system challenges span the full child welfare lifecycle.

Focus Group Participation

• Intake/Screening: 10 counties | 250+ challenges/enhancements

• Investigation/Assessment: 8 counties | 220+

• Case Management: 11 counties | 225+

• Administration: 6 counties | 150+

• Fiscal & Title IV-E: 11 counties | 200+

• State Permanency: 6 counties | 100+

Follow-Up Sessions

• Intake/Screening: 18 participants | 11 counties

• Investigation/Assessment: 12 participants | 10 counties

• Case Management: 25 participants | 17 counties

Tribal & State Engagement

• 
  

  • Prevention: 5 state staff; enhancements and challenges finalized

  • AICWIT: Engagement with Red Lake Nation and Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe to identify Tribal-specific system needs

This level of engagement demonstrates both the need for change and the collective will to shape it together.