Ten years of NIEM. The NEICE success story.
In 2014, approximately 66,500 children
were placed across state lines using the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children.
In order to ensure the safety of these children
in an appropriate placement, the child welfare system in the sending state
must work together with the child welfare system in the receiving state.
Currently, to begin exploring a potential home,
state child welfare agency staff must go through a time-consuming process –
compiling documents, copying them, and then completing and sending paper forms in the mail.
The approval process averages 6-12 months,
leaving the children in limbo, waiting for a stable, loving home.
In order to speed up this lengthy process,
the National Electronic Interstate Compact Enterprise (NEICE) has been piloted,
allowing state child welfare agencies to share this information and forms electronically.
Within 2-3 weeks of launching the NEICE pilot,
approvals that often took 6-12 months were taking 1-2 days, getting children into stable and loving homes sooner.
NEICE was piloted in 6 states and is in a planning process to roll it out nationally.
Anticipated savings - from eliminating copying and mailing costs alone – are close to $1.6 million.
NEICE is saving taxpayer money and more importantly helping get children into homes faster.
So, what made NEICE possible?
NIEM was the foundational data layer used to develop an electronic system for information exchange between states.
But why use NIEM to build this exchange?
NIEM enables disparate child welfare data systems to exchange information on children and can be reused
–one exchange can be reused by all the states, saving time and money.
And that, is the power of NIEM