Committee presses DCF on missing child‑welfare IT system after $30 million estimate cited

Legislators questioned Department for Children and Families officials about the status of the long‑delayed child‑welfare CCWIS (Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System) procurement and what it would take to complete the system.

Budget staff told the committee they are in the best‑and‑final offer phase of procurement and therefore limited public comment on vendor offers, but explained an earlier $30,000,000 figure represented a five‑year total averaged across five bidders and included both design/implementation (DDI) and ongoing maintenance and operations. A department official cautioned that the split between one‑time implementation costs and recurring maintenance varies substantially by vendor, which complicates making an accurate one‑year budget request.

"We have been working really hard to squirrel money away," a department official told the committee, adding that the administration has carried forward funds to protect progress on the system while procurement concludes. Committee members urged the department to produce clearer cost estimates and a timeline so the legislature can evaluate tradeoffs and avoid losing federal funds the system would enable the state to draw.

Officials said they are collecting more concrete numbers as procurement concludes and will present them to the committee; they also said the complexity of the potential federal draw‑down makes precise up‑front calculations difficult. The committee requested a follow‑up briefing with procurement staff to see the contracting roadmap once confidentiality constraints are lifted.