The Department of Children and Families has nearly completed the transition to community-based care. As of January 31, 2005, the department had signed 21 services contracts with 19 lead agencies to provide child protective services in 65 counties. It plans to sign a services contract with one additional lead agency in 2005.
The department has taken recommended steps to improve the transition process, and it is in the process of implementing a system to monitor lead agency viability. However, the department has experienced continuing delays in completing the HomeSafenet system and has not yet implemented a process for tracking technical assistance requests from lead agencies.Also, to help ensure that the community-based care initiative is successful, the department needs to