Children & Family Services Training Center

ND Quality Assurance

The goal of the child welfare system is to promote, safeguard, and protect the overall well-being of the children, to intervene on behalf of the abused and neglected children, and to work with children and families to ensure that every child has a permanent, safe, and nurturing environment in which to achieve their maximum potential. North Dakota Children and Family Services (CFS) employ the Quality Assurance (QA) unit to complete case reviews as one tool to ensure child welfare services achieve these outcomes and to support the state's ongoing quality improvement efforts. The information from the reviews is used to identify how the state's child welfare system is functioning, not about any one individual worker or agency.

Round 4 Children & Family Service Reviews (CFSR)

Great news!! All of the cases for our first-ever state-led CFSR Case Review have been secured and reviewed!! Sixty-five cases (40 FC & 25 IH) were reviewed between October 2024 – March 2025. We are most grateful for the participation and collaboration between the QA unit and agencies, families, and youth to make this possible!

With North Dakota’s first-ever state-led CFSR Case Review now being wrapped up, the QA unit will continue QA Case Reviews and prepare to meet the requirements to monitor progress for the upcoming Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) (to be developed). There are new monitoring requirements, and we want to be ready when the time comes. This means we will pilot a revised approach to the case review process and evaluate its effectiveness at the end of this next review event, which will be held over the next 4 months. We appreciate everyone’s patience, collaboration, and hard work as we find a more efficient process for the state. As preparations begin for this next review event, we want partner agencies to have the following important CFSR Case Review information. If you or your staff have questions, please contact Leanne Miller at lemiller@nd.gov.

The QA Case Reviews use the Round 4 Federal Onsite Case Review Instrument (OSRI). The *newly updated OSRI is available at: www.cfsrportal.acf.hhs.gov/resources/round-4-resources/cfsr-round-4-instruments-tools-and-guides

This page contains information for agencies participating in a QA Case Review to prepare for the review and know what to expect when the case is actually reviewed.

25A QA Case Review Highlights

Period under review (PUR): 10/1/24 – date case is reviewed or closed (whichever happens first)
- North Dakota is shifting to a shorter PUR. Instead of a 12 – 15 month ‘lookback’ time for which practice is assessed, the QA Case Reviews will focus on more recent practice, from 8 – 10 months. This will help the state better understand the impact of performance improvement efforts.
QA Case Review event begins: 5/1/25
At least 12 in-home cases & 18 foster care cases will be reviewed
- Additional “Item-Only” reviews will be conducted as needed to meet the minimum of applicable cases for certain items
This QA Case Review event is scheduled to end: 8/31/25

Case Sample

A random statewide sample will be utilized.
- The case sample will no longer be divided according to the CQI Cross Zonal Team and Metro areas. It is now divided into five equitable lists (for our current staff of five trained reviewers) based on the proportion of eligible cases.
- Agencies will still have one main point of contact in the QA unit, although this contact may have changed to achieve an equitable workload.

Outreach

The case sampling outreach begins on May 1, 2025.
QA reviewers will contact agencies to initiate the case outreach process as cases appear in the sample.
The QA reviewer will contact relevant key case participants to determine if they are interested in participating in the review or if someone else can speak to their perspective.
We may seek the assistance of the agency to reach a case participant.
Once non-agency case participants have agreed to participate, the case will be secured for review. The QA reviewer will coordinate agency interviews with the agency worker.

Providing Case Files

Access to case file documents will be needed sooner rather than later in this revised process. As was done during April “Item-Only” reviews, agencies not utilizing SharePoint for their child welfare files will be given 5 business days to gather and submit case file documentation.
- This can be done by uploading the case files to the assigned TEAMS channel or through email.
QA reviewers will communicate and coordinate with agency personnel and remain a point of contact throughout the review process.

Please look at the FC & IH case checklists below to help gather case file documents.

Case Review Schedule

Each QA reviewer will be responsible for reviewing a specified number of in-home and foster care cases (either 3 IH and 3 FC or 2 IH and 4 FC) until a statewide total of 30 cases has received a full case review.
- At that point, as many “Item-Only” reviews will be completed until we have reviewed 30 applicable cases for OSRI Items 1, 2, 13, and 15.
We aim to complete all case reviews by the end of August 2025.

Please review the Statewide Message to the Field (PDF) posted below for further details.

- 25A Statewide Message
- 25A QA Unit Outreach Map

Reference Documents

Foster Care Case File Checklist *great resource
In-Home Case File Checklist *great resource
Genogram Resource
Key Case Participant Interview Guide
Glossary Reference **New 02.24**
Onsite Review Instrument **Updated 2.25**

Case Preparation Documents

*Most Case Preparation Documents are encouraged, but not required.

CPS Case Narrative-SFN 993
Foster Care Case Narrative-SFN 995 11.23
Foster Care Supervisory Questionnaire-SFN 997
In Home Services Case Narrative-SFN 996
In Home Supervisory Questionnaire-SFN 998
Adoption Summary-SFN 992 **Required for Applicable Cases** 11.23