Rethinking CCWIS: From System Replacement to System Evolution

Are We Finally Ready to Admit CCWIS Isn’t Failing—It’s Being Built the Wrong Way?

After two decades inside local and state child welfare systems, and leading at the executive level on a complex statewide CCWIS implementation, we’ve seen the full spectrum. The vision. The investment. The challenges.

Now, building a practice focused on human services and technology, we are having more candid conversations with state leaders than ever before. And the question we keep hearing is this: Why is this still so hard?

The latest ACF data reinforces what many of us already know. After more than a decade and over $2 billion invested, fewer than one-third of CCWIS projects are operational. Most are still years into development, with outcomes that often fall short of the original promise.

At some point, we have to stop treating this as an implementation problem.

This is a strategy problem.

Because what we continue to see across jurisdictions is not transformation. It is replication.

We are designing new systems around old policies, old workflows, and old constraints. We are discovering variation across counties and regions during design instead of addressing it up front. We are expecting seamless integration across systems that were never aligned in the first place.

And at the same time, we are continuing to fund and rely on legacy systems while trying to replace them.

But here is the part we should be talking about more.

Legacy systems are not just barriers. They are also assets.

They represent decades of investment, data, and operational knowledge. They already hold the system of record. The issue is not that they exist. The issue is how we are choosing to use them.

What if the answer is not to replace everything at once?

What if the smarter path is to leverage what already exists on the back end, while transforming how people interact with it on the front end?

This is where we see the most opportunity right now.

Instead of large, all-in replacements, states can:

• Retain core systems of record and data assets that already support critical functions

• Introduce modern, modular layers that improve usability, workflows, and access to information

• Integrate across systems intentionally, rather than attempting to force full alignment upfront

• Enhance the user experience so workers are not navigating outdated interfaces to do modern work

This is not a compromise approach. It is a more strategic one.

And when combined with AI-enabled capabilities, the impact becomes even more meaningful.

We can now layer in tools that:

• Surface and summarize case information in real time

• Reduce duplication in data entry and documentation

• Improve consistency across workers and regions

• Provide supervisors with clearer insight into risk, workload, and decision-making

Not as a distant vision, but as targeted improvements that can be delivered quickly within a modular framework.

That is how you drive efficiency. That is how you reduce burden. And that is how you start to see better outcomes for families sooner.

Because the goal is not just to modernize technology. The goal is to modernize how work gets done.

ACF’s recent guidance supports this direction. It makes clear that modernization, including replacing or re-engineering previously funded functionality, is appropriate when it leads to meaningful improvement.

That should give jurisdictions confidence to rethink their path forward. Not to start over, but to move differently.

This is the shift we see happening across the field:

• From full replacement to strategic evolution

• From monolithic builds to modular delivery

• From delayed value to continuous improvement

The jurisdictions that embrace this will not just move faster. They will build systems that actually support the workforce and the families they serve.

Because in the end, CCWIS is not about the system. It is about what the system makes possible.

Right now, we have an opportunity to make a very different set of choices.

And for those working through these decisions in real time, we welcome the conversation. There is a growing community rethinking this work, and we are all stronger when we approach it together.

About Rosemond HumanTech Solutions Rosemond HumanTech Solutions partners with public sector and human service organizations to align policy, practice, and technology to drive better outcomes. With experience spanning local, state, and federal systems, the firm supports jurisdictions in navigating complex modernization efforts, leveraging modular design and AI-enabled solutions to improve efficiency, strengthen decision-making, and deliver meaningful, scalable transformation.

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