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Effective July 1, 2020, the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) no longer offsets monthly Northstar permanency benefits based on receipt of the following federal benefits:
- Black Lung Disease
- Railroad Survivor Benefits
- Veterans Benefits
- Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (RDSI)
When entering eligibility determination for a child who receives any of the federal benefits listed above, under the income offsets tab, enter “0” if the family determines they do not want the income offset considered. DHS no longer automatically applies income offsets to Northstar permanency benefits based on receipt of the federal benefits listed above. Questions related to Northstar permanency benefits can be directed to northstar.benefits@state.mn.us.
SSIS staff have determined to delay end dating the current COVID-19 sub-service code, which was designed to assist agencies on identifying time and expenditures related to COVID-19. While there are several waivers ending in the upcoming weeks, the decision was made to allow agencies to continue using the sub-service code. This gives agencies the flexibility to continue to track and maintain COVID related time and expenditures that may fall outside of the waiver period. We will review the status of this work again prior to the end of 2021 to inform agencies on how to proceed. Meanwhile, if your agency has returned to performing normal business practices (e.g., face to face contacts), please do not use the sub-service code as previously instructed.
Agencies should continue to use the COVID-19 sub-service code for Temporary changes allow youth to remain in/re-enter foster care during the pandemic and COVID-19 Response − Parent Support Outreach Program and Family Assessment Response Allocation. Those temporary modifications remain in place until Sept. 30, 2021.
The Department’s Waiver and Modification website lists all of the temporary waivers and modifications, including specific and/or projected end dates. Please refer to that page for the most up-to-date information.
If you have any questions, please contact the SSIS Help Desk
FFPSA established requirements to promote placement prevention services and limit the number of children/youth placed in child care institutions (congregate care). The new requirements for placing agencies are meant to ensure that children/youth receive the treatment and services they need within their family, a family foster care setting or in their community and only when that is not possible they are placed in a child care institution. If these new requirements are not met, county and tribal social service agencies will no longer receive federal Title IV-E reimbursement for out-of-home placement costs in these facilities. Existing child care institutions will be required to become certified as a qualified residential treatment program (QRTP). The requirements are effective Sept. 30, 2021, and apply to the following child care institutions:
- Children’s residential treatment
- Group homes
- Foster care residences (commonly known as corporate foster homes).
Policy and SSIS webinars as well as written guidance for FFPSA will be available through September. Policy webinars will contain policy information as well as data entry components in SSIS. SSIS Coffee talks will follow most policy webinars and focus on the navigation of these changes in SSIS. SSIS mentors, coordinators and users are welcome. All FFPSA policy and SSIS webinars will be recorded and posted to the Minnesota Child Welfare Training Academy website.
Registration is required for each session and will close one hour prior to the event. Registration links to the remaining policy webinars and SSIS Coffee Talks are as follows:
- Out of Home Placement Plan
Tuesday, August 24, 2021
Policy Webinar 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
SSIS Coffee Talk: 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
- AFCARS Facility Classification Documentation in SSIS
Tuesday, August 31, 2021
Policy Webinar 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
**No SSIS Coffee Talk Scheduled this week**.
- Family and Permanency Team’s Role in Assessment and Placement
Thursday, September 2, 2021
Policy Webinar 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
SSIS Coffee Talk 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
- Court Review for Placement and Extended Placement in QRTP
Thursday, September 9, 2021
Policy Webinar: 1:00PM to 2:00PM
SSIS Coffee Talk 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
- Specialized Residential Settings for Youth who have been or At Risk for Sex Trafficking
Tuesday, September 14, 2021
Policy Webinar 1:00 - 2:30 p.m.
SSIS Coffee Talk 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
- FFPSA and Expectant and Parenting Youth Overview
Thursday, September 23, 2021
Policy Webinar 1:00 – 2:30 p.m.
SSIS Coffee Talk 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
- Specialized Residential Independent Living Facilities for Youth Age 18 Years and Older
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Policy Webinar 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
SSIS Coffee Talk 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Vendor Import: Daily M-F, 5 minutes after the hour starting at 7:05am and ending at 6:05pm.
Payment Request: Daily M-F, 1 minutes after the hour starting at 7:01am and ending at 6:01pm.
Payment Confirmation: Daily M-F, 41 minutes after the hour starting at 7:41am and ending at 6:41pm.
Payment Batch Status: Daily M-F, 21 minutes after the hour starting at 7:21am and ending at 6:21pm.
Remittance Advice: Daily M-F at 6:30am.
Claim submission: Daily M-F, 27 minutes after the hour from 7:27am to 6:27pm.
Claim acknowledgement: Daily M-F, from 7:42am to 6:42pm.
Claim Status: Daily M-F at 6:00am.
The SSIS Training Team continues to partner with Aging and Adult Services to provide virtual trainings. Each training takes place over a two day period of time and each daily session is 3.5 hours long. The training focuses on a life of the case model and demonstrates data entry in SSIS for intake and assessment workgroups. The upcoming trainings for the remainder of 2021 and first part of 2022 are listed below. The SSIS Training team in partnership with Adult Protection Regional Policy Specialists will be adding content to the SSIS Adult Protection e-Learning Suite. Current modules listed on the SSIS Adult Protection eLearning Suite (state.mn.us) contain content for the Adult Protection Assessment and Structured Decision Making ® Tools. Soon we will be adding modules related to Adult Protection Intake and Assessment. The SSIS Adult Maltreatment Module SSIS Adult Maltreatment Module (state.mn.us) will go from annual updates to quarterly updates beginning this year in conjunction with New SSIS Release Dates.
SSIS Adult Protection Virtual Trainings 2021/2022 SSIS Adult Protection Worker Training (state.mn.us) (site will be updated soon with new information).
- September 20, 2021 and September 23, 2021--9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
- October 11, 2021 and October 14, 2021—9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
- January 10, 2022 and January 13, 2022—9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
- February 14, 2022 and February 17, 2022—9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
- April 11, 2022 and April 14, 2022—9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
- June 6, 2022 and June 9, 2022—9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Join a 90 minute workshop to give feedback on the proposed plan and process for collecting Child Welfare Services case and workload data for the DHS Caseload Study. The Improve Group will present on the data collected from county caseworkers and supervisors this summer about case and workload, and ask for feedback on the way they plan to capture case and workloads this fall. You must register to participate. Please invite colleagues affected by or interested in case/workload monitoring. Reach out to Karissa Propson with any questions at karissap@theimprovegroup.com.
Friday September 10, 8:30-10AM: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcvde6orTkrGdRZZAHnC9BCjECbXVXpdpCs
As Relative Custody Assistance (RCA) is phased out, each agency will reach a point where submitting an RCA report is no longer required. RCA children will age out, receive a commissioner transition to Northstar Kinship Assistance, or discontinue care.
Agencies must continue reporting as long as RCA clients exist. This includes those with an RCA Payment Worksheet having an RCA payment amount of $0 and not currently receiving an RCA Payment.
After five RCA Reports with $0 in claims and no remaining RCA clients, agencies should notify the SSIS Help Desk by the last day of the quarter that they are no longer required to submit the RCA Report. SSIS Fiscal staff will verify the information provided and make the necessary changes in SSIS. The agency will then be notified they are no longer required to submit the report.
Additional details can be found in DHS Bulletin #20-32-01 (May 14, 2020).
SSIS Fiscal Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), Melissa Meger and Molly Koehler, are available to provide virtual technical assistance to your agency at no cost. Assistance they can provide includes:
- Child Foster Care Report
- RCA Report
- TCM CSR Report
- SEAGR Report
- Bridging the Gap Presentation - Worker and Fiscal Staff
- Healthcare Claiming
- CW-TCM, MH-TCM, Rule 5, VA/DD, Waiver/AC
Contact the SSIS Help Desk to arrange a time to meet with Melissa and Molly.
In SSIS, User Settings, User Grid Settings, and User Spelling Settings can be adjusted to display items in a certain way. It is recommended that workers back up their user settings in SSIS prior to each new release to ensure settings are not lost. The process is easy and only takes a few minutes. Instructions to back up user settings in SSIS can be found here.
Emergency Background Studies
Instructions with the steps and information entities need to submit an emergency background study are available on NETStudy 2. Frequently asked questions about emergency background studies are also available on the background studies COVID-19 webpage.
Adoption-only background studies and emergency background studies for foster care
This information was originally released in the February 2021 Permanency Support Issue of the CSP Update.
When a child foster care provider is planning to adopt a child under guardianship of the commissioner, but their foster care home study was approved using emergency background studies, adoption-only background studies can be completed on each prospective adoptive parent and all required household members to fulfill background study requirements for adoption and Northstar Adoption Assistance eligibility. This option is only currently available to foster families who are adopting a child under guardianship of the commissioner and whose foster care license was issued using emergency background studies.
Adoption-only background studies have different procedures than child foster care and emergency background studies. Adoption-only background studies are completed using hard fingerprint cards, where fingerprints are taken manually, not electronically, and processed via the former NETStudy system (not NETStudy 2.0). Gemalto Thales fingerprinting sites cannot be used for fingerprint requests for adoption-only background studies, as those locations are for electronic fingerprinting for NETStudy 2.0.
If pursuing this option, agencies should provide fingerprint authorization forms to prospective adoptive parents and all required household members, and direct them to take the form to a location that will complete hard fingerprint cards, such as a local law enforcement or sheriff’s office. The agency who completed the foster care home study for a family must complete a home study update upon receiving the adoption-only background study results.
When submitting Adoption Placement Agreements (APA) to DHS staff in this situation, results from both types of background studies (emergency and adoption-only) must be submitted with the APA.
If you have questions about this option, contact Kathleen Hiniker, permanency unit supervisor, at kathleen.a.hiniker@state.mn.us.
This information was also published in the SSIS Permanency Update, April 1, 2021.
Family First Prevention Services Act
The Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) requires that all staff working in a Title IV-E Group Children’s Residential Facility (CRF) receive fingerprint-based “Adam Walsh” background checks in order to meet Title IV-E child safety requirements.
To assist counties and initiative tribes with claiming Title IV-E reimbursements for these placements, we will periodically update the list of facilities that have met the background checks safety requirements.
Click here for an updated list of facilities in compliance
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