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The federal Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 was enacted on Dec. 27, 2020. It includes provisions of HR 7947, the Supporting Foster Youth and Families through the Pandemic Act, which provides assistance to youth/young adults who experienced foster care during the pandemic. The law provides $400 million in additional appropriations nationally for the Chafee program for fiscal year (FY) 2021, of which $50 million is reserved for the Education and Training Vouchers program. States may use the additional Chafee funding for meeting some extended foster care requirements.
Payments to county agencies are based on reimbursement determined by BRASS code expenditure data. It is important that expenditures and purchased services for the supplemental allocation be reported under BRASS code 146, Adolescent Life Skills Training; use sub-service code “87-COVID-related.” Reimbursements for eligible expenditures are made quarterly. The total of all payments will not exceed a county's total supplemental allocation.
For more information please refer to Bulletin 21-68-15C Corrected #21-68-15: Temporary changes and supplemental funding for Successful Transition to Adulthood for Youth (STAY) program (state.mn.us)
SSIS functionality questions can be directed to the SSIS Help Desk.
The MnCHOICES Team is preparing to launch a revised MnCHOICES Assessment and Support Plan computer application. Over the past year DHS has been working with FEI Systems, as a contracted vendor, to configure their product to build a revised application which will replace the MnCHOICES Assessment (MnA) and the MnCHOICES Support Plan (MnSP) application. The revised MnCHOICES application is a stand-alone system hosted by the vendor.
The MnCHOICES Team has been conducting monthly launch webinars with MnCHOICES mentors to prepare lead agencies (county, tribal nation and managed care organizations) for transitioning into the use of the revised application for all long term services and supports (LTSS) activities including health risk assessments, MnCHOICES assessments, support plans and rate calculations.
Here are some key updates security liaisons need to know
- The revised MnCHOICES application has a target launch date of Nov. 1, 2021
- The new applications does not have an SSIS interface.
- Lead agency staff began revised MnCHOICES application training the week of Aug. 16, 2021.
- Your lead agency’s security liaisons will have a training opportunity and be a resource to assist you to maintain users in the system (Training and Smart Guides).
- Your lead agency’s security liaisons will be able to log in and maintain user access for your agency within the revised MnCHOICES application.
- All lead agency staff data who currently log into MnCHOICES Assessment and MnCHOICES Support Plan have been pulled from MNIT databases and put into “Onboarding spreadsheets”.
- The onboarding spreadsheet content was reviewed at the August 25 revised MnCHOICES launch webinar. Onboarding sheets are due back to DHS no later than Sep. 15, 2021 using the MnCHOICES Help Desk Form (DHS-6979).
All lead agency staff data from the onboarding sheets will be loaded into the revised MnCHOICES application system the end of October.
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:
1) 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.
2) 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.
3) 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.
4) 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.
Additional information regarding FFPSA can be found on the
The SSIS claiming interface, which allows claiming interfaces between SSIS and MMIS, will be unavailable September 16th and 17th for MN-ITS annual password update. The effect on agencies should be minimal. Normal operation of the claiming interface will resume Monday, September 20th, 2021.
This process only changes SSIS user accounts for county MN-ITS mailboxes. Agency users have their own user IDs and passwords to access their MN-ITS mailboxes that are not affected by the SSIS password change. A reminder will be sent to SSIS mentors prior to September 16, 2021, after the process has been completed.
Please contact the SSIS Help Desk if technical assistance is needed related to this update.
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.
When contacting the SSIS Help Desk the following guidelines will expedite requests for assistance:
- The email subject line should be relevant to your Help Desk request, e.g. CITRIX printing problem.
- Include a detailed explanation of the issue and what steps you have taken to resolve the issue.
- Refer to SSIS workgroup/intake/maltreatment report/person/document numbers in the email rather than client names. This eliminates the need to send a secured/encrypted email.
- Send screenshots of the problem area or error messages you are receiving, but block-out all protected client information.
Help Desk tickets are processed in the order received.
If you have any questions, contact the SSIS Help Desk at (651) 431-4801 or dhs.ssishelp@state.mn.us.
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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