Courts appoint individuals from Guardian ad Litem/Court-Appointed Special Advocates (GAL/CASA) programs to advocate for the best interests of children in child abuse and neglect proceedings, as well as in other types of cases.
Thanks to additional funding from the Indiana General Assembly, the State Office of GAL/CASA (Guardian ad Litem/Court Appointed Special Advocates) purchased Optima, a web-based case management system for GAL/CASA programs in Indiana.
Optima, a product of Evinto Solutions, was specifically developed for GAL/CASA programs and is currently being utilized in twenty-nine states. Optima was initially purchased by Child Advocates in Indianapolis. Thereafter, seventeen other GAL/CASA programs purchased Optima and piloted it for several years.
The State Office of GAL/CASA entered into its statewide contract with Optima in 2015 and went live with programs for the state implementation in June of 2015.
With the assistance of the Indiana Supreme Court’s Trial Court Technology staff, Optima is now being deployed to GAL/CASA programs in seventy-eight counties across the state—there are already over 2,500 volunteers who use Optima daily and over 14,500 children entered into the system.
The remaining fourteen counties will be trained and will begin using Optima before the end of 2016.
Optima allows both volunteers and staff to enter key case information into the system. For example, volunteers are able to enter log notes and case contact information, which in turn allows the local program to track how the case is progressing and the number of case contacts each volunteer has with the child and other stakeholders.
Volunteer supervisors can enter hearing dates and other key information into the system, and scan all court documents and other records related to the child so they are available for the assigned CASA volunteer to access on-line. Additionally, Optima allows supervisors to better oversee a volunteer’s activities by having regular access to their case notes and progress on the case.
The application is used to streamline the volunteer application process by making it entirely electronic. The system includes an on-line application, and a background and reference check process that saves both time and money.
One of the main benefits of Optima’s state-level roll-out will be more accurate and consistent data collection due to its standardized drop-down menus and consistent definitions. In addition, once all the programs are utilizing this system the State Office of GAL/CASA will have real-time access to data such as number of active volunteers, number of children being served, and number of children on the waiting list.
Optima can also track how long a child is in care, the time to permanency, as well as other case outcomes.
Trial Court Technology has helped develop an interface with Odyssey, Indiana’s court case management system. This interface minimizes duplicate data entry, improves data accuracy, and advances information sharing between the court and the CASA programs. The Odyssey interface electronically sends the court’s information for all new cases assigned to the program to Optima at the end of the day.
No longer does the CASA program have to wait to receive a printed order from the Court; by logging into Optima, the users can review their new case assignments daily. The Odyssey interface was implemented in Morgan County this past March and is scheduled to be implemented in Fountain and Grant counties in the coming months.
Trial Court Technology is also working closely with Gottlieb & Wertz, Inc., to roll out the interface between the Quest case management system and Optima. CASA programs in Marion, Tippecanoe, and Howard counties are currently receiving their new case assignments in Optima through the interface with Quest. The goal is that all counties that utilize the Odyssey and Quest case management systems will have an Optima interface by the end of 2016.