CFAL & NetCIL CILR Data Collection Protocol

These instructions describe the methods that should be used to collect data via the CFAL database system for reporting to the California Department of Rehabilitation. Following these instructions will ensure the accuracy of the statistics that you provide to the California DoR via the new California Independent Living Report Excel spreadsheet. These instructions are also compatible with the updated data collection procedures that are required for RSA/704 use as of FY 2006.

The CFAL-NetCIL database system is comprised of four major components. All data is stored in a Microsoft Access database file server that resides in a shared folder on your network. Most data entry is performed via a second Microsoft Access client application that is installed on each workstation that runs CFAL. Each client application connects to the network file server.

You should ensure that your software and database configurations are up to date. If you need assistance with upgrades please contact ed2c customer support toll-free at (888) 335-8600 x0 or by sending e-mail to techsupport@ed2c.com.

Two new-technology applications called NetCIL are designed for use with CFAL. Both are written using Microsoft .Net application software. NetCIL IRLog is an application that is designed to perform quick intakes and to log anonymous I&R requests. The use of IRLog is optional. NetCIL Manager is a second .Net application that will generate the CILR spreadsheet and other agency reports such as the RSA/704. You must use NetCIL Manager in order to generate these reports.

The following diagram illustrates the flow of data using CFAL and NetCIL to generate a CILR spreadsheet:

CFAL Access Client

CFAL Access File Server

NetCIL Manager

CILR Excel spreadsheet

NetCIL IRLog

Definitions

Before you begin data entry, please consider the following CFAL database concepts:

1. Definition of a Consumer

People in the CFAL database are categorized by their Contact Type. Contact type can be set on the People form, Phone Referral form, or the NetCIL IRLog application. When you first begin to interact with someone, it’s usually because they are seeking information and referral assistance; therefore when a new person is entered into the CFAL database, their contact type defaults to Information and Referral. When you begin to provide services to or set goals for someone, they then become a Consumer, and you should set their contact type accordingly. Once set, the database will never automatically change a person’s contact type.

2. Definition of Transactions

Every case note, work log entry, provision of service, or goal is considered by the CFAL database to be a transaction. Each transaction has an associated date, which normally will be written automatically as the current date and time when a record is entered. You can always edit the dates of any of your records. In order for statistics regarding these transactions to be included in a report, the transaction dates must fall within the reporting period as described below.

3. Definition of Assistive Technology (AT)

Any person in the CFAL database whose contact type is set to AT Consumer will automatically be counted in all AT statistics. All other people who receive services during a reporting period will also be included if any of those services are designated AT. In order for a service to be counted in the AT category, the State field for the service must be set to Assistive Technology in the Services Configuration form, which is accessible via the NetCIL Manager, in the Config tab.

Community Activities and Consumer Goals can be designated as AT-related by checking the AT box on the corresponding form. All work log entries on projects that are associated with AT goals will also be included in AT statistics.

How to record data for the California Independent Living Report:

Tab – Consumers Served:

(B) Active Consumers Carried Over from Prior Year

To be counted in this category, an individual has the following criteria:

- Contact Type must be set to Consumer or AT Consumer

- A service (or goal) must be recorded in either the Notes or Referrals form in the year prior to the reporting period.

(C) Carry-Over Consumers Served in Reporting Year

To be counted in this category, an individual has the following criteria:

- Contact Type must be set to Consumer, Inactive Consumer or AT Consumer

- A service (or goal) must be recorded in either the Notes or Referrals form in the year prior to the reporting period.

- A service (or goal) must be recorded in either the Notes or Referrals form in the current reporting year.

(D) New Consumers Started Since Beginning of Reporting Year

To be counted in this category, an individual has the following criteria:

- Contact Type must be set to Consumer, Inactive Consumer or AT Consumer

- The Initial Entry date or the Person becomes a Consumer* date is within the current reporting year.

- A service (or goal) must be recorded in either the Notes or Referrals in the current reporting year.

Or:

- A consumer has an Initial Entry date earlier than the previous year and has a service or a goal recorded in the current reporting year.

*Please note that if an individual starts as an Information and Referral contact and then becomes a Consumer at a later date, an automatic note will be written saying that the Person becomes a Consumer and will be associated with a date. For reporting purposes, this date will now determine whether this person is reported as a Carried Over or a New consumer.

Tab – Inactive:

Even if no transactions are recorded during a period, a consumer will always be listed as active unless you specifically de-activate them.

To de-activate a consumer:

1. Retrieve the consumer record using the People form - change Contact Type to Inactive Consumer and select Enter or Tab.

2. A new window will automatically open. Select a Reason for Deactivation and an applicable Date so that the reason will be properly recorded. If no reason is selected, Other will be assumed.

3. This process will automatically add a note Consumer becomes inactive in the consumer’s history record with the reason for deactivation and the selected date.

The date that you specify will determine whether or not a consumer is listed as inactive for a given reporting period. For example, if a consumer is listed as inactive but the date of deactivation is after the end date of a report, the consumer will still be listed as active for that report.

Once a de-activation note is written, the consumer will be listed as inactive for all reports that end after the date of deactivation. If a consumer re-activates change their contact type back to Consumer or AT Consumer. A new note will automatically appear, and the category Consumer Re-activates will be selected. The consumer will then be listed as active for all reporting periods during which the consumer was once again active. A consumer that has been de-activated and re-activated during the reporting period will be shown as active for the entire period.

Tab – Plans or Waivers:

To record the development of a consumer plan, or the signing of a waiver:

1. Retrieve the consumer record using the People form.

2. Check either the Independent Living Plan Developed or the Waiver Signed check box as appropriate. A case note will automatically be written and displayed with the appropriate category and the current date. Edit as required. The Notes form will only be displayed if no previous ILP record has been written. In some cases it may be necessary to search through case notes in order to find the ILP record.

Only the most recent plan or waiver is considered when calculating the Plans Written and Plans Waived totals.

Tab – Age:

Age is calculated automatically based on date of birth and the end date of the report. If date of birth is unknown, leave the field blank, and it will be counted in the “not reported” column. If a birth date must be estimated, it is recommended to use “1/1/yyyy” as a convention.

Tab – Gender:

When a new record is entered in CFAL, gender defaults to Trans/Unknown, and will be reported in the other column unless you select Female or Male.

Tab – Ethnicity:

Select Hispanic as an ethnic group or check the Hispanic checkbox as appropriate. If Hispanic is selected in the ethnic group dropdown box, the Hispanic checkbox will be automatically selected. For reporting purposes, it is possible to designate a person as Hispanic by checking the appropriate box without assigning them to that ethnic group. Data in this tab will be reported based upon the setting of the Hispanic checkbox.

Tab – Race:

Select the appropriate ethnic group from the dropdown box. If no ethnic group is selected, information will be included in the Other category.

Note: As of the California DoR CILR 2006 2^nd Quarter revisions, Other race is no longer considered in the race totals. If a consumer is designated as Hispanic or Other without checking the Hispanic checkbox, the Ethnicity Total on the Verify Data tab will not zero out. Similarly, a consumer designated as ethnic group but Hispanic or Other and has the Hispanic checkbox checked will be counted twice on the Verify Data tab.

Tab – Disability:

A consumer’s primary disability determines how they are reported. Each disability will be reported according to its associated RSA/704 category in the Site Profile – Configure Disabilities form. Try to select a primary disability that best describes the consumer’s condition according to one of the standard RSA/704 categories: Cognitive, Mental/Emotional, Physical, Hearing, or Vision. If the consumer’s condition is a combination of any of these main categories, list their primary disability as Multiple. Any other primary disability will be listed in the Other category.

The TBI, LD, and DD categories will be calculated according to the state settings. You can configure your own list of disabilities through NetCIL Manager under the Config tab. In order for these disabilities to be properly reported on the CILR spreadsheet, each must be associated with a standard RSA/704 category and State category (TBI, LD, and DD).

Tab – Individual Services:

Section A Subpart III of the 2006 RSA 704 report now distinguishes between services requested and services received. In order to maintain compatibility with the 704 Report, CFAL and NetCIL Reporter now differentiate the two circumstances as follows:

1. For a single instance of a service provided on a single date, write a note (Notes button on the CFAL People form) and specify the service in the Services dropdown edit box. All such services will be included in the totals for individual services.

2. For service requests that have not yet been fulfilled, make an entry in the Referrals section of either the People form of CFAL or NetCIL IRLog application. In such cases ensure that a Referral to Staff entry is made so that CFAL can alert the appropriate staff member about the request. NetCIL IRLog will automatically write an open service request whenever a Referral to Staff record is written. All Service and Referral records for which the Completion Date is blank will be considered to be open referrals, and they will not be counted in the individual service totals in the spreadsheet. Please refer to the updated RSA 704 data collection protocol for more information.

You can configure your own list of services through the NetCIL Manager under the Config tab. In order for these services to be properly reported on the CILR spreadsheet, each must be associated with a standard RSA/704 category and State category (AT or other).

For all categories except Information & Referral, the number reported in the spreadsheet represents the distinct count of consumers that have received a given service as noted above (unduplicated number). The Information & Referrals column reports a distinct count of any contact type and also includes a duplicated count of any anonymous I&R services recorded using the NetCIL IRLog.

Tab – Significant Life Area

To record an achievement, perform the following steps:

1. Retrieve the consumer record using the People form.

2. Open the Consumer Goals & ILP form.

3. Select the Type of Goal from the list that most closely describes what the consumer wants to accomplish. For compatibility with 704 reporting, Mobility / Transportation are divided into two separate goal types. These goals will be combined for California reporting in the Mobility / Transportation column. Any goal that does not specifically correspond to a column in the spreadsheet will be reported as Other.

A goal is considered Set if its Goal Start Date is before the end of the reporting period and the goal’s Actual End Date is blank or after the beginning of the reporting period.

A goal is considered Met if the Actual End Date is within the reporting period and the goal’s Outcome is not Dropped.

The Target End Date field in CFAL is for reference purposes only. Identify the goal as AT if appropriate for reporting in the AT Service Coordination (Tab 19) section of the spreadsheet report.

Tab – Community Change Achievements:

1. Press the Community Activities button on the Main form.

2. Write a new record, and select the category that most closely defines the goal in the Goal Type (old 704) dropdown list.

A goal is considered Set if its Goal Start Date falls before the end of the reporting period and the goal’s Actual End Date is blank or after the beginning of the reporting period.

A goal is considered Met if the Actual End Date is within the reporting period and the goal’s Outcome is not Dropped.

The Target End Date field is for reference purposes only.

Note that these categories are now obsolete for 704 reporting purposes. Please refer to the RSA 704 Data Collection Protocol for more information.

Tab – Community Services

There are two ways to record time spent on the provision of Community Services:

Method 1:

1. Press the Work Log button on the Main form.

2. Write a new record, and select the category from the Community Service (old) dropdown list that most closely defines the work that has been performed.

3. Record the time spent in the Hours dropdown list. Note that all times are rounded to the nearest fifteen minutes.

Method 2:

1. Press the Outreach button on the Main form.

2. Write a new record, and select the category from the Community Service dropdown list that most closely defines the work that has been performed.

3. Record the time spent in the Hours dropdown list. Note that all times are rounded to the nearest fifteen minutes.

All hours recorded using either method will be totaled for the reporting period and displayed in the appropriate column. Hours recorded for Education, Registries and Publications will be totaled under the Community Education & Public Information column.

Note: If the new category Technical Assistance does not appear in your dropdown list, add a record to the CommunityServices table and set CommunityServiceID = 1, CommunityDesc = Technical Assistance.

Tab – AT Public Education

1. Press the Outreach button on the Main form.

2. Write a new record, and record the time spent in the Hours dropdown list. Note that all times are rounded to the nearest fifteen minutes.

3. Select the AT checkbox.

4. Select the category Collaboration / Networking from the Community Service dropdown list or select one of the Workshop / Training / Presentation checkboxes in the Type of Activity section. If you select both a community service and indicate an activity type, hours will be reported in both categories. If you report both categories it’s recommended that you divide the total hours spent by two.

5. In the Materials Distributed / How Many area of the Outreach form, enter a value for the Number of Handouts as appropriate. At your option, you can list the handouts as Brochures or Other. The values that you enter here will be reported in the Number of Contacts column in the spreadsheet.

At your option, you can copy the information that you record in the Outreach form to your work log by pressing the Copy to Work Log button. Any additional AT hours that you specify as Collaboration / Networking community services in the work log will be added to the Outreach totals that are reported on the spreadsheet.

Tab – AT Outreach General

There are two ways to record time spent on the provision of AT General Outreach:

Method 1:

1. Press the Work Log button on the Main form.

2. Write a new record, and select the category Outreach from the Community Service dropdown list.

3. Record the time spent in the Hours dropdown list. Note that all times are rounded to the nearest fifteen minutes.

4. Select the AT checkbox.

Method 2:

1. Press the Outreach button on the Main form.

2. Write a new record, and select the category Outreach from the Community Service dropdown list.

3. Record the time spent in the Hours dropdown list. Note that all times are rounded to the nearest fifteen minutes.

4. Select the AT checkbox.

All hours recorded using either method will be totaled for the reporting period and displayed in the General Outreach column.

Tab – AT Targeted Outreach

There are two ways to record time spent on the provision of AT Targeted Outreach:

Method 1:

1. Press the Work Log button on the Main form.

2. Write a new record, and select the appropriate category from the AT Targeted Outreach dropdown list.

3. Record the time spent in the Hours dropdown list. Note that all times are rounded to the nearest fifteen minutes.

Method 2:

1. Press the Outreach button on the Main form.

2. Write a new record, and select the appropriate category from the AT Targeted Outreach dropdown list.

3. Record the time spent in the Hours dropdown list. Note that all times are rounded to the nearest fifteen minutes.

All hours recorded using either method will be totaled for the reporting period and displayed in the corresponding AT Targeted Outreach column.

Tab – AT Service Coordination

A consumer will be counted under the Total # AT Consumers column if:

1. The consumer’s contact type is set to AT Consumer

2. The consumer has received a service (see Individual Services section) designated as an AT Service. Services can be set to AT Services using the State Code drop down on the Config, Services tab of NetCIL Manager.

Any consumer goals set or met during the reporting period and flagged as an AT Goal (see Significant Life Area section) will be reported in the appropriate AT Goal column.

Tab – AT I&R

Any person in the database who receives an AT service, as described in the AT Service Coordination section, will be included in the appropriate column as determined by their contact type.

Tab – AT Optional Services

CFAL uses “pseudo-grants” in order to record the provision of AT Optional Services. Ensure that you have configured these “pseudo-grants” via the Site Profile form to include the five AT Optional Services as described below. The automatic configuration logic in CFAL should ensure that this configuration is performed for you:

GrantID Grant Name Grant Code Department

300 AT - Limited Training in Use of AT CAT1 AT

301 AT - Develop Funding Resources to Purchase AT CAT2 AT

302 AT - Develop AT Recycling CAT3 AT

303 AT - Repair Services CAT4 AT

304 AT – Other CAT5 AT

Write a case note or referral record as described in the instructions for the Individual Services tab. Record the hours spent on the provision of the service and select the grant type from the table above that most closely describes the service that was performed. Statistics in the spreadsheet tab will be calculated accordingly.

Additional Information

For more information on any of the topics covered in this document, please refer to the CFAL Client User’s Manual and the RSA 704 Data Collection Protocol. Current copies of these documents are available from our website by following this link: http://help.netcil.com.

For additional assistance please contact ed2c technical support toll-free at (888) 678-0683 Ext. 0 or by sending e-mail to techsupport@ed2c.com.

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