CFAL & NetCIL 704 Data Collection Protocol
For use with the Department of Education RSA
Section 704 Annual Report
Introduction
These
instructions describe the methods that should be used to collect data via the
CFAL database system for reporting to the Department of Education
Rehabilitation Services Administration. Following these instructions will
ensure the accuracy of the statistics that you provide to RSA via the revised
Part I or Part II reporting instrument.
The
CFAL 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
must use CFAL version 4.3 or higher in order to perform data collection. In
order to use CFAL 4.3, your file server must be upgraded to version 4.4 or
higher. 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.
In 2006 two new-technology applications called
NetCIL were released 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. It is designed to replace the functionality of the
CFAL Phone Referral form, and its use is optional. NetCIL Manager is a second
.Net application that will generate the 2007 version of the RSA/704 Report. You
must use NetCIL Manager in order to generate the report. CFAL will still allow
you to generate 704 Reports for years up to and including FY2005.
The following diagram illustrates the flow of data
using CFAL and NetCIL to generate an RSA704 Report:
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 in the following
sections. In order for an individual to be considered “active” during a reporting
period, a case note or referral with a
service must be recorded. Consumer
records that include a goal set or met during a reporting period will also be
considered active.
Even
though RSA only requires you to submit a report on an annual basis, NetCIL
Report and the CFAL database allow you to create a 704 Report for any time
period. For example, if you select a start date of October 1, 2006 and an end
date of March 31 2007, NetCIL will generate a “second quarter” FY 2006 report
that only shows statistics through the end date of March 31 2007. Any consumer
who deactivates after that date will still be listed as “active.” They will be
listed as “inactive” for any report that ends after their actual date of
deactivation.
How to record data for the RSA 704 Report:
Subpart I – Administrative Data
The
CFAL database now contains structure to store all of the administrative data
elements of the 704 Report. The
capability to edit and retrieve Subpart I information will be included in
future versions of NetCIL Manager.
Subpart II – Number & Types of Individuals with Significant Disabilities
Receiving Services
Section A – Consumers Served During the
Reporting Period:
(1)
Active
CSRs carried over from the preceding reporting year:
To
be counted in this category, an individual record must meet the following
criteria:
-
Contact Type must be set to Consumer, Inactive Consumer or AT Consumer (California only).
-
A service or goal (set or met)
must be recorded in the current reporting
period.
-
A service or goal (set or met)
must have been recorded during the year
prior to the reporting period.
(2)
Number of CSRs started since the beginning of the reporting
period:
To be counted in this category, an individual record must meet the
following criteria:
-
Contact Type must be set to Consumer, Inactive Consumer or AT
Consumer (California only).
-
A service or goal (set or met)
must be recorded during the current
reporting period.
-
No service or goal is recorded during the year prior to the current reporting period.
Please
note that if an Individual starts as an Information
and Referral contact and then becomes a Consumer
at a later date, a note will be automatically written with the transaction
type “Person becomes a Consumer.” For
reporting purposes, the date of this record will determine whether the consumer
is recorded as New or Carried Over.
Section B –Number of CSRs Closed
by the end of the reporting period:
To
close a CSR, a consumer must be “deactivated” as follows:
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 case note “Consumer Becomes Inactive” in the
consumer’s history record with the reason for deactivation and the selected
date.
The deactivation process will also drop any open goals by
automatically writing an “Actual End Date” and selecting “Dropped” in the
“Outcome Score” list. If any grant or
program was linked to the consumer record (Grant History), an automatic
“Inactive Date” will be written.
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” case 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 case 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.
Section C –
Number of CSRs Active on September 30 of the Reporting Year:
NetCIL
Manager will always list the number of active consumers as the number of
consumers carried over plus the number of new consumers minus the number of
consumers who deactivate during a given reporting period.
Section D – IL Plans
and 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 Case 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.
Section E – Age:
Age
is calculated automatically based on date of birth and the end date of a
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. In lieu of entering a date, you
may enter an approximate age, and CFAL or NetCIL IRLog will automatically check
the “Estimated DOB” field and set the birth date to January 1st of
the appropriate year.
Section F – Sex:
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.”
Section G – Race & Ethnicity:
Select
the appropriate ethnic group from the dropdown box. If no ethnic group is selected, information
will be included in the “Other” category. CFAL does not allow the selection of
more than one race category. In cases where multiple races are indicated,
select “Two or more races.” In the case where race is ambiguous, select
“Other/Unknown” or the race category that most closely fits the consumer’s
demographic.
Note: As of FY 2008, RSA no longer
reports the “Hispanic Ethnicity” separately.
Hispanic or Latino indicates a person of Cuban, Mexican,
Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin,
regardless of race. A consumer
who reports a Hispanic/Latino ethnicity should be counted as “Hispanic/Latino”
in the race category, even if the consumer also reported other race categories.
Section H – 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.
Section I – Individuals Served by County during the Reporting Year:
When you enter a person’s record
in the CFAL database, county of residence is automatically selected according
to zip code. As long as county data is set correctly, data for Section J will
be automatically written when a 704 Report is generated. An “unknown” line will
be written as the last line in the Section J table showing a total of all
records for which county of residence is indeterminate.
Subpart III - Individual Services and
Achievements
Section A – Individual Services:
The
704 Report now distinguishes between services requested and services received.
CFAL and NetCIL Manager differentiate the two circumstances as follows:
1.
For a single
instance of a service provided on a single date, write a case note (“Case Notes
& History” button on the CFAL People form) and specify the service in the
“Services” dropdown edit box. All such services will count in both the
“Consumers Requesting Services” and “Consumers Receiving Services” table in
Section A.
2.
For service
requests that have not yet been fulfilled, make an entry in the “Referrals”
section of either the People or Phone Referral forms. Note that a service can also be recorded in
the lower section of the Phone Referral form by pressing F6. 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 be counted in the “Consumers
Requesting Services” but not in the
“Consumers Receiving Services” table in Section A. Once a service request has
been satisfied, write a “Completion Date.” If the “Completion Date” occurs
before the end date of a report, its record will be included in the totals for
“Consumers Receiving Services.”
Note
that the table in Section A represents an unduplicated list of consumers; a
consumer will count only once in each service category regardless of the number
of times that the service was requested or received in a given time period.
CFAL
users will be alerted that open referrals are pending each time they run CFAL.
You
can configure your own list of services through the Site Profile section of the
CFAL database, and then list as many as you wish in a consumer’s profile. In order for these services to be properly
reported on the 704 Report, each must be associated with a standard “RSA/704”
category.
Section B – Increased Independence and
Community Integration:
Item 1 – Goals related to Increased
Independence in a Significant Life Area
To
record goals, perform the following steps:
1.
Retrieve the
consumer record using the People form.
2.
Open the
Consumer Goals form (“Consumer Goals” button).
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. Any goal that does
not specifically correspond to a column in the spreadsheet will be reported as
“Other.”
If
the “Goal Start Date” falls within a reporting period, or if a goal was set
prior to the reporting year and is still being worked on, it will be included
in the appropriate “Goal Set” column of the Consumer Achievements tab. If the “Actual End Date” is recorded and it
falls within a reporting period, the achievement will be included in the “Met”
column, regardless of when the goal was set.
Any goals for which an “Actual End Date” is left blank will be counted
in the “In Progress” column, as long as the goal’s “Start Date” falls before
the end of a given report period. The “Target End Date” field in CFAL is for
reference purposes only.
Please note
that the sum of column 2 (goals met) and column 3 (goals in progress) may be
lower than column 1 (goals set). The
difference will represent the number of goals that were dropped.
Item 2 – Improved Access to Transportation,
Health Care Services, and Assistive Technology
A new category has been added to accommodate Item 2
data collection. When entering a new goal, select the appropriate category for
“Improved Access” from the “Access Category” dropdown box. Note that a new
dropdown box called “Goal Standard” has also been added. This optional category
is for your internal use. If you wish to use it, edit the contents of the table
“Consumer Goal Standards” via the database window. Enter values as appropriate.
These values will then become defaults for all new records that are entered as
Consumer Goals.
Section C – Additional Information Concerning
Individual Services or Achievements:
The
capability to edit and retrieve Section C narrative information will be
included in the NetCIL Manager Site Profile page. The RSA/704 Report is
generated in a format that allows this narrative information to be edited.
Subpart IV – Extent of CIL Compliance with the
Six Evaluation Standards
Section A – Compliance
Indicator 1: Philosophy
Item 1 – Consumer Control
(A) Board Member Composition
The
capability to edit and retrieve board member composition will be included in
the NetCIL Manager Site Profile page. The RSA/704 Report is generated in a
format that allows this narrative information to be edited.
(B)
Staff
Composition
1.
Create a
record for each member of your staff by using the People form. For decision-making
(FTE) staff members, set contact type to “Staff Member.” For all others, select
“Other Staff.”
2.
Record a
“Primary Disability” and “Race” as appropriate. “Disabilities” and “Minorities”
data will be calculated for all staff members according to “Primary Disability”
and where “Race” is set to a value other than “White/Caucasian” or
“Other/Unknown.”
Item 2 – Self Help and Self-Advocacy
The
capability to edit and retrieve Item 2 narrative information will be included
in the NetCIL Manager Site Profile page. The RSA/704 Report is generated in a
format that allows this narrative information to be edited.
Item 3 – Peer Relationships and Peer Role
Models
The
capability to edit and retrieve Item 3 narrative information will be included
in the NetCIL Manager Site Profile page. The RSA/704 Report is generated in a
format that allows this narrative information to be edited.
Item 4 – Equal Access
The
capability to edit and retrieve Item 4 narrative information will be included
in the NetCIL Manager Site Profile page. The RSA/704 Report is generated in a
format that allows this narrative information to be edited.
Item 5 – Alternative Formats
The
capability to edit and retrieve Item 5 narrative information will be included
in the NetCIL Manager Site Profile page. The RSA/704 Report is generated in a
format that allows this narrative information to be edited.
Section B – Compliance
Indicator 2: Provision of Services on a Cross-Disability Basis
The
capability to edit and retrieve Section B narrative information will be
included in the NetCIL Manager Site Profile page. The RSA/704 Report is
generated in a format that allows this narrative information to be edited.
Section C – Compliance
Indicator 3: Independent Living Goals
Item 1 – Consumer Information
The
capability to edit and retrieve Item 1 narrative information will be included
in the NetCIL Manager Site Profile page. The RSA/704 Report is generated in a
format that allows this narrative information to be edited.
Item 2 – Consumer Service Record Requirements
The
capability to edit and retrieve Item 2 narrative information will be included
in the NetCIL Manager Site Profile page. The RSA/704 Report is generated in a
format that allows this narrative information to be edited.
Section D – Compliance
Indicator 4: Community Options and Community Capacity
Item 1 – Community Activities Table
The new 704 Report has replaced Community
Achievements (System Change) with Community Activities. To accommodate this
change, “Community Achievements” in CFAL are now referred to as “Community
Activities,” and Work Log entries should be tied directly to these “Community
Activities” in order to properly report data for Section D. To configure CFAL for Section D reporting,
follow these steps:
1.
Open the “Community Activities” form from the CFAL Main form.
2.
Enter a descriptive name for a “Community Activity” that will reflect its
pertinent “Issue Area” and “Activity Type.”
3.
At your option, you can still associate the activity with the old 704
“Goal Type.”
4.
Enter a “Start Date,” “Target End” and “Actual End” dates as
appropriate. When creating Work Log
entries, users will not be able to select Community Activities past the “Actual
End” date of the activity.
5.
Associate the activity with a pertinent “Issue” and “Activity”. There are two new tables in CFAL called
“Community Issue Codes” and “Community Activity Codes.” These tables are
pre-configured by CFAL to reflect the minimum number of categories that RSA has
chosen to highlight. You may add records to either of these tables in order to
track activity for additional categories as required. NetCIL Manager will generate data for all
combinations of Issue and Activity areas that are found in the Work Log for a
given time period.
6.
List “Objectives” for the activity as appropriate. Text that you enter
here will be reported in the 704 Report Community Activities Table.
7.
List “Outcomes” for the activity as appropriate. Text that you enter here
will be reported in the 704 Report Community Activities Table. For internal
use, you can also assign an “Outcome Score” to the activity.
8.
Enter “Notes” as appropriate. This field is for internal use only, and
text that you enter here will not appear on 704 Reports.
It is still possible to associate Community
Activities with Projects and Events in order to coordinate your staff’s
activities, but doing so no longer has any effect on 704 Reporting statistics.
To record effort expended towards Community
Activities:
1.
Press the
“Work Log” button on the Main form.
2.
Write a new
record, and select the category from the “Community Activity” 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.
4.
All other
Work Log data elements are optional.
Item 2 – Description of Community Activities
The
capability to edit and retrieve Item 2 narrative information will be included
in the NetCIL Manager Site Profile page. The RSA/704 Report is generated in a
format that allows this narrative information to be edited.
The structure of the 4.1 CFAL file server has been
expanded to include the ability to store and retrieve information for Section
E, Section F, and Subparts V-VIII of the new RSA 704 Report. Future versions of
NetCIL Manager will allow this information to be automatically generated.
For
more information on any of the topics covered in this document, please refer to
the CFAL Client User’s Manual. A current copy of the manual is 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 or by sending e-mail
to techsupport@ed2c.com.