Business Case
The TARE web site is a powerful recruitment and promotional tool. TARE’s primary purpose is to establish permanency for children, with a secondary goal of educating the public about foster care and adoption. TARE allows DFPS to enter children and sibling groups that are available for adoption. The public can search this site for children and submit interest forms through the View Waiting Children section of the website. The TARE database includes some additional information for reporting requirements that help DFPS management.
Adoption Family Network (AFN), which is a section within TARE, allows families who have an approved home study to register with their adoption preferences. They are given an ID that can be entered when they submit inquiries on children in TARE. Non-approved families can also submit interest forms for children in TARE and general interest in adoption/fostering. These are tracked in the TARE database. If these families follow up, they could eventually become AFN approved families.
The Solution
CMA custom developed TARE as a web-based solution using the .NET Platform. TARE consists of a front-end portal and back-end intranet site used by workers.
The front-end portal is a public facing site used by people seeking to adopt and submit inquiries on children that fit the wants of the seeker.
The intranet side of the site is used by DFPS workers and administrators to maintain children profiles and publish/un-publish public records.
TARE uses an ORM (XPO) data layer developed by Developer Express, a third-party vendor used within DFPS. The ORM enables developers to map classes to tables and columns within code making the database a first class citizen to the application. The architecture being used is an n-tier methodology and built with the ASP.NET framework using the C# language. Third-party controls developed by DevExpress are used within the presentation layer of the application to provide a rich interface experience for users.
TARE provides a secure page used to gain authorization to view and access child tier level data. Users can create a profile which can be accessed by workers and used to match children based on levels of characteristics the user selects.
The Results
The solution was a great success for DFPS. Their site now receives approximately 350,000 monthly visitors, and several thousand TARE website accounts have been created by the public which allows families interested in adoption to easily review profiles of children and inquire about specific children.
The project was completed successfully, on time, and has helped DFPS meet its goals. The project team’s performance was exceptional given the aggressive schedule and challenging project scope.
After successful project completion, the Department won a “Best of Texas” award from the Center for Digital Government for Best Application Serving the Public.