As we begin to deploy Phase II of the Foster Care Resource Education Database (FRED), each recommending agency must designate a FRED administrator to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS). The individual selected to be the FRED administrator for each recommending agency will, at a minimum, be expected to perform the following functions:

• Serve as the primary point of contact and communicate between the FRED project team and the recommending agency;
• Enter, update, inactivate usernames and reset passwords for the recommending agency;
• Process training participant transfers (future initiate, approval e-mail process); and
• Serve on User Group Panels to provide recommending agency input in a decision making role.

The individual designated may be of a technical orientation, or an experienced FRED user who demonstrates an analytical nature. The role may be held by one or more individuals per agency and is not related to or restricted by any title the individual may or may not hold. Please e-mail your administrator designee(s) and their e-mail addresses to: FRED@odjfs.state.oh.us by October 3, 2003. Include in your subject header "FRED- Administrator".

Please note that for historical purposes, this letter includes two letters that were previously sent regarding FRED. In the future information about FRED will be transmitted in Family, Children and Adult Services Procedure Letters or Transmittal Letters, as appropriate. Such letters are posted to the department's Legal/Policy Central calendar available on the ODJFS Innerweb at url: http://www.state.oh.us/odjfs/lpc/calendar/staff and from the Internet at: www.state.oh.us/odjfs/lpc/calendar/. The calendar provides a daily listing of update issuances and if you click on the date (the blue number) that has an update listed, it will travel to a page that lists specifics about the update with links that will travel to the electronic Family, Children and Adult Services Manual or to a printable (PDF) version of the update. Persons wishing to subscribe to weekly electronic notices of updates to ODJFS manuals should send an email with the word "subscribe" in lower case letters in the subject line to: handbook_update_subscriptions@odjfs.state.oh.us.

For questions about this letter, please contact the OCF Helpdesk by phone at:

1-866-886-3537, Option 4 or by email at: HELP-DESK-OCF@odjfs.state.oh.us

Enclosures: FRED Memos dated April 4, 2003 and July 31, 2003

FCASPL 74 Enclosure: FRED Memo dated April 4, 2003

TO:Directors, County Public Children Services Agencies (PCSA)

Administrators, Private Child Placing Agencies (PCPA)

Administrators, Private Noncustodial Agencies (PNA)

FROM:Galen Bock, Deputy Director, Office of Management Information Services

Barbara E. Riley, Deputy Director, Office for Children and Families

SUBJECT:Phase I of the Foster Care Resource Education Database (FRED) - Released

This letter is to announce the release of Phase I of the Foster Care Resource Education Database (FRED) on April 7, 2003, by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

FRED is a new Internet/web based system that agencies will use to register the pre-placement and continuing training provided to their foster caregivers. This system will aid in the creation of a centralized data base of caregiver training histories, and will automate the process used by the department to issue training allowances and stipend reimbursements to agencies.

The purpose of Phase I is to collect basic information on the pre-placement and continuing foster caregivers associated with each recommending agency. Information on the training received by these caregivers will not be collected during Phase I. With the release of Phase II in May 2003, agencies will begin using FRED to register all pre-placement and continuing training provided to caregivers. More information regarding Phase II will be provided in the coming weeks.

To access FRED and begin entering the information on your foster caregivers, please see the Instructions in Attachment A. NOTE: Agencies with 100 or more foster caregivers may select to have their list of caregivers batch-loaded into FRED, avoiding the need to manually enter this information. Please see Attachment B for details.

For questions regarding FRED, please contact the FRED project team at: mailto: FRED@odjfs.state.oh.us

ATTACHMENT A: INSTRUCTIONS FOR ACCESSING FRED

FRED is an internet-based system: to access FRED you will use a web browser, such as Internet Explorer or Netscape. The following web browsers are currently supported:

• Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher
• Netscape 4.x (4.5, 4.6, 4.7,etc.)

Please note the following are NOT supported at this time:

• Netscape 6.x
• Netscape 7.x

To access FRED, each user will need a user account (username and password). To request a user account, please send an e-mail to: FRED@ODJFS.STATE.OH.US with the words "New User" in the Subject line. Please include the following information: {Your full name, agency name, office telephone including area code, and your e-mail address}. You may include multiple user account requests in the same message. Please allow up to 48 hours for your request to be processed. Note: If you participated in the acceptance testing of Phase I, you may use the username and password previously assigned to you.

After receiving your username and password, use your web browser to open the FRED web site: https://fred.odjfs.state.oh.us

For instructions on logging into and using FRED< please see the FRED User Guide, available by clicking the "HELP" option in the upper-right corner of the FRED site. You ay also go directly to the FRED User Guide using this address: http://fred.odjfs.state.oh.us/UserGuide.pdf

Please Note: The FRED User Guide is an Adobe (PDF) document. You MUST have Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 or higher installed on your computer to view the User Guide. If you do not already have Acrobat Reader, you may download this free program from the Adobe web site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html. Please contact your local technical support staff if you have questions about installing the Acrobat Reader.

ATTACHMENT B: BATCH-LOADING OF FOSTER CAREGIVER INFORMATION

If your agency is responsible for 100 or more foster caregivers, you may choose to have your list of caregivers batch-loaded into FRED If you are interested in this option, please follow these instructions.

1.Create a tab- or comma-delimited text file with the following fields, in order:

2.Send the data file to: FRED@ODJFS.STATE.OH.US with the words "Caregiver Data" in the Subject Line. Include the name of your Agency in the message, and indicate whether the file is tab-delimited or comma-delimited.

3.Within two to five days you will receive a response indicating the results of the batch-load.

*Date of Birth is for identification purposes only. If date of birth is unknown, you may leave this field blank and enter the date into FRED at a later time.

**For use by agency as needed.

***Agencies may use this field to store an agency-specific identifier, or other supplemental information.

FCASPL 74 Enclosure: FRED Memo dated July 31, 2003

July 31, 2003

TO:Executive Directors, Public Children Services Agencies

Administrators, Private Child Placing Agencies

Administrators, Private Noncustodial Agencies

FROM:Barbara E. Riley, Deputy Director, Office for Children and Families

SUBJECT:STATUS - FOSTER PARENT TRAINING REIMBURSEMENTS

In a correspondence of April 4, 2003, I advised agencies that the Foster Caregiver Resource Education Database (F.R.E.D.), was beginning Phase I on April 7^th, and Phase II would follow on May 30, 2003. Subsequently, we advised agencies that the implementation of Phase II was delayed until June 30, 2003. I must inform you that due to systems issues, it is necessary to once again delay the implementation of Phase II. While we regret this delay, please be assured that the development of F.R.E.D., continues and full implementation this year remains a reasonable goal. In order to effectively manage this delay, the following steps are being taken:

• We are accepting JFS 1350 forms for reimbursement of foster caregiver stipends for the period between April 1, 2003 and September 30, 2003. The attached JFS 1350 form {hhtp://dynawedb.odjfs.state.oh.us:6336/library/pdf/1350.pdf) contains instructions for completion and may be duplicated for your use. Please submit completed forms to: Robert Bielecki, Chief, Foster Care Licensing Section, Bureau of Accountability and Regulation, Office for Children and Families, 255 East Main Street, 3^rd Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215-5222. When submitting the forms calculate stipend payments at the rate of $10.00 per hour, per caregiver, payable in increments of one-quarter hours as required by Ohio Administrative Code (OAC) rule 5101:2-5-38. (http://dynaweb.odjfs.staet.oh.us:6336/dynaweb/family/FCA@Generic BookView;cs=default;ts=default.).
• Effective April 2, 2003, all recommending agencies are your reference. We will continue to process JFS 1350 forms until Phase II of F.R.E.D., is operational. Please be aware that the submission of the JFS 1350 form will generate only stipend reimbursements. Training events will still need data entry into F.R.E.D. Phase II to generate agency training allowance payments.
• Additional staff has been assigned the responsibility of responding to e-mails sent to the F.R.E.D. system, registering users into the system, and processing JFS 1350s. Please continue to address questions to: mailto:FRED@odjfs.state.oh.us. Additional MIS staff has been assigned to complete the development of F.R.E.D. System.

I thank you for your patience and support during the development of this valuable instrument. If you have any questions, please contact the Bureau of Accountability and Regulation at (614) 644-1146.

Attachments:

ODJFS 1350 Foster Parent Training Reimbursement Invoice

ODJFS 1350 Instructions

OAC 5101:2-5-38

The JFS 1350 can be found in the appendix of this manual (http://dynaweb.odjfs.state.oh.us:6336/dynaweb/family/FCA), or at the ODJFS Forms Listing:http://www.state.oh.us/scripts/odjfs/forms