The Business Challenge

To ensure that suspected child abuse would not fall through the cracks, Yolo and Santa Barbara Counties needed to streamline and collaborate child abuse reports with local law enforcement, district attorney’s offices, and county child welfare departments across California.

The development of an electronic child abuse report system would provide authorities with reports from multiple locations and would be a critical step in recognizing suspected abusers that moved locations to evade detection.

This project would be a vital component in protecting children by stopping the cycle of abuse. This cloud-based system would need to be integrated with an existing code base developed by the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services.

The SyTech Solution

Yolo and Santa Barbara Counties partnered with SyTech to design and integrate the existing code base developed by the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services into a cloud-based system.

The first step to this integration was for SyTech’s team to port existing oracle data layers to MS SQL and Entity framework for cloud architecture. Accomplishing this task required a superior understanding of data migration and formatting from traditional applications to nimble cloud platforms. This required standardizing the database on MS SQL Technology, building toolkits for interacting with the database for data persistence, updating references to an existing Oracle-based access layer, and the creation of separate database tables for each participating county. It also involved creating connection pathways between county databases where data could be shared if authorized with connecting parties.

Next, SyTech needed to utilize their thorough understanding of web platform delivery and securitization to develop federated authentication codes. This was a necessary step to replace existing authorization codes with those supporting Microsoft Azure and would also include the creation of separate authentication control solutions for each participating county.

Using our extensive experience in disparate data integration and connectivity, SyTech then developed a connector for the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Child Welfare Services (CWS). This process involved building custom views within their system to pull data points, developing a web service endpoint in the eSCARS app to receive and process new/updated records, and creating a separate CDSS CWS connection solution for each participating county.

Finally, SyTech provided secure cloud hosting services for Yolo and Santa Barbara Counties and transitioned end-users to ensure a seamless project adoption. This process included the creation of training documentation, providing training to staff, and the creation of a knowledge transfer schedule to ensure that the developed software became the property of Yolo County, the California Office of Emergency Management Services, and any partnering Counties.

Life Saving Tools and Technology

Due to their collaboration with SyTech, Yolo and Santa Barbara Counties have been able to track and collaborate suspected child abuse reports, making it possible to identify suspected offenders across multiple locations and recognize patterns of abuse.

The success of eSCARS has inspired multiple California agencies to join with Yolo and Santa Barbara Counties in sharing reports. This lifesaving technology has given law enforcement a powerful tool in the battle against child abuse.