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Demanding workloads are one of the biggest challenges faced by child welfare caseworkers. As efforts to strengthen and support the workforce continue, one concept that has gained traction is reducing time-consuming administrative tasks.

Reducing administrative burden is a recurring theme across recent Federal child welfare initiatives, such as Child and Family Services Reviews Technical Bulletin #14, which outlines changes to State program improvement plan processes and measures, and the Fostering the Future for American Children and Families Executive Order, which calls for eliminating duplicative and unnecessary reporting requirements. This Federal guidance reflects a growing recognition that child welfare professionals should spend less time navigating systems and paperwork and more time supporting children and families.

So, what exactly qualifies as "administrative burden" and what can agencies do to reduce it?

What is Administrative Burden? 

For the purposes of this article, "administrative burden" refers to tasks that divert time and attention away from children and families, particularly those that are inefficient or could be streamlined through technology.

Administrative burden can take many forms; it may involve entering the same information into multiple systems, tracking down records from different agencies, preparing reports, monitoring deadlines, or completing documentation that supports compliance requirements. While many of these tasks are necessary, they can consume valuable time that might otherwise be spent engaging children and families or coordinating services and supports.

What Strategies Are Available to Reduce Administrative Burden?

Reducing burden is not about doing less work; it's about eliminating unnecessary work and delegating appropriate tasks to technology. To do so, agencies should consider the following strategies:

• Automate routine tasks: Use technology to handle repetitive activities such as deadline reminders, notifications, appointment scheduling, and report generation so workers spend less time on manual processes.
• Eliminate duplicate data entry: Integrate systems so information entered once can flow to other required forms, databases, or reports without being reentered multiple times.
• Improve data sharing across systems: Allow agencies and partners to securely exchange information electronically, reducing the need to track down records, request documents, or manually transfer information.
• Streamline documentation requirements: Review forms, policies, and processes to remove unnecessary paperwork.
• Leverage technology for information retrieval: Use search tools, knowledge management systems, or tools that utilize artificial intelligence to help workers quickly find information and resources.
• Use workflow management tools: Make dashboards and case-tracking tools accessible so workers can efficiently organize workloads, prioritize tasks, and monitor deadlines.

Considerations for Implementing New Technology

Successfully reducing administrative burden through technology requires thoughtful change management and buy-in from the people who will use the technology daily. Understanding workers' needs and involving them in planning can help ensure that technology solves real challenges without creating new ones.

It is also important to recognize that technology should support child welfare practice, not replace it. Technology can help workers organize information, identify trends, automate routine tasks, and flag issues for consideration. However, decisions affecting children and families should be left to human expertise.

Security and privacy also remain important considerations for implementing new technology. Child welfare systems contain sensitive information about children and families, making strong security practices essential. Agencies implementing new technologies should consider how information is stored, shared, and protected.

Reducing administrative burden creates opportunities for more meaningful practice. When workers spend less time on paperwork and administrative tasks, they can spend more time building relationships, understanding families' strengths and needs, and providing the tailored support children and families need to thrive.

When children in foster care experience placements across State lines, the process has historically been lengthy and complicated. Under the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC), interstate foster and adoptive placements require documentation and approvals that previously involved physically sending and processing paperwork between States. The National Electronic Interstate Compact Enterprise (NEICE) was developed to replace that manual exchange process.

What is NEICE?

NEICE is the national electronic system used to exchange documents and data required for interstate placements. NEICE streamlines the ICPC process by allowing States to securely share information, communicate, track case progress, and manage required documentation within a single system.

Funded by the Children's Bureau (CB) and State licensing fees, NEICE was developed by the Association of Administrators of the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (AAICPC) and the American Public Human Services Association as a pilot project in 2013. After demonstrating success, CB awarded it an additional cooperative agreement in 2015 to expand nationally. Federal law now requires jurisdictions to participate in a national electronic interstate processing system by 2027, and NEICE is currently the only system supporting that requirement. As of August 2026, 48 of the 52 AAICPC jurisdictions (the 50 States plus the District of Columbia and U.S. Virgin Islands) had fully implemented NEICE. 

How NEICE Increases Efficiency

NEICE is a strong example of technology-driven efficiency in child welfare. Before NEICE, interstate placement requests moved through a series of paper-based steps. Documentation was mailed between States, routed through State ICPC offices and child welfare agencies, and then returned through the same process once a decision was made. The multiple handoffs could contribute to delays and make it difficult to track the status of a case.

With NEICE, these steps take place electronically. Users can exchange ICPC paperwork, send messages, explore data dashboards, and receive notifications about new cases and upcoming deadlines. In addition, States can use NEICE to compare State-level data to national data, creating opportunities to better understand trends and identify areas for improvement.

When implementing NEICE, States have the option to integrate their existing data systems to reduce duplicate data entry.

"If a child is already in a State system and they have it integrated with NEICE, it can pull from the system dates of birth, social security numbers, addresses, and more," said Lynnea Kaufman, NEICE assistant director. "It's filling in some of that data that's already known by the system so that caseworkers don't have to keep typing it in over and over again."

The automation of ICPC processes creates efficiencies and benefits for both professionals and families—caseworkers spend less time on administrative work and more time supporting families, while children and families spend less time awaiting decisions and experiencing temporary placements. Less time waiting for placements supports the Administration for Children and Family's goal of having A Home for Every Child.

Data that the NEICE team has collected thus far demonstrate the system's impact; the median days to respond to ICPC requests in one of the most common regulation categories decreased from 99 days in 2020 to 54 days in 2025. This decrease brings many cases within the Safe and Timely Interstate Placement of Foster Children Act of 2006 requirement of 60 days.

Supporting Efficiency Without Replacing Professional Judgement

As with many technological innovations, NEICE is designed to streamline administrative tasks while leaving critical decisions and professional judgment in the hands of child welfare professionals.

"A system shouldn't make a decision," Kaufman said. "Systems can help flag things for people that they might want to consider, and systems can help organize what's coming up, but it shouldn't do a task in a case. [For example], you wouldn't want the system to auto-close a case that really shouldn't have been closed."

NEICE continues to evolve based on feedback from the people who use it every day. Through workgroups, surveys, and other engagement efforts, the NEICE team regularly gathers input from States to identify challenges, prioritize improvements, and ensure the system meets the needs of users while aligning with State and Federal requirements.

As NEICE moves toward full implementation across the United States, the system offers an example of how technology can drive efficiency in child welfare when it is designed around the needs of users, continuously improved through feedback, and implemented in ways that support, rather than replace, human expertise.