October 2026Vol. 1, No. 5Featured Federally Funded Project: The National Electronic Interstate Compact Enterprise
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.
