eKIDS is a Child Welfare (CW) application that helps current support specialists determine foster care placement, status, custody time frames, parent addresses, etc. If there is a deprived action, eKIDS provides real-time child placement information, regardless of the type of placement (e.g. DHS shelter, psychiatric facility, etc.).
Any Child Support Services (CSS) employee may be granted access to eKIDS (only certain staff has access to KIDS); however, it is very important that all Finance staff have access. There is no restriction as to the number of staff in an office that can have access. If access to eKIDS is needed, work with a supervisor to complete a MID-1 to be submitted to the Center for Business Process Engineering.
For how to use eKIDS see the LMS course Using eKIDS for Child Support Information
eKIDS Key Considerations
- When a child is in a paid facility (e.g. shelter or group home), the foster care maintenance payments will not be displayed on the Foster Care Inquiry Tool.
- To determine if a child is placed in a facility (paid or not), review child placement screens in eKIDS.
- Sometimes it is unclear with whom the child is in trial reunification. This information can be found under the ‘Removal’ tab in eKIDS.
- During this time frame, OSIS may still display the E or F case type on the CHU. If this occurs, contact the Custody Specialist to make the appropriate update to the F130 block to show Trial Reunification.
- The termination or relinquishment of parental rights (this information will be listed on eKIDS under the ‘Court’ tab, ‘Recommend’ option) does not stop the accrual of current support in Oklahoma*, however this varies by state. Please access the Intergovernmental Reference Guide (IRG) for the appropriate state to find the law associated with this issue.
Information on eKIDS is entered by the Child Welfare worker and can contain inaccurate information. The Child Support Specialist on the case is found in the lower region of the ‘Summary’ tab in eKIDS.