ORLANDO, Fla. — New technology is increasing the speed at which foster families can place children back with their families or into foster homes.

The Children's Home Society says an app called CaseAim is speeding up the process by 100 days on average.

This is how it works: CaseAim opens up on a case workers phone. The worker then goes through every necessary checkpoint on an in-home visit, with the ability to make notes. After they go through everything they need to cover, all parties can sign with an e-signature.

From there, the in-home visit note is uploaded to an online database for the Florida State Family’s Network, which, before CaseAim, was not something you were able to do.

A recent independent study completed by the Florida Institute for Child Welfare concluded:

  • Children spend nearly 100 fewer days in foster care with CaseAIM
  • Children are more likely to achieve permanency within 12 months with CaseAIM
  • Children experience fewer placement moves with CaseAIM
  • Children experience fewer case manager turnover events with CaseAIM
  • On average a foster child that is now a CaseAim case is 61 percent more likely to be permanently placed in less than 12 months

Right now, four Children's Home Society programs are using CaseAim out of the agency's 10. They are Central Florida, Lakeland, Miami and Panama City. But the group wants to get CaseAim statewide as quickly as possible.