A Look at California’s Welfare Computer Systems

December 2000

by Richard Bermack

The attempt to create a statewide computer system for welfare began in mid-1982. Originally the idea was to create a single statewide automated system. However, it eventually became clear that the state is too large and diverse for a single system to fulfill all the needs of each county. In 1995 the 52 California counties were divided into four “county consortia,” each with different welfare computer automation projects. The four consortia and their respective systems are as follows:

WCDS–CalWIN: Welfare Client Data System-CalWORKS Information Network
18 counties (40.19% of caseloads statewide)
Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Orange, Placer, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Tulare, Ventura, and Yolo counties

ISAWS: Interim Statewide Automated Welfare System
35 counties (14.37% of caseloads statewide)
Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Imperial, lnyo, Kern, Kings, Lake, Lassen, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Modoc, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Plumas, San Benito, San Joaquin, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sutter,
Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne, and Yuba counties

LEADER: Los Angeles Eligibility, Automated Determination, Evaluation, and Reporting System
1 county (33.58% of caseloads statewide)
Los Angeles county

Consortium IV
Computer system still under review.
4 counties (11.86% of caseloads statewide)
Merced, Riverside, San Bemardino, and Stanislaus counties

ISAWS was the first of the projects to be completed. LEADER is currently being implemented, and CalWIN is in the development stage, with the first pilot tests scheduled for September 2002 and implementation to begin in March 2003.