Reopening Assessments

In some circumstances, an approved assessment may need to be ‘reopened’ so that necessary and/or mandatory changes can be made—specifically, changes that do not meet the criteria for the ‘Edit due to Appeal’ option (e.g. required confidentiality corrections, significant data entry error, etc.)

The ‘Reopen Assessment’ button allows users with the role of Local Office Director, Executive, Administrator or Super Administrator to put an approved assessment back into the ‘In Progress’ state. At this point, the user can change or add to the assessment as needed.

No other roles (Read-Only, Worker, Supervisor and Foster Care Worker) have access to this feature.

 How to Reopen an Assessment:

The ‘Reopen Assessment’ button is located at the bottom the Assessment page to the right of the ‘Edit (Due to Appeal)’ button.

NOTE: 

When sent for approval, a reopened assessment is subject to the same requirements and validations as any other assessment.

To begin the process of reopening a previously approved assessment, an authorized user (a Local Office Director, Executive, Administrator or SuperAdministrator) clicks the ‘Reopen Assessment’ button.

When the button is clicked, the user is presented with a dialogue box showing a disclaimer related to current policy. Here the user can also indicate why they are reopening/unapproving the assessment.

Clicking the ‘Submit’ button will officially reopen the assessment and assigned back to the FCM to whom it was originally assigned.

SPECIAL NOTE: If the previously assigned FCM is no longer in that role within DCS (due to a promotion, for example), or is not the person who should be assigned, please ensure the assessment is reassigned accordingly.

If the previously assigned FCM is no longer employed by the agency, the assessment will automatically be assigned to the person reopening the assessment. The message below will be displayed.

When an Assessment is ‘Reopened’

When an assessment is reopened/unapproved, both the assigned worker and the assigned worker’s supervisor receive a notification within Casebook.

In addition, a ‘reopening assessment’ email notification is sent to the assigned worker, the assigned worker’s supervisor, a user from the assigned county with the role of Local Office Director and the county’s user Regional Manager.

Once an Assessment has been reopened, all users will be able to view information that pertains to the reopening event. Below the progress bar users see:

• Who reopened the assessment; 

• When the assessment was reopened; 

• Access to any comments regarding why the assessment was reopened/unapproved;

The reopening of this assessment also creates a new workflow event in the assessment’s history.

What can be done within a ‘Reopened’ Assessment?

A reopened Assessment is open for all edits, as if the assessment had not been previously approved. Plans & Tools, notes, hearings and assessment narratives will be unlocked and free to work with once the assessment is reopened. These may not be accessible, however, if they are past their automatic lock-down time, as follows:

• For Plans & Tools, 7 days after being marked as complete 

• For Notes, 30 days after creation of the note 

If the Assessment was previously in Edit Due to Appeal (EDTA), prior to it being Reopened, the Appeals narrative will also open and be editable.

The appeals narrative will not be available if the assessment has never been in EDTA.

Note: 

Keep in mind that any existing CPI flags will remain unchanged. In order to activate the CPI flag feature, the assessment needs to be re-approved with a change in the allegation decisions.