The state of North Carolina announced Wednesday the official launch of a statewide digital system for social workers to track foster children as they are relocated.

Until now, North Carolina’s 100 county departments of social services, which administer child welfare services, have operated with a patchwork of independent data systems – nearly half of counties are still largely reliant on manual processes and paper records for child welfare operations.

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PATH NC will bring all 100 counties together for the first time into a unified system.

“PATH NC is more than a technology upgrade – it’s an investment in North Carolina’s children and families,” said North Carolina Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai in a news release. “By providing social services staff with better tools, clearer data and integrated support, we are laying the foundation for a safer, more responsive child welfare system that delivers better, more consistent results – no matter where you live.”

PATH NC equips child welfare staff with real-time data and decision-making tools to better protect children and to improve outcomes for children and families across the state.

The WRAL documentary “Broken: Foster Care in North Carolina” highlighted the absence of a statewide IT system to track foster children. Specifically, “Broken” highlights Avantae Deven, a Fayetteville adoptive mother charged with murdering two of her five adopted children. Deven was able to adopt five children from three different counties. Felicia Chandler, the birth mother of one of those children, told WRAL News that she was unable to track where her child was living.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services worked in close collaboration with county leaders to fully redesign the state’s Structured Decision-Making (SDM) tools.

“We’ve built PATH NC from the ground up in collaboration with county leaders to ensure it meets the current, real-world needs of North Carolina’s child welfare social workers,” said NCDHHS Deputy Secretary for Opportunity and Well-Being Michael Leighs. “It’s designed to improve the everyday experience of staff while making it easier to track, report and respond to what’s happening in real time.

“PATH NC is a critical part of our work to transform the child welfare system and improve the lives of children and families in North Carolina.”

Sangvai has previously told WRAL News that changes are needed when it comes to state oversight of the foster care system.

“When I hear the stories of these children, it breaks my heart,” Sangvai said. “As a father, as a doctor, as a North Carolinian, you have individuals in the most fragility moment of their life and having that fragility made worst because of a system that's not working for them.

“We absolutely need to fix it, and we are committed to fixing it.”

Later this year, the state is planning to connect PATH NC to the existing Child Welfare Fatality Information System [CWFIS]. The CWFIS, which has been in place since 2018, is a tool to allow child welfare agencies to report with the child welfare system who have died.

The CWFIS also gathers information on what led to a child's death. The goal is to identify any changes that could be made to prevent more child deaths.

Wednesday's news about the new statewide digital system for foster care comes on the same day North Carolina lawmakers approved sweeping foster-care reforms, sending a comprehensive bipartisan bill to Gov. Josh Stein.

House Bill 612, which sponsors call the Fostering Care in NC Act, would give the state more power to hold county-run social services departments accountable. House lawmakers on Wednesday unanimously approved changes proposed by the Senate, the last approval needed before heading to the governor. Stein can approve the measure, veto it, or let it become law without signing it.

The state is not the only entity trying to enact changes to help foster care in North Carolina.

In May, WRAL News reported about technology entrepreneur Ryan O’Donnell’s push to have North Carolina use the app he created called “Your Case Plan.” The app is designed to connect everyone involved in a child’s case, not just those who work for the Department of Social Services.

In May, WRAL News asked O’Donnell how his app would function along with North Carolina’s new online system.

“We don't have a statewide centralized IT system yet, like some other states,” O’Donnell said at the time. “And, we're not going to replace that tool when it finally comes live.”