Data Entry Questions

• How do I edit child identification information?
• How do I find and edit child placement recommendation records?
• My county has held a TDM that included multiple children. One of the children was already in custody and the others were not. As such, the reason for involvement is different for the children (Emergency Placement for the detained child and Imminent Risk for those not yet detained). How do I enter this meeting to reflect the different ‘Primary Reason for Involvement’?
• We have held a TDM for a child who was not assigned a Child Case Number because this was an Imminent Risk case. How do I enter this into the database?
• We have held a second TDM for a child who has re-entered the system and now has a different child case number. Do we have to go into the database and replace this child’s old child case numbers with the new one?
• When entering data regarding the outcome of a TDM meeting, I am puzzled by the choice ‘Unable to reach consensus’. What is the appropriate use of the ‘Unable to reach consensus’ option?

Database Management Questions

• I want to change a table in the database, is that okay? If so, how do I make customizations like this?
• When my county adopted CalWIN, the serial numbers for existing cases were changed to include a letter as the first number (i.e. B234567). The TDM database will not accept these serial numbers. What should we do?
• In my county, homefinding staff typically participates in our TDMs. Can I customize the database to add an attendee category to include them in the database? (I.e. Parent partners, community members, liaisons)
• My county is using Access 97 and we need to import our Look Up tables into Access 2000 for reporting. How do we do this?
• How do I properly protect TDM data in order to ensure my clients’ confidentiality?
• My county would like to upgrade from version 2.6 of the TDM database to version 3. How do we do this?

Data Entry Questions

How do I edit child identification information?

To edit child information, you must use the child information form. From the database Main Menu, click on ‘Edit Child Info’ button to get to the ‘Edit Child and Youth Information’ form. Enter any known information into any of the fields, and click ‘Find’ to display the corresponding record below. Click to select the record for the child whose information you will edit and once a selection has been made, you may edit information in any of the fields. To save any changes you have made and return to the main menu, click on the ‘Return to Main Menu’ button.

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How do I find and edit child placement recommendation records?

To find and change child placement recommendation records, we suggest correcting each record as it was entered on the meeting page. This way, you will be able to see if there was a pattern in data entry error.

To correct child information on the ‘Meeting Information’ page:

1. From the TDM database Main Menu, click on the ‘Go to Meeting Index’ button.
2. Search for the relevant meeting by date in the ‘Meeting Index’.
3. Click on the ‘Edit’ button to go to the ‘Meeting Information’ page.
4. Click on ‘Add child information’ to check that there is correct information for all children associated with the meeting.
5. Use the record navigation bar at the bottom left of the 'Add Child Information' form to visit the records of all the children who were the focus of the meeting (this number of children should be the same as the number of children listed on the meeting page). The record navigation bar will tell you how many children are the focus of the meeting (e.g., Record 1 of 3).
6. You should then be able to edit the ‘Reason for Involvement’, ‘Decision’, and ‘Recommendation’.
7. Click the right arrow to add information for subsequent children associated with the meeting (e.g., Record 2 of 3).
8. Close the 'Add Child Information' form and click 'Close and Save' on the meeting form to save the new information to the database.

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My county has held a TDM that included multiple children. One of the children was already in custody and the others were not. As such, the reason for involvement is different for the children (Emergency Placement for the detained child and Imminent Risk for those not yet detained). How do I enter this meeting to reflect the different ‘Primary Reason for Involvement’?

The database is equipped to handle different types of TDM per child. To enter data on a meeting with multiple children and multiple reasons for involvement:

1. Choose a ‘Primary Reason’ for the meeting on the Meeting Information’ form (for example, "Imminent Risk" may be the appropriate primary reason for the meeting described).
2. When adding children who were the focus of the meeting, enter each child’s information on the ‘Add Child Information’ form. You can indicate separate 'Child Reason for Involvement' for each child. Use the record navigation bar at the bottom left of the 'Add Child Information' form to visit the records of all the children who were the focus of the meeting (this number of children should be the same as the number of children listed on the meeting page). The record navigation bar will tell you how many children are the focus of the meeting (e.g., Record 1 of 3).

You should establish rules for determining the primary reason in these cases and include them in your county’s Data Definition Guide. Please note that different reports make use of these different variables. Meeting-level reports (attendance reports) group data using the meeting ‘Primary Reason’. However, the child involvement report, for example, uses the ‘Child's Reason for Involvement’ to group data. Creating rules for data entry will ensure that reports can be interpreted accurately.

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We have held a TDM for a child who was not assigned a Child Case Number because this was an Imminent Risk case. How do I enter this into the database?

In TDM CA database versions 2.2 and newer, ‘Child Case Number’ is not a required field. Therefore, when you are entering data for a TDM held for a child who was not assigned a case number, you should be able to leave this field blank. Leaving this field blank in Emergency Response/Imminent Risk cases where there is no case number does not effect reporting capabilities but we strongly suggest that you do not leave this field blank if a ‘Child Case Number’ is available. This number is used as a backup for cases when there is a problem using the ‘Child Client Number’.

‘Child Client Number’ is a mandatory data entry cell because every child is assigned a ‘Child Client Number’ by CWS/CMS. This number is vital to UC Berkeley’s work when linking TDM data to CWS/CMS data.

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We have held a second TDM for a child who has re-entered the system and now has a different child case number. Do we have to go into the database and replace this child’s old child case numbers with the new one?

You do not need to update the case number for reporting to AECF or UC Berkeley. When linking to our CWS/CMS data archive, the ‘Child Case Number’ is used as a backup to locate a child's record in case of an incorrect ‘Child Client Number’. An old case number works as well as a newer one for this purpose.

If there are reasons that it would help your county to have the most recent case number in your TDM database, please feel free to overwrite the old case number. To do this, update the case number on the 'Edit Child Info' form.

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When entering data regarding the outcome of a TDM meeting, I am puzzled by the choice ‘Unable to reach consensus’. What is the appropriate use of the ‘Unable to reach consensus’ option?

A placement decision and recommendation are always made in a TDM meeting, whether reached by consensus or not. As such, we ask that the ‘Unable to reach consensus’ option never be used when entering data. The 'Unable to reach consensus' item will be removed as an option in the next version of the database. In the meantime, we have asked counties to indicate in their Data Definition Guide that this option is should never be selected when entering the ‘Decision regarding this child’ on the ‘Add Child Information’ form.

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Database Management Questions

I want to change a table in the database, is that okay? If so, how do I make customizations like this?

Some customizations can be made to the database to suit your county’s needs that will not affect reporting capabilities. The TDM Customization Guidelines 2.5 provides details on approved customizations and instructions for making these customizations to the database. All customizations that your county decides to implement must be documented in a Customization Log.

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When my county adopted CalWIN, the serial numbers for existing cases were changed to include a letter as the first number (i.e. B234567). The TDM database will not accept these serial numbers. What should we do?

In order to enter serial numbers that include letters, we suggest you change the input mask to allow entry of alphanumeric values. If you are using more than one copy of the database, you need to make these changes in each copy.

To change the input mask to allow alphanumeric variables:

1. Make a backup copy of the database.
2. To bypass startup options and access database window (for database design), hold down the shift key as you open the database.
3. In the database window, in the Objects column, select 'Forms'. Open frmMeet in design view.
4. Open the properties dialog for control 'FamilySerial'.
5. On the data tab, click on the 'Input Mask' property.
6. Modify the input mask from 0000000;0;_ to >AAAAAAA;0;_ (Note: to reduce error, if letters only appear in certain positions, you may want to customize the mask, for example, >AA00000;0; _ This would allow letters or numbers in the first two places and numbers only in the last five.)
7. This will require 7 letters or numbers (no special characters or spaces) and format letters to uppercase.
8. Close the properties dialog.
9. Save changes to the form.
10. Close the form.
11. Re-open the database in the usual way and test the modified field.

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In my county, homefinding staff typically participates in our TDMs. Can I customize the database to add an attendee category to include them in the database? (I.e. Parent partners, community members, liaisons)

Yes. The database allows for counties to customize the attendee categories to include participants (i.e. parent partners, community members, liaisons). For detailed instructions on how to add an attendee category, please refer to the TDM Tech Guide 2.3. Any customizations your county decides to implement must be documented in a Customization Log.

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My county is using Access 97 and we need to import our Look Up tables into Access 2000 for reporting. How do we do this?

It is a limitation of the import feature of the database that data does not automatically import from the lookup tables when importing data from Access 97. This will result in locations names that from the data tables not appearing in the lookup tables and there will be missing locations in Section II of the Quarterly Report. We are working to address this issue in the next database version. In the meanwhile, you will need to import the lookup tables into the Access 2000 database in addition to the data. You can do this by going into database design mode (Hold down 'Shift' while opening the database) and then going to 'File', 'Get External Data’, and 'Import'. Navigate to where the Access 97 database is stored and import the appropriate tables. Alternatively, you can open both databases simultaneously and copy and paste the Access 97 lookup tables into Access 2000.

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How do I properly protect TDM data in order to ensure my clients’ confidentiality?

To protect client confidentiality, the TDM CA database (MS Access), which includes client names, should not be sent over the Internet via email or by any other method. When sending extracts from the database (MS Excel or Text), they MUST be zipped, encrypted, and password protected.

There are two ways to protect client confidentiality in the TDM database: (1) internally within your agency and (2) externally while sharing data.

1. Within your agency: When entering and storing data, you need to ensure that access to the data is restricted to only those who use the data for agency purposes. If you are using the database on a server, you can protect the database using folder permissions to limit access to those involved with TDM data in your county or agency. Alternatively (or in addition), you can apply a password to your database to guard against casual access by users of your system not involved in the TDM process. If you determine that additional data protection is appropriate in your computing environment, you can encrypt the database. See Microsoft Access Help: in the ‘Contents’ pane, see the topics under ‘Securing a Database > Protecting a Database File’. If you are experienced with MS Access database administration, you may wish to institute User-Level security for your database. See Microsoft Access Help: in the ‘Contents’ pane, see the topics under ‘Securing a Database > Using User-Level Security’.
2. Sharing data: When exporting data to UC Berkeley for reporting, the quarterly data extract should be created using the TDM CA Data Export feature, which removes client names from the extract. In addition, the extract should be zipped, encrypted, and password protected before sending to UCB. For detailed instructions, please refer to the documents TDM CA Quarterly Data Extract and How to Determine WinZip Version and/or Download.

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My county would like to upgrade from version 2.6 of the TDM database to version 3. How do we do this?

Check back soon for information on upgrading from version 2.6 to version 3.0.

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