On a previous post announcing the updated APR, it was noted that “Newly enrolled” is defined by the very first Personal Visit Record (PVR) falling inside the reporting period – items II2 and II12. This first private contact determines the 90 day compliance timeline for family centered assessments and completed screenings. There has been some questions raised recently that warrants a more detailed explanation.
In the past, the Visit Tracker APR has used the enroll date as defining a new participant. The APR from PAT specifically refers to the first visit as defining a new participant. So the APR in Visit Tracker has been updated to align better with PAT guidance.
So what does this all mean in terms of enroll dates and first private contact? Well, it depends on how your program conducts its intake and enrollment of families.
Enroll date occurs before first private contact
- If your program conducts family intake and assigns an enroll date prior to the first private contact, then the time period between the enroll date and the first visit does not count toward 90 day timeline.
Enroll date is the same date as the first private contact
- The 90 day timeline aligns with both the date of enrollment and the date of the first private contact.
Enroll date occurs after the first private visit
- Here’s where the questions have been raised. Some programs schedule a private contact to conduct intake. This then sets the 90 day timeline even if you still have not determined the families eligibility and therefore have not enrolled them yet.
- Possible solutions are to schedule a different type of contact such as “Other” as your intake visit
- Use the date of the first private contact as the enroll date once eligibility is determined
A specific note about new screenings conducted prior to enrolling a family
- These screenings conducted before enrolling a child now count in the 90 day compliance
- The 90 days prior to enrollment is determined by the enroll date, not the first private visit.
- So the enroll date sets the timeline for the 90 days prior to enrollment and the first private contact sets the 90 day timeline after services have started.
FINAL THOUGHTS
- A program’s process in screening, assessing and enrolling families varies throughout the country. These variances are due to many things such as the needs of the community, what makes best sense for the program to identify and serve the families most in need and requirements from funders, and all the while, operating with model fidelity.
- Visit Tracker is committed to providing you with the necessary tools to manage your program, adhere to model fidelity and demonstrate your impact in the community.
- We’re learning. And as we learn from you about these variances in your process and implementation, we’ll do our best to incorporate that into our system and the tools we provide you.