June 1994 — Features

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CARAS: A School-Based, Case Management System for At-Risk Students

Second, within the context of each student's individual service plan, case managers routinely convene their teams to assess whether the plan is producing desired results for the child and/or family. CARAS helps in both of these assessments by providing teams with current status reports. A final function of CARAS is providing data to ensure that all aspects of a program are "on-task" and in compliance with contractual or other service expectations. Quantitative and qualitative information regarding completion of activities to meet pre-set goals and objectives are easily retrievable from the system. Summary and Conclusions CARAS helps with the weakest areas of a case management program, particularly in the area of service. Whether it be individual counseling and/or referral, helping a family attain needed goods or aiding a student in getting better grades, CARAS provides insights on how successful case managers are in providing these services, as well as how effective these services are to the cases involved. Such indices will help to enhance the overall efforts of such school-based personnel. They will also promote CARAS itself as a necessary tool in case management, regardless of existing pre-conditions or notions on the part of a user, school or agency. A variety of factors can lead to students being at risk of dropping out of school, ranging from poor attendance to problems at home. A case manager has to stay on top of what is being done to help the student and family -- this often means interviewing the student, family, teachers, and other personnel (school counselors, social services workers, etc.). The myriad factors and personnel to take into account, combined with the differing circumstances of each case, often induces a case manager to make recommendations or conclusions without having systematically studied the facts or reviewed objective data summaries. CARAS offers a means to augment human impressions with factual profiles.

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