CoBRIS - The Community Based Resource Information System - provides a portal to all child information about a child in care, regardless of its source, while adhering to statewide standards for data processing and uniform reporting. CoBRIS tracks all activities related to providing services to dependent children.

Based on a set of core functions, CoBRIS is customized for each agency, reflecting the unique needs of the community. The architecture allows both statewide and local data to be imported and correlated via an easy to use, intuitive user interface.

CoBRIS functions as a “wrapper” sheltering the worker and other users from the particulars of the various systems needed to track and report on the activities of Children.

History and Development

In 1999 Florida’s Child Welfare and State Leaders recognizing the need to reform the Child Welfare System implemented a unique approach called Community Based Care (CBC) - moving the responsibility for child welfare services to private providers in the local community. The CBC approach provides greater flexibility than the traditional system. Local “Lead agencies” foster collaboration between many local community entities providing a continuum of child welfare services for dependent children who have been abused, neglected or abandoned.

Leaders soon realized that the existing information systems did not provide the level of flexibility required by the new system of care and the idea for CoBRIS - The Community Based Resource Information System – was born.

In 2003 the Florida Coalition for Children contracted with Five Points to develop CoBRIS. The concept behind CoBRIS is to provide a portal to all child information about a child in care, regardless of it’s source, while adhering to statewide standards for data processing and uniform reporting. CoBRIS tracks all activities related to providing services to dependent children.