The code for your agency.
The FreeWIS source package, for your agency’s own implementation. The process is below; the form is at the end of it.
Go to the form →Inquiries are open now. The request terms below are under review and not yet in effect. No source license or code delivery before November 1, 2026.
What “built to the CCWIS rule” means
A Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System, CCWIS, is what the federal rule for child welfare data systems, 45 CFR 1355.50–.59, defines. It says what a title IV-E agency’s CCWIS must hold and do: the data the federal reports need, data-quality checks, exchanges with the systems around it, and a modular design that can be shared and reused. FreeWIS is built to that rule at the code level: the data model, the federal reports and the approval trail follow it, and the source package is drawn from the same codebase PLAY runs on; its delivery manifest lists exactly what is included and excluded.
Being built to the rule is not CCWIS status. Only ACF determines whether an agency’s system is a CCWIS, and only for that agency’s own implementation. ACF classifies an agency’s system as a CCWIS; there is no certification for a vendor’s code. FreeWIS claims no CCWIS status and no guaranteed compliance.
How the free code relates to federal funding
Agencies that build a CCWIS may claim federal financial participation for the development as CCWIS project developmental costs (CB-496 Part 1, lines 13 and 14), at the CCWIS cost allocation for functions ACF approves (45 CFR 1355.57) or at another applicable cost allocation. Receiving the FreeWIS code costs nothing and triggers no filing. HCT’s expectation is that an agency implements FreeWIS with its own funds and does not claim those lines; HCT’s understanding is that on that path the automated-function submissions in 45 CFR 1355.52(i), which are due before an agency claims funding under a CCWIS cost allocation, are not required.
Your agency still funds and runs its own implementation. Any later decision to claim federal participation for that work is the agency’s, assessed with ACF and its own counsel. FreeWIS promises no funding, reimbursement or CCWIS status.
More on “Free” to agencies
Who may qualify. GET is free to whoever can GET it: a public child welfare agency that will honestly use FreeWIS for its own work. A state, a territory, a tribe, a county working under a state plan, or another public child-welfare entity. Size and budget do not matter; Guam qualifies, and tribes are free. HCT reviews every request and reserves the right to license or not.
The one real disqualifier. An excluded vendor. An agency with an ongoing paid CCWIS or SACWIS engagement with a firm that has done that kind of work does not qualify for the no-charge path, and such a firm may not take part in the request, the implementation or the access. A consultancy cannot charge an agency to install, host, configure or support FreeWIS without a commercial license from HCT. The request terms below define the exclusion exactly.
What is free. The code. A qualifying agency receives the FreeWIS source package at no charge: the application, the database and the knowledge-base materials named in its delivery manifest, for the agency’s own implementation. There is no HCT license fee, no recurring fee, and no HCT service you have to buy. What arrives is the identified version; later releases, security patches and knowledge-base updates come only if HCT commits to them in writing.
What the agency pays for. Everything around the code. FreeWIS needs somewhere to run, a database, an AI account and people: your own staff to implement and operate it; your own cloud hosting for the application, the database, the knowledge-base search index, file storage and the chat and Team services; your own Anthropic account, because every answer Dio gives is AI usage billed by use to that account; your own sign-in provider; and your own migration, configuration, security review and day-to-day operations.
What is paid. Nothing about GET or PLAY. Help from HCT is available if an agency wants it, under a separate contract of its own; it is never required, and it has nothing to do with the license for the code. That contracted help is how HCT earns its living. Paid or certified implementers other than HCT may be considered later; none are identified today and none are being considered. Standalone CHAT is the one place a direct charge is possible, which is why it is still being worked out.
No passing it on. The license is to the agency that requested it. A county working under a state plan can take FreeWIS without its state, and a state without its county (we would rather both did), but each takes its own license; the agency next door makes its own request.
Excluded vendors, including but not limited to
The definition. The request terms below define an Excluded CCWIS Vendor: a commercial entity other than HCT that has performed compensated CCWIS or SACWIS design, development, implementation, configuration, hosting, maintenance, support, independent verification and validation, quality assurance or advisory work. State and legislative records show that kind of work by these firms, among others:
- Accenture
- Binti, Inc.
- Casebook PBC
- CGI (CGI Technologies and Solutions Inc.)
- CMA (Currier, McCabe and Associates, Inc.)
- Creative Information Technology, Inc. (CITI)
- CSG Government Solutions
- Deloitte Consulting LLP
- Ernst & Young (EY)
- Gartner, Inc.
- Google Public Sector
- KPMG LLP
- Maximus US Services, Inc.
- Public Consulting Group
- RedMane Technology LLC
Examples, not the boundary. A firm that has done that work is excluded whether or not it is named here, and HCT assesses the actual services, personnel access, entity history and affiliates for each request. A provider that supplies only ordinary, generally available infrastructure or developer tools is not excluded for that alone. An agency with a current compensated engagement with an excluded vendor is asked to name the vendor on the request form.
Request FreeWIS for your jurisdiction
Qualifying public child-welfare jurisdictions may request a versioned FreeWIS source package at no charge for their own agency use under a separate license. The package is jurisdictionally unconfigured: your agency configures, validates, hosts and operates its implementation. The delivery manifest identifies the application, SQL/database and knowledge-base materials actually included, their versions, dependencies and exclusions.
The agency's own employees lead and perform the work, using permitted tools and ordinary infrastructure. Your agency funds staff, AI access, infrastructure, migration, configuration, integration, security, validation and ongoing operations. State-funded implementation is the expected route. Federal participation is an optional, separately assessed funding choice, not a condition of requesting FreeWIS. HCT consulting is optional and separately contracted. The source license creates no recurring HCT source-license fee or required HCT services.
This is an initial review request. It creates no source license, implementation permission, procurement commitment or promise of approval or delivery. You can make an initial inquiry without authority to bind the agency and identify facts that still need verification.
HCT will not enter a source license or deliver FreeWIS code before November 1, 2026. Requests may be received and reviewed now. November 1 is the earliest possible date, not a promise of approval or delivery on or after that date.
The internal implementation requirement
For this path, an Excluded CCWIS Vendor is a commercial entity other than HCT that has performed compensated CCWIS or SACWIS design, development, implementation, configuration, hosting, maintenance, support, independent verification and validation (IV&V), quality assurance (QA), or advisory work. A provider that supplies only ordinary generally available infrastructure or developer tools without CCWIS-, SACWIS-, or FreeWIS-specific professional services is not excluded merely for that reason. Actual services, personnel access, entity history and involved affiliates must be assessed.
An agency does not qualify while it has an ongoing compensated CCWIS or SACWIS engagement with an Excluded CCWIS Vendor, whether or not that vendor is proposed for FreeWIS. Such a vendor also may not participate in the agency's FreeWIS request, restricted evaluation, planning, implementation or support, or receive FreeWIS source, nonpublic delivery materials, modifications, repository/build/deployment access or related credentials.
Historical relationships must be disclosed, but an ended relationship alone does not permanently disqualify the agency. Identify dates, any remaining payments, continuing work, support, access and planned involvement so HCT can determine whether the engagement has actually ended. An "ended" label does not resolve those facts.
HCT's separately contracted services are permitted. Ordinary generally available computing, storage, networking and security infrastructure are permitted when the provider performs no FreeWIS-specific service and its personnel receive no access to restricted materials. Automated storage, transmission and processing inherent in that ordinary service alone are permitted. Permitted developer and AI tools remain subject to the source license's account, processing-purpose, access and data-protection requirements; a tool label does not authorize provider personnel or outsourced implementation. Legally required disclosure or access is addressed in the license's government and public-records terms. No commercial implementation-partner program is created by this request.
Ordinary public PLAY viewing is open to adults, including vendor employees. That permission grants no source or restricted agency-work rights and does not cure a disqualifying agency engagement. Do not interrupt necessary services or breach an existing contract in reliance on an uncertain request.
What happens next
1. Request review. HCT reviews the jurisdiction, requester, proposed use and implementation path, and may ask for clarification. Unknown facts remain pending verification, not automatically approved or deemed false. 2. Authorized verification. Before qualification, an authorized agency official confirms eligibility, current vendor status, required access and the agency's internal implementation path. HCT may approve or decline a request. 3. Complete the source license. If the request is approved, the parties complete the license's agency, release, rights, funding, public-records, risk and acceptance/delivery particulars. The exact release, package digest and notices are recorded. Both parties execute the license no earlier than November 1, 2026 and before code delivery. 4. Deliver the recorded package. Delivery follows the completed license. It includes only the identified version and materials. Hosting, implementation, support, later releases, security patches and knowledge-base updates are included only if separately committed in writing.
The source license will address prohibited vendor involvement and access, including applicable suspension, termination, cease-use, source return/destruction, certification and verification remedies, subject to law and the agency's completed government terms. Source removal does not transfer agency data to HCT or perform the agency's transition for it.
Your agency's responsibility
Receiving, evaluating or operating FreeWIS does not establish ACF approval, CCWIS status, federal funding eligibility, reimbursement or a guaranteed reporting result. Your agency remains responsible for its implementation, data, security, operations, applicable requirements, reporting and decisions about real people. If it later proposes federal participation, the relevant work and funding terms must be assessed before the affected commitment or claim.
Do not send production data, credentials or access to a production environment through GET. HCT access to real agency data requires the applicable separately signed scope, responsibility and data-protection/security agreements.
Before you start
This is an initial inquiry, not a code download or a commitment to implement. You can identify facts that still need verification.
- Have your agency details and a work email ready.
- Describe the proposed implementation and any vendor involvement.
- Use professional and administrative information only; leave out real case data, credentials and sensitive attachments.