Trak is a multi-user, web-based case management system for child advocacy centers (CACs) originally built in 2004. Trak was designed by CACs for CACs and is used nationwide to track information surrounding the investigation, prosecution, and treatment of child abuse cases.

This manual is intended as a quick reference guide for Trak and will provide basic instructions on how to do standard functions performed within Trak.

Our support team is always there to help. If you need assistance as you work with Trak, please contact us at ncatraksupport@nca-online.org or call 202-548-0090 ext. 125.

On the previous page, you saw the log in screen for Trak. You will need a username and a password to access the application, and once in the system you will be presented with a home screen.

As illustrated by the left-hand tool bar, you can access features such as searching for a case, entering in MDT meetings, running reports, performing administrative duties such as adding agencies or personnel, and much more.

To create a new case click Create a New Case from the top left corner of the home screen. You will be asked to look up the person’s name to ensure that no matching criteria is found. This will prevent duplication of records. If a person was previously entered into your system you can select that case or, if no match is found, close the lookup screen and proceed to enter the case information. Keep in mind that any field in red is reported on for NCA statistical purposes.

When entering a case, you can add multiple people to the case including household members, the alleged perpetrator, and other victims by clicking on Add Another Person at the top left corner of the screen.

Link other victims to this case by clicking Add under Alleged Victims/Clients. Add other people to the case by clicking Add under Other People.

You can copy demographic, referral, and allegation information from the original person you entered.

Selecting a case takes you to the General tab where you can see a quick overview of who is involved in a case, and where you can access other tabs such as Medical, Forensic Interview (FI), etc.

For detailed information on these specific functions within these tabs, please reference the detailed documentation in the Trak Documentation folder on your included USB drive, or by clicking the question mark icon on the top right corner of the Trak screen.

Most of the case tabs are straightforward with some general referral information and then detailed information about activities within that discipline. There are a few exceptions to this rule.

The medical tab has many fields for data input. To begin, add a New Session Log.

Once created, click the Event button to view and input details about the session.

Alternatively, you can click Edit, then View Details.

Once on the Medical Details page, there are 12 additional tabs available to input and save detailed medical data. Note, the FDI tab is read-only information.

The MH tab has additional tabs also.

Select Details for an existing meeting or create a new meeting.

The General tab is information regarding the meeting date, time and location.

The Create Roster tab is to add cases to be reviewed at this meeting.

You can search for cases on criteria above, then click the ‘Add Selected Cases to Roster’ button to move the cases to the bottom of the page.

Next, click the Attendees tab. The people already invited to the meeting are listed at the top, and the potential attendees are listed below.

Click one of the Add buttons to add more attendees to the meeting.

The Conduct Meeting tab is to put the cases in order and put a time frame for each.

To add a time interval, fill in the time interval field, and click Auto-calculate Times button, and each of the cases will get assigned a time based on the start time of the meeting. Cases can also be re-sorted with the arrows on the right of the page.

To add case outcomes from disciplines such as CPS or law enforcement, click on the CRC case number to be taken to that case.

Reports can be run in many areas of the system. There is a Report tab within the case that users can use to view a list of existing case reports.

In the navigation bar, the Reports tab contains many selections for users to run reports.

Management contains a list of pre-built reports to run.

The Schedule section contains reports regarding schedules.

The Custom section is where users can create their own queries and reports.

The reports are listed at the top of the page, and the queries underneath them.

To begin creating a new report, add a query first.

Scroll to the query section and click New Query (or you can copy an existing query and modify it).

Add a title, description and click Save. If the query contains summary data, then change the query type to Summary.

From the main custom query screen, select the query again, by clicking Edit.

Add output fields, filter by fields, and click Run to view the results, which will return in a different tab.

To use the new query on a new report, click New Report and give it a title, then click Save.

Add the query to the queries section, selecting it by title, then click Run button.

You can also add many queries to one report.

NCA also has templates that users can use as a starting point for their queries.

Click on the Show Trak Query Templates to find a starting point for building a query.

Click Copy, then rename the query.

The Trak team offers extensive support on the custom query and reporting features. Contact ncatraksupport@nca-online.org or call 202-548-0090 ext. 125.

Under Administration/Data Entry Fields section in the navigation bar, Administrators can easily customize the system for their CAC, using terms familiar to their teams. For example, one CAC can call a field ‘Referral Source’ while another CAC can call the field ‘Referral’.

This page also allows CACs to make fields required or remove them from the page using the Visible field (for custom fields). This allows users to customize the case tabs to the terminology that the CAC is familiar with.

For custom fields users can change the type of field - if they need a pick list, date, or check box list.

Custom fields appear on the same place within the page consistently, matching how they are listed in Data Entry Fields. For example, if all the Law Enforcement fields are visible, they will display in this order on the page.

If we remove the top field, the bottom fields stay in the same place

Add Names

The add names section is for victims to get added to the system without adding a case.

Pick Lists

The pick list admin section is to manage the items in each of the dropdown lists for each CAC.

Users can change the sort order and the items in the list. These changes will be for everyone within their CAC. Custom pick lists will also show up here if the user changes a custom field to be the type pick list.

Personnel can be added in Administration/Personnel. This list can be filtered by Agency.

Clicking the Authorize User Account checkbox will allow you to assign a role or roles to this person. Highlight a role and click the right arrow to move it to the selected list.

Username and password are required for the personnel record to be saved.

Roles are listed on the role page, click the Set Privileges button to change what the role can do in Trak. There are several parts to this page; the first part has to do with viewing cases and people.

The second part is which case tabs are visible/updatable.

The third section is used to allow/deny access to these sections of the system.

The last section is access to the administration sections of the system.