New Jersey Administrative Order 2:05 (AO 2:05) first established policy for the reporting of unusual incidents affecting the health, safety and welfare of the Department's service recipients. Standard expectations and procedures for the reporting of unusual incidents were further defined by the Administrative Order 2:05 Addendum, and the CSOC (formerly DCBHS) UIR Policy in order to promote and improve confidence, reliability, and program integrity throughout the Department's various service entities and programs. This collection of policies are designed to:

• Standardize the identification of reportable incidents.
• Ensure the immediate and appropriate response to reported incidents.
• Provide accurate and timely alert to Executive Management Staff.
• Ensure timely and appropriate investigative activities.
• Facilitate the analysis of trends and the identification of factors associated with the occurrence of unusual incidents.
• Enable the integration of intradepartmental service delivery.
• Promote the collaboration of effective and efficient management of services.

DCF manages incident reports through the Unusual Incident Reporting & Management System (UIRMS), an electronic way of collecting, reporting and analyzing information about incidents that occur in DCF contracted programs. Within UIRMS and other DCF tracking logs for incident reports, incidents are categorized in order to determine the severity of a situation, which parties the incident should be communicated to, and the timeframe in which DCF should be notified of the incident. Incident codes and categories are defined in the DCF UIR Category List, which can be found in both AO 2:05 and its addendum.

There are three category levels used by DCF in unusual incident reporting: A+, A, and B. The UIR Initial Report Form must be completed for all incidents.  In some situations, the UIR Follow-up Report Form also must be completed.  See AO 2:05 for futher information and timeframes for completing these forms.

Submitting an Unusual Incident Report does not take the place of reporting an allegation of abuse or neglect to the State Central Registry (1-877-NJ-ABUSE / 1-877-652-2873). Failure to report an unusual incident to DCF, failure to report an allegation of abuse or neglect to appropriate authorities, or failure to cooperate in an investigation may result in corrective action being taken.

Contact Us

UIR Coordinator - 609-888-7100
UIR Fax - 609-984-0507