SaySo — Platform Design
Every program strengthens every other program.
SaySo integrates rights education, concern identification, documentation tools, complaint generation, and resource navigation into a single user-centered experience — powering three reinforcing pillars of The Fostered's systems-change model.
Rights & Systems Navigation Platform
SaySo guides users from an initial concern to recommended actions, resources, documentation, and support pathways. Unlike a resource directory, it follows a structured decision framework ensuring consistent, trauma-informed, actionable guidance regardless of how a user describes their concern.
The Advocate Decision Tree — how it works
Tell me what happened
Text, voice, or guided responses — the user describes their experience in their own words.
Safety screening
The platform asks: are you currently unsafe? Emergency resources if yes. Continue if no.
Concern classification
The system identifies the domain, concern type, and potential secondary concerns.
Follow-up questions
Targeted questions drawn from the taxonomy gather the information needed to evaluate the concern.
Rights mapping
The system identifies potential rights that may be implicated.
Evidence suggestions
The platform recommends what to save, document, and collect.
Referral pathways
Appropriate contacts and resources are identified for this specific concern.
Action options
Save incident, add to timeline, generate complaint, learn more, or contact resources.
The Knowledge Architecture — five layers
The platform's intelligence layer. Users generally know one thing: "Something happened." The knowledge architecture moves them from experience → understanding → action.
Concern Identification
What happened?
Users describe experiences in natural language. The system classifies the concern.
Rights Framework
What rights may apply?
Potential rights and protections drawn from Texas Family Code §263.008 and the Foster Youth Bill of Rights.
Responsibility Framework
Who is responsible?
Identifies foster parents, residential providers, DFPS, caseworkers, schools, and medical providers.
Response Pathways
Who can help?
Caseworkers, attorneys, CASA, ombudsman, licensing, abuse hotline — multiple pathways may apply simultaneously.
Resource Navigation
What else is available?
Connects users to education, housing, healthcare, mental health, Medicaid, SNAP, tuition waivers, and ETV.
Intelligent complaint generation
Rather than asking youth to write formal complaints independently, the platform guides them through structured interviews that gather relevant facts — then generates complaints tailored to the appropriate audience, incorporating statutory citations, factual summaries, timelines, supporting documentation, and requested corrective actions.
Severity framework
Every concern is evaluated on a five-level severity scale to determine urgency, routing, and response type.
Information Request
"I want to learn about Medicaid."
General Concern
"My caseworker doesn't return calls."
Rights Concern
"I cannot communicate with my siblings."
Serious Rights Concern
"I reported and experienced retaliation."
Emergency Safety Concern
"I was physically assaulted."
Rights & Concern Taxonomy — Nine Domains
The master classification framework powering every feature of SaySo. The taxonomy organizes all concerns into nine domains, each with concern types, severity ratings, rights mapping, responsibility mapping, referral pathways, and suggested actions.
Safety & Protection
Protect physical, emotional, and psychological safety.
Placement Conditions
Ensure living environments meet standards and support well-being.
Relationships & Communication
Support healthy communication and meaningful relationships.
Education
Support educational access, continuity, and success.
Healthcare & Mental Health
Support physical, behavioral, developmental, and disability health.
Personal Rights & Dignity
Promote respect, dignity, and individual rights.
Caseworker & DFPS Concerns
Promote accountability and effective case management.
Court & Legal Rights
Support participation in legal proceedings.
Transition to Adulthood
Support successful transitions to adulthood.
Policy Development & Legislative Reform
The Fostered translates implementation evidence — generated by every platform interaction — into policy. Rather than beginning with ideology, policy development begins with observed implementation failures, grounding legislation in lived experience and root cause analysis.
A twelve-stage legislative framework
Legislation becomes only one step within a broader implementation cycle — not an endpoint, but a moment inside a continuous loop of evidence, reform, and learning.