Child Support Report XXVI, No. 3, 20040301

Sherri Z. Heller, Ed.D., Commissioner, Office of Child Support announced Enforcement, that the new regulation to implement direct child support enforcement program funding to Federally recognized Indian Tribes and tribal organizations was published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, March 30, 2004. Therefore, effective immediately, Indian Tribes and tribal organizations who wish to apply for funding to operate a comprehensive child support enforcement program can do so. Jerry Sweet, Tribal Child Support Enforcement Association President, expressed to Commissioner Heller "thanks for keeping your word that you would put forth every effort you could to get a Final Rule."

Under the new regulation, the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services (DHHS) can make direct payments for administrative expenses to Tribes, tribal organizations and Alaskan Native villages that demonstrate their capacity to operate a child support enforcement program. To receive funding, Tribes have to meet the objectives of the program, including establishment of paternity; modification and enforcement of support orders; collection and distribution of support payments, and location of non-custodial parents. Initially, the Federal government will pay 90 percent of reasonable and necessary costs of the programs. Tribes and tribal organizations will be required to make contributions of 10 percent.

For immediate access to the final regulation, you may go to: http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cse/newann.htm. If you are unable to access the Internet, please feel free to call on the OCSE's National Reference Center at 202-401-9383.

Over the next days and weeks OCSE will be providing additional information including details of activities to provide training regarding the regulations.

Gary Kimble is the Program Manager for the Tribal CSE Program

Congratulations to Commissioner Sherri Z. Heller for being a recipient of the 2003 top "Federal 100" Executives awarded by Federal Computer Week.

The annual award, chosen by an independent panel of judges, is presented to top executives from government, industry and academia having the greatest impact on the government information systems community. The awardees are chosen for the "difference (they) make in the way agencies and companies develop, acquire, manage and use in formation technology."

According to the FCW description, the judges this year were especially interested in issues that related to the President's Management Agenda. Their choices reflected its general aims, including electronic delivery of services, cross-agency collaboration and results-oriented management.

Judges look for someone who has made a noticeable difference in an agency or in the community at large.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is pleased to host the inaugural ACF Consolidated Federal/State Systems Summit (referred to as State Systems Summit). Collaboration among programs is critical to success in today's human services environment. The ACF State Systems Summit: "Reaching New Heights in Human Services Collaboration" will be held May 3-7, 2004 in Washington, DC.

The Summit will offer an incredible opportunity for Federal and state leaders in the TANF, Child Welfare, and Child Support Enforcement programs to collaborate on a variety of diverse topics. During the Summit, sessions will address program-specific topics as well as subjects that affect all three early in child support cases before arrears build up, updates on FPLS Modernization, Interstate Case Reconciliation, MS-FIDM Freeze and Seize and Case Closure best practices. There will be updates from Federal staff representing Food Stamps, Child Support, Medicaid, and TANF Reauthorization legislation. In addition, networking opportunities with your peers will occur throughout the week!

Commissioner Sherri Z. Heller recently presented "The Latest Trends In Child Support" to the Human Services and Education Steering Committee of The National Association of Counties (NACo). The committee, composed of senior-level county officials from across the country, was meeting as part of an annual conference held by NACo in Washington, D.C. Dr. Heller used the opportunity to discuss how the child support program's role has evolved, how cost-beneficial the child support program is, and the availability of "numbers" that can provide an indication of how well a local office is doing and where it might need improvement.

Dr. Heller shared how the child support program has changed from recouping welfare costs to one which serves a mostly non-welfare clientele. She discussed national caseload statistics, which provide the basis for this assertion: Of the reported FY 2002 national caseload of about 16M, 2.8M are TANF cases. The balance of the caseload, 13.1M, is composed of cases that were previously or never on TANF.

This evolution translates into two major points: 1) An effective child support program is more important than ever to the financial well-being of children and families. 2) Likewise, child support is becoming more important to state and local governments as we all strive to meet the promise of "welfare reform." The program is rising to the challenge to help our clients become and stay financially independent.

Nationally, for every dollar spent, more than four dollars comes back in collection of support. However, she pointed out, local managers should realize that child support program benefits can touch other programs besides IV-D, and these benefits are not limited to child support collected. She cited two examples: Workforce Investment Boards and Medicaid. She pointed out that a sound working partnership between IV-D and WIA can benefit both agencies, particularly if there is effective communication between caseworkers. She cited as an example the fact that WIA would be tuned into the local labor scene and knows of events affecting employment, and thus, income, such as plant closings. On the other hand, the IV-D agency, by being aware of child support payments missed due to lack of income, can be a source of referral of candidates for employment services. She also pointed out how child support can help keep Medicaid costs down through effective medical support establishment and enforcement.

Dr. Heller talked about the availability of statistical information on just about every aspect of the child support enforcement program and urged the committee members to take a look at the "story behind the numbers" with the IV-D agency director. She invited them to ask, "What do the numbers mean? What are the implications for action?" Her point, that all of this statistical information should be used to help provide insight into how well or poorly the program is functioning in particular areas and why, was enthusiastically received. According to Marilina Sanz of NACo, "The audience could have listened to her for three hours."

Georgia's OCSE has made information related to child support checks available through the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week, making it easier to find out the status of payments while preserving the privacy of personal information. Custodial parents with established cases with OCSE can access the last six payments that have been processed on their cases.

Next year the name of this Internet service will change to OCSE Constituent Services and will provide access to all payment and case status information. It will provide the ability to update address information, apply and pay online. Using a reference number and a PIN, the OCSE customer can view a check date, amount and name of the payee. The "Where's My Child's Check?" web site is currently receiving 65,000 hits per month.

"Child Support in Review - FY 2003" OCSE - Georgia Dept. of Human Resources

Georgia OCSE established the Child Access and Visitation Program to help non- custodial parents who want to visit their children. The program provides non-legal services and intervention on behalf of the non-custodial parents referred to the program. The goal is to improve non-custodial parents' access and visitation with their children.

Research has shown that parental contact is related to the payment of child support and that fathers' involvement improves children's' development and self-esteem. In Georgia, according to a recent report by the U.S. Inspector General, 55 percent of all program participants increased the amount of support paid by an average of $88 and 48 percent increased the frequency of payment.

To be eligible for the program, a non-custodial parent must have an active case with the Office of Child Support Enforcement or MAXIMUS Child Support Services. The program encourages referrals from the local OCSE offices.

OCSE Director Robert Riddle has been supportive of the program from its beginning. "I have encouraged our management team to provide information about the program to staff and clients. The referrals made by our agents have been critical to the success of this program," says Riddle.

At the start of the program, OCSE conducted workshops on the Access and Visitation Program at two of its annual statewide training seminars. OCSE informed management and staff of the positive relationship between visitation and child support payments. Additionally, OCSE sponsors the Georgia Fatherhood Program, which also serves only OCSE clients. In the assessment phase for the Georgia Fatherhood Program, those non-custodial parents with access and visitation needs are referred to the program.

Access and Visitation Coordinator Russell Eastman encourages the service provider to make contact with local OCSE offices and to promote the program at staff meetings. The service provider is notified of local office round-ups, which occur when an NCP has arrearages, he or she is provided an opportunity to come in and work out a settlement prior to enforcement action. At such time the NCP expresses a concern of not being able to see their children. It is at these local office round-ups, that Access and Visitation representatives are available to receive on-site referrals. The buy-in of frontline staff has helped to maintain the high level of referrals. OCSE agents can easily refer clients by offering the service provider's phone number. No paperwork is required. It is the client's responsibility to follow through to make the contact. Access and Visitation informational brochures are provided by the service provider to local offices and placed in waiting rooms. Brochures are also provided to hospitals served through the State's In-Hospital Paternity Program.

During FY 2003, the Access and Visitation program arranged 621 visitations. 539 were successful, 426 were monitored, 71 were supervised. 42 neutral drop off/pick ups were arranged, 91 parenting plans were developed, 119 mediations were conducted, 1,105 individual parenting sessions were developed, and 1,161 parents attended group parenting sessions.

Funding for the project comes from grant funds from Federal OCSE and Local Match and is managed by the Georgia Department of Human Resources.

For additional information about Georgia's Access and Visitation Program, contact Russell Eastman at 404-463-6861 or reastman@dhr.state.ga.us.

In 1999, OCSE published revised Federal regulation 45CFR 303.11 which defines twelve case closure criteria. For nine of these twelve criteria, the regulation requires the recipient of services (typically a custodial parent or another state) to receive advance notice of intent to close the case. The revised regulation assists states on closing cases and enhances recipient safeguards for notification prior to case closure.

In 2002, the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (OIG) assessed the use of the CSE case closure regulation. The OIG Report estimates a national CSE case closure error rate of 32 percent (vs. the performance benchmark of a 10% error rate), due primarily to inadequate advance notification of intent to close a case. The OIG Report also found that six case closure reasons account for 95 percent of case closures and 96 percent of case closure errors. The OIG Report notes that automating state processes for identifying and closing cases is one of the major opportunities for improvement, with a particular focus on processes for advance notice of intent to close in the six most frequently used case closure reasons. The OIG Report states, "We encourage OCSE to work with states to undertake efforts to reduce the error rate."

In response to the OIG Report findings, OCSE is providing technical assistance for case closure automation. Federal OCSE staff will work in close collaboration with state CSE technical, policy, and program operations personnel. Together, they will focus on improving case closure automation, with a special emphasis on the six most frequent case closure reasons cited in the OIG Report as well as ensuring appropriate advance notification when required. OCSE will provide level of automation guidance documents such as a Guide For Automating Case Closure to facilitate the technical assistance process.

OCSE prepared this Guide to support your efforts to increase the efficiency and accuracy of case closure in your CSE systems. Case closure automation can help you reduce case closure errors, ensure that actions are taken in a timely manner and uniformly across cases, reduce or eliminate backlogs so states can concentrate on cases requiring worker determination, and reduce data management demands by eliminating duplicate and outdated cases.

In the Guide, you will find these practical tools for case closure automation in compliance with Federal case closure criteria at 45 CFR 303.11.

John Cheng is an Information Technology Analyst, OCSE

Within the Fairfield County, Ohio, CSEA, the agency has employed the use of a Special Enforcement Log. The agency was awarded a Best Practice from the Ohio Family Support Association in 2003 for the management practice.

The log is designed to track collections generated from the following enforcement measures: financial institute data match (FIDM), license suspension, administrative liens, lump sum intercepts, and criminal non-support filings. The Special Enforcement Log serves three primary purposes. It is a tracking tool, a motivational tool, and a training tool.

The Special Enforcement Log is primarily a tracking device. This log extends the tracking of such collections to other activities based upon self-reporting by case managers. Such tracking may provide useful information to county communities as to which enforcement tools yield the best results in their area. Thus, the counties may be able to adjust their enforcement activities to meet the needs of their community. The Special Enforcement Log may also aid county agencies in public relation efforts and statistics for press releases.

The overall agency can be motivated by setting an agency goal at the beginning of the year to encourage use of various enforcement activities to meet the set collection goal. The log is also tailored to recognize not only the collections generated, but also the person who achieves the collection. Therefore, individual staff may be recognized for their efforts to meet the agency goal. A color-coding system is utilized to identify collections attained by specific staff members. The Special Enforcement Log provides a breakdown as to staff strengths and weaknesses. County management may analyze this breakdown to reorganize, specialize, or to identify training needs.

The tool has also improved our communications to the State during the Monthly Monitoring process.

Often we are able to identify mispostings that occur, as we are monitoring cases that we take action on for results, and do not solely rely on the QFR001RA report to provide accurate collections. It has helped our county to motivate employees to utilize various enforcement tools available to them, even though they may be overburdened with heavy caseloads or difficult time constraints.

The log may be utilized by management to identify training needs, as previously noted. It may also be coupled with internal training sessions in order to increase awareness of different enforcement activities available to case managers to utilize. Employees that excel in different areas may be identified to provide training tips in certain areas.

The entire Special Enforcement Log can be maintained in either Quattro Pro, or Excel. The data as to collections need only to be entered into the system as it is reported by case managers. Frequent updates and recognition should be provided to employees regarding the progress that is being made.

FIDM collections for 2001 totaled $40,000. FIDM collections for 2002 totaled $98,000, an increase in collections of $58,000, which amounts to a 145% increase in total collections from 2001 to 2002.

Currently, for 2003, collections from all enforcement activities total $45,357.83. Collection reports continue to come in from various enforcement activities and initiatives.

Most recently, in conjunction with the special enforcement log, the CSEA sifted through all case files to determine cases appropriate for criminal non-support referrals. Criteria for criminal non-support referrals were outlined and training on the process was conducted.

The work increased awareness about the option of criminal non-support when other enforcement remedies have been unsuccessful. More than 50 cases were referred to the Legal Department for criminal non-support filings, increasing the number of criminal non-support filings by nearly 100% for the year. Currently, we are working on matching property sales with delinquent obligors, in an effort to increase collections from administrative liens. One administrative lien success resulted in a total collection of $17,250.

There has been an increase in license suspension activity in our county. An in-service was completed at the beginning of 2003, to ensure that case managers were trained on how to execute license suspensions. As a result of the training, and motivational reinforcement from the Special Enforcement Log, there has been an increase of 116% in license suspensions completed in 2002, to those competed thus far in 2003. The increase in suspensions produced immediate collections of $775.00. Several income withholdings are now in place based on the license suspension or the threat of suspension.

At the start of 2003, the focus was again to motivate and monitor collections from FIDM. However, we found that, with the extreme increases in collections in 2002, we had exploited many large accounts. Instead of diverting our focus, we expanded it to still include FIDM, but to also encompass other enforcement tools.

Many case managers and assistants take pride in seeing the results of their actions as part of a cumulative effort. Also, in acknowledging a variety of activities, different workers receive commendations for all the actions they take to enforce their child support cases. It promotes healthy, individual competition, even though it is toward a combined goal.

By shifting and adjusting the way cases are enforced, no one enforcement tool is depleted. It is also beneficial to vary enforcement activity, as obligors have a more difficult time diverting action if several enforcement tools are employed. Ultimately, our county hopes to increase collections overall by maximizing all the enforcement tools available to us.

Carrie Brown is the Director, Fairfield County, OH CSEA

The interim study on the "Implementation of a Performance-Based Incentive System" and the final study on "State Demographic, Economic, and Programmatic Variables and Their Impact on the Performance-Based Child Support Incentive System" both are on the web for review.

In the ERICSA Announcement, the contact person Gordon Mosley should be spelled Moseley. The e-mail address should read jmoseley@dss.state.sc.us.

Collaboration Systems Training Meeting with TANF, Child Welfare and Child Support

For more information, contact: Robin Rushton (202) 690-1244