dcl9811.htm

DCL-98-11

February 9, 1998

TO All Title IV-A and Title IV-D Directors

Dear Colleagues:

The new Welfare-to-Work grants and proposed regulations for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program underscore how critical to family well-being is collaboration between child support and welfare programs. Put simply, for welfare reform to be successful, we must combine work and child support: a family needs both employment and child support to make a successful transition to self-sufficiency.

This dual necessity dramatically impacts the mission of our IV-A and IV-D agencies. Because welfare today is time-limited and child support is becoming a key family resource, both agencies are experiencing a role shift from income maintenance to family empowerment through self-sufficiency. Welfare reform shifted our focus from providing cash benefits to single mothers to preparing both parents, fathers as well as mothers, to take responsibility for the support of their children.

This shift in goals summons all of us in the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs to collaborate fully in program planning and operations. This summons is an opportunity to do what will best serve our families. A recent study shows how much child support payments can help families leaving welfare to maintain their self- sufficiency. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the study found that women who did not receive child support payments had a 31 percent chance of returning to welfare within the first six months. In contrast, women who received as little as one dollar to a hundred dollars a month had only a 10 percent chance of returning to welfare.

By this joint letter, therefore, the Office of Child Support Enforcement and the Office of Family Assistance urge our State and local agencies to collaborate closely with one another in carrying out their common mission of family empowerment. We know that many CSE and TANF programs are already collaborating successfully and we commend them. We also offer the enclosure, "Collaboration Strategies", providing examples of some ways States are collaborating, which may assist your efforts in the period ahead.

As we jointly urge you to promote collaboration between TANF and CSE, we assure you of our ongoing commitment to assist your efforts. Our Regions invite your calls for assistance and are interested in learning about success stories you may wish to share with us to showcase as best practices.

In closing, we thank you on behalf of the many families whose journeys to self-sufficiency in 1998 will be aided by your collaborations to promote work and child support.

Sincerely,

David Gray Ross
Commissioner
Office of Child Support
Enforcement

Diann Dawson
Acting Director
Office of Family
Assistance

COLLABORATION STRATEGIES

The goal of IV-A/IV-D collaboration is to empower families to achieve self-sufficiency through a TANF-Child Support interface. When clients talk to local TANF and CSE staffs, they should hear a common message that they need work and child support. Both agencies must send this message clearly and reinforce it in all client interactions.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGIES

State and local TANF and CSE agencies can lend clarity to this message of work and child support by the way they are organized and operate. There are several organizational approaches which States may wish to consider; these include:

- Co-locating CSE and TANF staffs within a proximate office area under the same roof. Co-location can occur at two different levels, i.e., administrative and client service delivery. At the administrative level, the proximity of the two staffs helps to promote inter- program linkages. Co-location of services at the client level assures that TANF applicants/recipients are tied into the resources of the child support program.
Two examples: In Virginia, the Division of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE) has co-located CSE staff with local social services agencies in sixteen of the largest urban areas to be part of the interviewing process up front with new TANF applicants and to participate in redetermination reviews. The effect is that local caseworkers and child support workers become a team informing clients of resources available for their self- sufficiency plans. Also, clients learn the importance of cooperating with DCSE to pursue child support as a significant addition to their income.
In Kenosha County, Wisconsin the Job Center program offers an example of broader co-location of agencies, which could be a particularly apt model under welfare reform. Not only TANF and Child Support staffs work side by side but they are joined by other human services components such as the Private Industry Council, job service, adult and vocational education, child care and counseling to form a single unified delivery system.
- Teaming CSE and TANF workers, each responsible for different programs, but serving the same caseload. Some States used this approach successfully in the past to team staffs of AFDC, JOBS and other employment- related programs. The approach could be adapted to team CSE and TANF staffs to promote an inter-program and holistic perspective among them. In the Virginia example above, TANF and CSE workers function as a team.
- Creating coordinator positions to facilitate IV-A/IV-D linkages. These linkages aid the process of changing of workers as they see their unit joining with other units to promote self-sufficiency for families.
- IV-A/IV-D Information systems interface and other electronic technologies, including videoconferencing, to facilitate the management of TANF/CSE cases.
Virginia DCSE is piloting a video teleconferencing project in several smaller, more remote areas of the State, which will enable Child Support staff to participate in the client interviewing process with the local social services staff. The effect will be the same as co-location without requiring full time placement of specialists at local agencies where client volume does not support such an arrangement.

PROGRAM STRATEGIES

Several States are, or have been, engaged in collaborative activities which admirably illustrate a strategic TANF-CSE interface. They include:

- Athens County, Ohio, Community Work Experience (CWEP) which assigns participants to the local IV-D office where they are trained to investigate child support cases and to assist in the documentation required to establish paternity. Dual results have ensued: the County saw its legal paternity establishments increase significantly, and many CWEP participants have secured unsubsidized jobs in the local IV-D office as a result of their training as CSE investigators.
- In Maryland, under a "Child Support First" initiative, the IV-D agency must be included in the initial TANF application process. This initiative focuses on the parents' primary responsibility and has succeeded in diverting cases from cash assistance. The TANF-CSE teamwork has an upfront focus so the client does not fall through the cracks. Services that support employment and self-sufficiency are made available at the initial interview.
- In Anne Arundel County, Maryland the Child Support Initiative program fosters interagency collaboration to provide education, job training, job search activities, drug addiction treatment and a basic stipend to unemployed but motivated noncustodial parents. Data show participants demonstrated consistent employment resulting in dependable child support payments.
- Many States have piloted Parents' Fair Share Projects which require unemployed, noncustodial parents (usually fathers) whose children receive public assistance to participate in employment-related services when they are unable to meet their child support obligations. States were encouraged to establish linkages among the agencies involved in Parents' Fair Share, including the welfare and child support agencies. Preliminary findings show these programs increase child support by providing work-related services. Some State examples include:
Florida operates a pilot program for noncustodial parents in two counties which provides participants with on-the-job training, job search activities, and responsible parent training. Also, in Duval County, the Parents' Fair Share program provides comprehensive services to noncustodial parents.
The Minnesota Fatherhood Program assists noncustodial parents to overcome barriers to employment so their children can receive financial and emotional support from both parents. The program offers on-the-job training, job search, basic education, peer support, mediation services, community work experience, conflict resolution and parenting skills.
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