Child Support Report XXIV, No. 11, 20021101

Child Support Report

Vol. XXIV, No. 11, Nov 2002

Child Support Report is a publication of the Office of Child Support Enforcement, Division of Consumer Services.

CSR is published for information purposes only. No official endorsement of any practice, publication, or individual by the Department of Health and Human Services or the Office of Child Support Enforcement is intended or should be inferred.

Interstate Paternity Establishment

12th National Training Conference

HHS Awards Grants for Child Support Demonstration Projects

From Stream to River

Awards

Improving Child Support Performance

Custodial Parents and Their Child Support

Interstate Paternity Establishment

By: Harvey Baker

Oregon has long recognized the value of having both parents involved in the lives of its children. In keeping with this mission to promote positive parental involvement, we rely heavily on administrative process as part of our paternity and support establishment procedures.

Administrative orders are used to establish paternity in cases referred through the child support enforcement process. Use of the voluntary acknowledgment of paternity is also encouraged. The voluntary acknowledgement can be completed in the hospital at the time of birth or any time after that as long as it meets the minimum requirements specified by the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The Oregon Division of Child Support has a strong working relationship with the Oregon Health Division Center for Health Statistics and Vital records. Vital records will accept our administrative order or a voluntary acknowledgement to amend the birth record to add the father's name. Placing the name of the father on the birth certificate is the first step in creating a culture in which both parents are willing to take responsibility for their children. When necessary, we are also able to initiate child support enforcement procedures.

As we were working within this framework, we discovered that, while we could amend an Oregon birth record, we were passing up an excellent opportunity to improve our customer service by changing birth records outside the state. In order to do this, collaborative partnerships would have to be established with other states to take advantage of the work done by them or for them in the establishment process.

Placing the name of the father on the birth certificate is the first step in creating a culture in which both parents are willing to take responsibility for their children.

This has been done. The Oregon Department of Justice now pays fees of approximately $6000 per month charged by the Oregon Health Division to amend Oregon birth records when any other state division of child support submits those changes. We give full faith and credit to a determination of paternity made by any other state, whether established through voluntary acknowledgement or administration of judicial process. Approximately 240 fathers are added to Oregon's birth records each month as a result of this process.

Each state has the ability to establish fees for amending birth records. They must also formulate policies to deal with handling paternity orders established within their jurisdiction, when the child was born in another state. Often, the determination results in filing the orders affecting birth records within its own borders and then discarding orders outside its jurisdiction.

In June 2001, Oregon undertook a project to work with the State of Washington's Department of Social and Health Services to establish a program where Oregon would accept any determination of paternity by Washington. We would then amend our birth records to add the new father, and our Division of Child Support would pay the administrative fee. Washington agreed to investigate the possibility of reciprocating in kind. The resulting agreement should eliminate the situation in which one state, for example Washington, shows birth records indicating that paternity is still at issue for a child born in state, while Oregon has a valid paternity order for the child.

Working with John Hoover, Washington Department of Social and Health Services, and Phil Freeman, Washington Vital Records Division, Community Human Services (CHS) began a program that allows Oregon to send administrative paternity orders to CHS. To date in 2002, Washington has accepted approximately 30 Oregon administrative paternity orders. It is important to note that although Washington does not use administrative process to establish paternity, CHS treats the Oregon administrative order in the same manner as a court order entered in Washington. CHS also names the father on the birth certificate without any additional cost to Oregon.

Given this positive experience of collaboration between two neighboring states, perhaps other states might want to explore doing this.

Harvey Baker is East Portland Branch Manager, DOJ, Division of Child Support.

12th National Training Conference

The 12th National Training Conference, an annual event hosted by the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), was held September 23-25 in Arlington, Virginia. A record 600 persons were in attendance, representing approximately 47 jurisdictions and 7 tribes.

This year's conference began with a remembrance of September 11 - that fateful day. A video montage, accompanied by a moving rendition of "America the Beautiful" by Barbara Ziegler-Johnson, a Grants Management Specialist in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), was a fitting way to open this year's conference.

Dr. Sherri Z. Heller, Commissioner of OCSE, early on in her keynote address, praised the child support community for a job well done during a year of increasing budget constraints. "In spite of this," the Commissioner said, "my job is to convince you to engage in more productive partnerships with local TANF workers, begin a more comprehensive effort to get medical coverage included in child support orders, undertake a more systematic results oriented focus on cleaning up inter-state case processing, and to participate in the new policy debates on youth development, working with faith-based organizations and talking to clients about the value of marriage for children." Picking up on the conference theme, Dr. Heller noted that this would amount to "Working Together and Keeping it Real."

In the opening plenary, David Siegel, Deputy Commissioner, Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, moderated a panel consisting of ACF Hub Directors Mary Ann Higgins (Region II), Leon McCowan (Region VI), Joyce Thomas (Region V), Carlis Williams (Region IV), with ACF's Principal Deputy Secretary Chris Gersten acting as respondent.

Each panel member focused on one of ACF's Key Priorities for FY 2002, describing many state activities that address ACF's priorities, and making the point that the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program has a key role to play in helping ACF achieve its priority goals for children and families. Mary Ann Higgins stressed the importance of a strong IV-A/IV-D connection. Carliss Williams showed the relevance of the Marriage Initiative to child support. Leon McCowan emphasized the strategic role that positive youth development can play in supporting our children. And Joyce Thomas pointed out the benefits to the child support community that would result from closer collaboration with faith-based and community-based organizations.

State Senator Don Hargrove of Montana and Representative Matt Entenza of Minnesota, along with Stephanie Walton of the National Conference of State Legislators, contributed a state perspective on the status of CSE programs. They spoke about the budget shortfalls many states are experiencing and the effect this is having on CSE programs.

In addition to the plenary sessions, participants chose from a selection of 48 workshops, ranging in topics from arrears management to web-based employer services. OCSE conducted the first delivery of its "Customer Service Web Development" course - training that will be repeated in selected sites throughout the fiscal year.

The annual meeting of state Child Access and Visitation coordinators was held in conjunction with the conference. This was an attempt to show that this relatively recent program has a vital role to play in raising the level of support for America's children. Workshops focused on innovative state Access and Visitation Program practices, connecting child access to increased child support collections, working with faith-based and community-based organizations, and an overview of recommended changes to the Child Access Program Survey, including outcome measures.

OCSE's 2nd Annual Research Conference, held in conjunction with the conference, expanded the range of workshop opportunities for participants. Research workshops, such as Arrears Reconciliation Management, Collaboration Among Agencies, Responsible Fatherhood and Marriage, and Special Projects for Service Improvement, were open to all conference participants. Three panels on reducing undistributed collections, improving collections in interstate cases, and increasing regular payments by non-custodial parents, were for research conference attendees only.

The 13th National CSE Training Conference will be held on September 8 - 10, 2003, at the Capital Hilton Hotel in the District of Columbia.

HHS Awards Grants for Child Support Demonstration Projects

Fifteen states and the District of Columbia were recently awarded $1.8 million in Section 1115 demonstration grants to further advance performance of the nation's child support enforcement system.

Several of the grants are designed to help parents provide more reliable and regular child support through improved employability, parenting, relationship building and other life skills.

Arizona will expand its current collaboration with fatherhood and workforce training programs to provide an enhanced fatherhood curriculum that includes relationship building and the benefits of marriage, life skills development, and career development. Texas will provide a variety of training to paroled and recently released incarcerated parents. In New Hampshire, the Department of Corrections and University of New Hampshire will combine to teach incarcerated fathers parenting skills. Kansas will partner with Legal Services, the court, and the Shawnee County (Topeka) non-custodial parent project to build on its current program of coordinating selected legal and mediation services to parents.

Several grants provide for research into strategies for more efficient collection and distribution of child support to families.

Indiana will test the use of debit cards to reduce undistributed collections by eliminating the handling and mailing of money orders by the obligated parent and county clerks using paper transactions. Texas will have a popular grocery chain receive payments from parents and transfer them to the state child support agency electronically. The District of Columbia will analyze the composition of its undistributed collections and identify, implement and evaluate potential strategies to reduce them.

Several of the grants research the feasibility of providing incentive to parents to pay current support obligations by easing the burden of overwhelming arrearage owed to state governments on obligated parents without the means to pay them.

Maryland's grant will pay for an evaluation of a program to help low-income parents meet their child support responsibilities including successfully completing a parenting program and guidance for improving it. Massachusetts will analyze arrears and reduce them through new arrears management programs targeted to parents with varying abilities to pay. Minnesota offers low-income parents an opportunity to eliminate arrears owed to the state in return for the payment of all current support, per a signed agreement.

Colorado will develop an innovative, coordinated approach to increase the number of children in child support cases with healthcare coverage.

In addition to the 13 new grants, ACF made second year awards to four states - Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming - to conduct demonstrations on the use of data warehousing and mining in child support enforcement that began in FY 2001.

From Stream to River

By: Jerry Sweet

The tribal child support program can be likened to a river, and my career in it to a journey along that river. When my journey started, however, tribal child support was hardly more than a stream.

In December 1996, I received a call from Mr. Bill Anoatubby, Governor of the Chickasaw Nation, telling me that the tribe had received a grant to develop a tribal child support program and wanted to know if I would return to Ada, Oklahoma, to help develop it.

Moving into this new position, I found that Indian children were not receiving their court-ordered child support; neither were their paternities being legally established. Many of these children were subsisting on the barest of necessities, quite often living on cereal, peanut butter, cheese, and bread. Once the Chickasaw Nation child support program was established, however, we were able to coordinate efforts with the state, and soon, by utilizing the tribal court systems, Indian children began receiving the support to which they were entitled.

Subsequently, we invited all the tribes in Oklahoma to participate in our child support program. When the welfare of children is involved, governments at every level find a way to work together for the good of the children. Proof of that is shown in the increase in tribal child support collections. Last year, the program collected $1,170,000 for the Indian children in our State, and paternity was established for over 300 children.

Where once the tribal child support system had been a few small streams plagued by drought, thanks to the work of its many supporters, a great river has begun to form.

The greatest significant factor in this development was the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). This bill stresses the need for government-to-government relations with Indian Tribes to either receive direct Federal funding for child support programs, or to enter into cooperative agreements with their states.

Under the Interim final PRWORA regulations, seven tribes - Chickasaw, Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux, Lac du Flambeau, Navajo, Puyallup, Port Gamble S'Klallam, and Menominee - currently receive direct funding for child support. These five have joined together to form the National Tribal Child Support Association (NTCSA).

The NTCSA, currently representing operating Tribal child support programs, is committed to serving as the voice for Indian children. The NTCSA is attempting to improve communication between diverse social service programs.

The NTCSA believes that child support offices are equipped to serve as the ideal single entry point for people who need access to multiple social services. Our goal is to develop a common application form and a methodology to provide each agency with access to the information needed to begin providing services immediately.

Leonardo DaVinci once said, "When you put your hand in a flowing stream, you touch the last that has gone before and the first of what is still to come." My career in child support takes me on a journey through what has passed, and I believe even greater things are coming.

I am grateful for the effort of people in all of the other tribal programs who are working to improve the lives of Indian citizens. Like tributaries of a river, we are coming together, and through this unity we are creating a revolution in the delivery of social services.

For additional information about Tribal Child Support and the NTCSA 2nd Annual Convention, contact Jerry Sweet at Jerry.Sweet@okdhs.org. Information is also available at NTCSA's Web site www.supporttribalchildren.org.

Jerry Sweet is the IV-D Director of the Chickisaw Nation Tribal Child Support Enforcement program.

Excerpted from an article that appeared in the July issue of the American Indian Report.

Awards

The following awards were given by Commissioner Heller at the 12th National Child Support Enforcement Training Conference. Congratulations!

Commissioner's Award for Exemplary Customer Service

Benidia Rice, Director, Arizona Division of Child Support Enforcement

Flora J. Henderson, Director, Navajo Nation Department of Child Support Enforcement

Commissioner's Award for Effective Problem Solving through Automation

Barbara Miklos, Director, Alaska Child Support Enforcement Division

Georgiann DeKay, Director, Washington Division of Child Support

Commissioner's Award for Interstate Cooperation

Nancy J. Thoma, Director Iowa Bureau of Collections

Daryl D. Wusk, Director Nebraska Child Support Enforcement Agency

Susan S. Perry, Commissioner, West Virginia Bureau for Child Support Enforcement

Commissioner's Award for High-Impact Problem Solving

Cynthia Bryant, Director, Texas Office of the Attorney General Child Support Division

Commissioner's Outstanding Local Government Official Commitment Award

Michael Infranco, Associate Commissioner, New York City Administration for Children's Services

Commissioner's Judicial and Executive State Partnership Award

Douglas E. Howard, Director, Michigan Family Independence Agency

The Honorable Maura D. Corrigan, Chief Justice, Michigan Supreme Court

Commissioner's Award for Consistent Commitment to the Child Support Enforcement Program

Herbert Morant, OCSE

Gaile Maller, OCSE

Commissioner's Award for Achievement Beyond the Call of Duty

Joseph Bodmer, OCSE

Commissioner's Group Award for Achievement Beyond the Call of Duty

Donna Bonar, Elizabeth Matheson, Eileen Brooks, Roy Nix, Veronica Lamka, OCSE

Commissioner's Partnership Award

Susan Greenblatt, James Rich, Jean Robinson, Jim Cudzilo, OCSE

Commissioner's Regional Leadership Award for Exemplary Technical Assistance

Gary Allen, Region VII

Edward Franklin, Region VII

Improving Child Support Performance

By: Mohan Kumar

Today, in the post-PRWORA phase, Child Support agencies are faced with tougher challenges than ever before. Increasing expectations for performance improvements from program offices, the pressures of the federal data reliability audits, and the public pressure to 'do more with less' are all requiring agencies to refocus their goals and manage their operations with a more business-like focus.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania CSE program (PACSES) recognized this business challenge as early as 1999, and confronted it head-on with some strategic organizational decisions and judicious use of technology.

PACSES realized that "data integrity" is critical not only from a reporting perspective but also is vital for the ultimate success of the program.

PACSES realized that 'data integrity' is critical not only from a reporting perspective but also is vital for the ultimate success of the program. In early 1999, a new Data Management group was created to address 'conversion data' issues initially, but it soon transformed into a more vital role - one that addressed 'ad hoc reporting' needs for the counties, and performed the required data analysis to isolate data problems and identify potential areas in the PACSES application to help accomplish 'quick wins' for performance improvement.

To supplement the analytical and reporting initiatives of the Data Management group, PACSES decided to leverage Data Warehouse technology. The PACSES Data Warehouse is a data repository and retrieval system that today helps PACSES find meaningful program information from its child support operational data such as - trend analysis, comparative analysis, performance measurements, and PRWORA enforcement remedy outcome measurements.

The Data Management group complements nicely the PACSES mainframe operational reporting features with targeted 'cleanup' and 'performance focused' reports. In the last two years, the accomplishments of this group have been in the following areas: improved collections, improved business practices, enhanced communication with counties, implementation of more efficient enforcement remedies, and overall improvement in county performance.

The PACSES Data Warehouse today completely supports all the Federal reporting requirements. The data reliability audit requirements are fully supported from the Data Warehouse. It additionally helps to monitor the effectiveness of PRWORA enforcement initiatives such as, Driver's License, New Hire Reporting, Financial Institution Data Match, and Credit Bureau reporting.

The Program office for Self-Assessment review also internally uses the Data Warehouse. It has features not only to track and assess process efficiencies, but also provides the ability to identify 'actionable cases' that counties can work on to correct and improve their efficiency.

Data integrity is critical to program performance. Data issues must be resolved up front as early as possible. One approach may be to create 'task groups' to build necessary momentum with the data management efforts.

The use of program intelligence tools such as Data Warehouse and Data Mining must be driven by the Child Support Program personnel not IT staff. It is important to communicate 'why' it needs to be used, and 'why' it is important to the performance of the program.

Data integrity is critical to program performance.

While using new technologies such as a Data Warehouse remember that a sizable amount of the work and effort is in the backend process - i.e. integrating data sources, defining what data you need, and designing the backend structures and processes. Provide the 'views' of the information that the 'users' want otherwise they will not use it. Gain consensus on the business rules and definitions early on in the process.

"If you build it they will come" is not necessarily true. This is a new way of getting data/information and most people won't make this transition alone. Sometimes it is TOO MUCH information for those afraid of what the data tells.

Metadata (i.e. data about data) is critical. Definitions and business rules must be documented, understood and accepted in order for the program intelligence environment to be embraced.

For further information about the PACSES Data Management initiatives, contact jaypoe@pacses.com, (717) 705-5120

Mohan Kumar is the Technology Innovations Manager on the PACSES Project.

Custodial Parents and Their Child Support

Recently released census data show that the proportion of custodial mothers taking part in the nation's public assistance programs - a ratio of 4 in 5 are single - fell from 26 percent to 11 percent over six years.

Employment rates for custodial parents grew since 1993, with more than half working full-time in 1999. At the same time, the proportion of mothers and their children living in poverty dropped 8 percentage points - to about 3 in 10 families.

The report shows that about three-quarters of custodial parents received at least some child support payments. The proportion receiving all payments rose from 36.9 percent in 1993 to 45.1 percent in 1999.

Custodial mothers received about 60 percent of the support due them in 1999, while custodial fathers collected almost 48 percent.

Custodial mothers who received any child support payments received an average of $3,800 in 1999; fathers averaged $3,200.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2002/cb02-137.html