Child Support Report XXVII, No. 11, 20051101

Child Support Report

Vol. XXVII, No. 11, Nov 2005

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.

Looking Good at 30: Assistant Secretary, Commissioner, Applaud 'IV-D' Conferees

2005 OCSE Hispanic Forum

Incoming NCCSD President Sets the Stage for New Year

Cell Phone Records Locate Noncustodial Parents

Logic Model Improves Income Security Through Greater Parental Responsibility

Prince George's County, MD Sets State Records for Collection and Disbursement

SIP, Demonstration Grants Awarded

Looking Good at 30: Assistant Secretary, Commissioner, Applaud 'IV-D' Conferees

By: Elaine Blackman

The phrases "remarkable progress," "passionate people," and "cohesive energy" echoed from the podium during opening speeches at OCSE's 15th National Training Conference, Oct. 24 in Arlington, VA. Dr. Wade F. Horn, Assistant Secretary for Children and Families, and OCSE Commissioner Margot Bean directed their esteem, in turn, to some 500 child support professionals from around the country.

Embracing the theme "Child Support Enforcement - 30 Years and Counting," both Dr. Horn and the Commissioner applauded the Title IV-D program's founders and pioneers for their collective achievements and individual years of service to the national program. And each paid tribute to state officials in the audience who led relief efforts after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast region - Diana McCampbell from Alabama, Robbie Endris from Louisiana, Walley Naylor from Mississippi, and Casey Hoffman from Texas. Commissioner Bean also pointed out some of the relief projects among child support professionals in other states, as well as the need for all state programs to set up plans in the event of such crises.

In his remarks, Dr. Horn reviewed the history of welfare reform, saying "the child support community has led the way in fighting welfare dependency." He also detailed a recent collaborative pilot project between TANF and OCSE. As a result of matching TANF cases from Washington, D.C. with OCSE's National Directory of New Hires, the project found that "significantly more TANF recipients were working than previously thought - indeed, a quarter of those on cash welfare in D.C. were discovered to have earnings enough to have their cash benefits terminated." And Dr. Horn credited the IV-D program with collaborative projects aimed at helping families achieve self-sufficiency.

Commissioner Bean took the opportunity to feature examples of states who have taken steps to implement the National Child Support Enforcement Strategic Plan for FY 2005-2009, one year after its release. She then reported on several initiatives, including the national tribal IV-D program, partnerships to improve interstate automated systems, collaboration with other agencies that obtain medical support for children, and international child support agreements with foreign jurisdictions, which now number 20.

Commissioner Bean concluded by telling newcomers to the IV-D program that "there is much more within reach to improve our services to children and families. We hope you carry the tradition of passion with you into the future of this program. And we wish you all the excitement and accomplishments we have seen in the last 30 years.

"There's nothing more important than where you come from," she said, "except where you're going."

The speeches by Dr. Horn and Commissioner Bean, as well as several other portions of the conference, can be viewed via the OCSE Web site (www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse), following the links to the Webcast for the OCSE 15th National Child Support Enforcement Conference.

Elaine Blackman is a Writer in the Division of Consumer Services.

2005 OCSE Hispanic Forum

By: Frank Fajardo

OCSE hosted its annual Hispanic Forum in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 19-21 with the highest level of enthusiasm and dedication from a group of 60 representatives of state and local child support enforcement offices, national Hispanic organizations, and local faith and community-based organizations. This forum was designed to provide information to empower the participants for continuing efforts in their communities, as well as to obtain impressions about the nation's child support enforcement program and improving services for the Hispanic community.

Commissioner Margot Bean welcomed everyone, and was followed by a panel presentation on how to implement our National CSE Strategic Plan at the state and local levels to improve services to the Hispanic community.

The Hon. Veronica Torrez, Associate Judge, IV-D Program, TX, quickly won the respect and admiration of the entire forum with her frank discussion on "Paternity, Default Orders and Judgments" related to the Hispanic community.

The new video on the "Family Court Process and Child Support" shared by Monique Rabideau of the New York State Division of Child Support was praised by the group for being easy to understand and practical. The Urban Institute and One Economy Corporation demonstrated their newly developed bilingual Web-based CSE Information site which provides content that is both national and customized to two local communities (Portland, Oregon, and Washington, D.C.) The project was funded with an OCSE grant.

Everyone learned about "Performance Incentives and Penalties" in the child support enforcement system to understand where/how they can be of help in improving services to their community. Then, the report on Child Support and Minority Fathers in Fragile Families by Dr. Hillard Pouncy, Spectrum Associates, challenged everyone with findings on national patterns showing a gap in child support enforcement between whites and Hispanics in terms of order rates (66 percent for whites compared with 44 percent for Hispanics) - while payment rates and compliance rates are comparable once orders are established. Nearly half of Hispanic women do not get an order because there are barriers due to lack of paternity establishment or location of the father, and only about a third of those that establish paternity have child support orders. Elaine Sorensen of the Urban Institute also presented research on Arrears and Debt Leveraging. Ben Marquez of the Child Support Enforcement Division, New Mexico, discussed how the state has implemented improvements in this same area.

There were outstanding presentations on Special Improvement Projects (SIP) and Section 1115 Demonstration Project grants, including the Enhanced Parental Involvement Collaboration OCSE SIP grant for the San Francisco Department of Child Support Services, as well as Access and Visitation programs. Lori Cruz of Los Angeles County Child Support Services discussed Outreach Activities to Hispanic Communities related to child support.

For the first time, the forum included a panel on "Hispanic Child Health Issues" with an overview on Hispanic health disparities, DHHS initiatives, and the role of community organizations. Presentations that enhanced awareness included:

Hispanic Health Disparities, DHHS Initiatives, and Role of Community Organizations;
Medicaid, State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP);
Child Support Enforcement and Medical Support; and
Children & Adolescent Mental Health, and Early Childhood Intervention program.

Another very popular area, "Results of Partnerships Among Programs," was provided by our ACF Office of Community Services Programs with the Community Action Agency of South Texas, and the Community Action Partnership, Riverside County, CA .

Related to early intervention, "The Cost of Father Absence - Fatherhood Education, Child Support and Mentoring in a Correctional Setting" included heartfelt presentations by Steven D. Hane, National Fatherhood Initiative, MD, and Dalia Perez, Office of the Texas Attorney General, on mentoring the children of prisoners. Additionally, Monique Rabideau shared the video "Early Intervention; Kids Need Their Dad - Beyond the Visiting Room."

Also related to early intervention, the panel on Healthy Marriage in the Hispanic Community included Frank Fuentes, Deputy Commissioner, ACYF, as well as Jackie Jaramillo, Faith Partners, Colorado Springs, CO, and Javier Gonzales, Public Strategies, Oklahoma City, OK.

The forum ended with "Prevention is the Key, Educating Our Youth" with the highest level of enthusiasm for Abstinence Programs by the Confederation of Spanish American Workers, the Arizona-Mexico Border Health Foundation, and an energetic performance by Luis Galdamez, La Familia Hispana, California. Mr. Galdamez is an outstanding bilingual abstinence trainer, who has appeared on Telemundo, Fox News, Univision, and ABC News.

Other major issues discussed included:

How to make the child support system reasonable in establishing child support payments and working with non-custodial parents when problems arise.
Some of the obstacles to obtaining child support payments are: access and visitation issues, procedural justice and ability to pay.
How to assist low income fathers with their parental responsibilities, including how to navigate the child support system. There are three customers, fathers, mothers and children.
Child support efforts should be targeted to specific populations with initiatives for special sub-populations, such as incarcerated, youth and teen parents, grandparents, etc.
Child support outreach and activities should be customized using collaborations and community organizations and be culturally appropriate.
Communications and suggestions on how to maintain contact; such as creating a listserve, web-sites, conference calls and future forums.
Educating the youth is very important, especially young males. We need to look at effective ways to get cautionary and positive messages to young people.

Everyone left with something they could use when they returned to their respective programs, organizations and communities - a contact, information on new programs/activities/practices, grant information, a more optimistic outlook for the clients they serve, a fresh idea for a change in the same old way something has been done, how to right a wrong, etc.

Frank Fajardo is a Special Services Specialist, OCSE.

Incoming NCCSD President Sets the Stage for New Year

By: Elaine Blackman

The members have spoken. And that's what their new president likes to hear - talk, and lots of it. By electing Daryl Wusk of Nebraska to head the National Council of Child Support Directors (NCCSD), state IV-D directors have chosen a leader who believes that "for this to work, the state and Federal partners must have open communication. That's how I set the stage," he says.

This self-touted "open management style" has helped earn Wusk plenty of attention before now, including the OCSE Commissioner's Award for Interstate Cooperation in 2002. Wusk points out the example of Nebraska's cooperation with Iowa: the two staffs share an office - and computer systems - in Omaha to better manage interstate cases; an initiative that's been showcased several times.

Wusk finds interstate work "exciting," and relates well to his new post. "As state director, you cannot just look at your state; you have to look at everybody," he says. "Child support is a national program that affects lots of people."

Director for nearly 10 years, Wusk recalls experiencing significant changes in the child support program, and feels fortunate to have been connected to the program since 1976 through his work in the State health and human services arena.

As for the year ahead, he believes the Council has "some unfinished business we need to attend to." Among the issues he plans to open for discussion: MSFIDM (Multi-State Financial Institution Data Match); medical support indicators and the definition of "reasonable cost of insurance"; recoupment of misapplied payment as it relates to distribution of child support; interstate in the big context - "how we accept and enforce interstate cases"; and the "difficult" issue of the 90 percent paternity establishment performance standard.

While Wusk admits that it's one thing to set an agenda, "you're not sure what's going to come up. But whatever we decide to work on," he says, "it's important that we do it as partners."

And though certain issues might suggest competition among states, Wusk praises his fellow state directors for their willingness to help each other out. "Professionals shouldn't agree on everything," he says, but he doesn't see anybody holding back on offers to help.

"We want everybody to establish the goals for child support," he adds, again clearly emphasizing "everybody."

Elaine Blackman is a Writer in the Division of Consumer Services.

Cell Phone Records Locate Noncustodial Parents

By: Cynthia Coiner

In a coordinated effort between the Office of the Attorney General and the Virginia Division of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE), a project began in early 2005 to enlist the voluntary cooperation of cellular telephone companies in conducting data match processes between their customer records and DCSE. Background legal and procedural research was conducted by Melody McKinley, Legal Svcs. Analyst, and Cindy Coiner, Policy/Legislative Specialist. Although the project had support from staff at the Federal Communications Commission, and despite the backing of Federal and state law, DCSE's attempts at written and verbal communications with the cellular companies proved fruitless.

Therefore, in an attempt to track down some of the hardest to locate offenders for nonpayment of child support, DCSE began issuing subpoenas in June 2005 to seven of the largest cellular phone providers in Virginia. In all of these cases, other locate methods including those involving financial institutions and employers had been exhausted and, to compound the problem, most of these parents frequently changed jobs and mailing addresses.

Over 2,000 subpoenas have since been issued. The results to date have been positive, with close to a 50 percent success rate in obtaining information such as addresses and cellular phone numbers from these companies. Several noncustodial parents have been located, and are now either voluntarily or involuntarily paying child support as a direct result of this effort.

One parent who owed more than $62,000 successfully eluded service of an arrest warrant, but was apprehended on July 4 by a local sheriff at an address provided by the cellular records. During a subsequent court hearing, the delinquent parent was sentenced to 12 months in jail. After serving 34 days, he was placed on work release. DCSE issued an income withholding order, which will result in annual child support payments of approximately $10,400 for the noncustodial parent's two children who had not received a payment since 2000.

Cellular telephone companies responding to the subpoenas generally cite customer privacy concerns about data sharing without a subpoena or court order as the reason for not agreeing to data matches. A few companies claim they do not have the automation necessary to perform electronic matches.

Although labor-intensive, the project will continue indefinitely until, it is hoped, the cellular telephone companies realize the mutual benefit in automated data matches such as those DCSE currently conducts with multiple state agencies, financial institutions and utility companies. Data matching is much more efficient and less time consuming than preparing and answering individual subpoenas.

Cynthia Coiner is a Program Administrative Specialist, Virginia Dvision of Child Support Enforcement.

Logic Model Improves Income Security Through Greater Parental Responsibility

By: John Jolley

Background

Making sense of income security for children and families by focusing on parental responsibilities is no easy task. State and local agencies are pursuing both custodial and noncustodial parents with the objective of helping children with the financial, emotional, and medical support that they need. Efforts to contact custodial or noncustodial parents, open cases, initiate enforcement activities, search employment or unemployment information, make referrals, address barriers, flag delinquencies, and seize assets translate into difficult work.

Problem Statement

The drive is spread across different levels of government (e.g., Federal, state, Tribal, county, city, town), across agencies within each level, and across public and private sectors in local communities. It involves multiple funding sources and multiple programs and/or project services.

Fragmentation in the system is too often reflected in the delivery of services. In new cases, contacts by state and local agencies often leave both custodial and noncustodial parents confused and disenchanged. They maybe faced with high arrearages, delinquencies, noncompliance citations, modification and adjustment procedures that drain their resources and provide few improvements to help them provide the financial, emotional, and medical support needed for their children.

Large numbers of low-income parents with children do not receive child support, and the children have little or no contact with their noncustodial parents. How resources and activities are sequenced or otherwise linked to produce favorable outcomes is critical.

Possible Solution

Critical thinking should lead state and local agencies to the creation of logic models that accurately represent solutions to challenges. Logic models are powerful tools - visual representations of programs and projects, and what they are supposed to accomplish.

First, they are useful in planning during the project design phase, and should depict the specific assumptions, activities, and measurable outcomes of projects and programs. Second, they are powerful management tools designed to show expected causal linkages between program and project goals, objectives, resources, and measurable outcomes.

In addition, they help set the parameters for program and project evaluations. The actual process of developing logic models is interactive, often starting from intended program and project activities and working backwards to assumptions and forward to outcomes.

Use of logic models should be seriously considered. They provide planners and staff personnel with an opportunity to test the face validity of intended program and project activities by assessing the accuracy of the assumptions on which programs and projects are based. In this context, state and local agencies might become more assured that the efforts will lead to the objective of helping children obtain the financial, emotional, and medical support they need.

Logic modeling is a way of moving towards more favorable program and project outcomes. Logic models are frameworks, tools, to enhance the ability and capacity of state and local agencies to better plan, manage, and evaluate the parameters of their program and project operations.

John Jolley is an Advocate Relations Specialist, OCSE.

Prince George's County, MD Sets State Records for Collection and Disbursement

By: Paula Tolson

The Prince George's County Office of Child Support Enforcement (PGCOCSE) collected and disbursed a grand total of over $104M during fiscal year 2005. PGCOCSE is the first jurisdiction in the history of the State of Maryland to reach this milestone.

"We are privileged and honored to be working for the children of Prince George's County," said Joan Kennedy, Director, Prince George's County Office of Child Support Enforcement. "I give the highest praise to our staff who are working diligently to improve the manner in which we operate."

Ms. Kennedy, who has been with the agency for less than two years, has introduced a strategic management approach. "We looked at our current operational model and ran the numbers. Processes that worked we continued, those that didn't we modified or eliminated," said Kennedy.

The office increased its profile in the community by holding a number of community focus groups with partners, custodial and noncustodial parents, and others, solidifying its relationship with the courts, hospitals, law enforcement, and other community partners.

"They listened to their customers and stakeholders and, from those conversations, a plan of action was developed," said Brian Shea, Executive Director of the Maryland Child Support Enforcement Administration. "The results speak for themselves."

The Prince George's office consists of 89 staff and serves a customer population of 58,000. Other innovations put in place include development of a supervisory training program that is customer service-focused as a guiding principle; creation of a "speakers team" which goes into the community upon request to provide orientation on "navigating the child support system"; developing a language assistance services team to better serve an increasingly diverse customer base; adding technology solutions to better manage customer records, and reorganizing staff so they can manage their caseloads through the lifespan of the case. "These are but a few of the best practices we are implementing to build bridges and strengthen families in Prince George's County," said Kennedy.

"I am extremely pleased that the staff of the Prince George's County Office of Child Support Enforcement is leading the State in the delivery of services to our customers. They are concretely demonstrating DHR's 'Putting Children First'' efforts," said Christopher McCabe, Secretary, MD Department of Human Resources.

Paula Tolson is Manager, Communication Services, MD Department of Human Resources.

SIP, Demonstration Grants Awarded

The Administration for Children and Families recently announced the awarding of Federal funding in the amounts of $1.1M for 10 demonstration projects and $1.7M to 14 state and non-profit organizations for Special Improvement Project (SIP) grants, to advance the performance of the nation's child support enforcement system.

For more information, see http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cse/2005newsann.htm.

Watch for future announcements of funding availability early next year on the "News and Announcements" link above.

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

Internet: http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cse/
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