Child Support Report

Vol. XXVI, No. 10, Oct 2004

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.

National Training Conference Launches IV-D's Five-Year Strategic Plan Pilot to Demonstrate Digital Signatures One-Stop Job Center for Unemployed Non-Custodial Parents "We Are Not Finger Pointers, We Are Problem Solvers" PROJECT DADS - Assistance for Economically Disadvantaged Non-Custodial Fathers NOTICE

National Training Conference Launches IV-D's Five-Year Strategic Plan

By: Elaine Blackman

When child support enforcement professionals gathered in Washington, DC., in September, they could take a look back through the IV-D program's nearly 30-year history, and a look forward to challenges in an ever-changing culture.

Many of the 490 attendees from 51 states and five tribes traveled to OCSE's 14th National Child Support Enforcement Training Conference hoping to pick up ideas they could bring back to their operations at home. And many did just that.

Over three days, participants heard about the latest research and best practices on everything from undistributed collections and child support arrearages, to training programs and technology systems; from interstate communications and interagency partnerships, to grant priorities and pilot projects.

Yet, without a doubt, the resounding message rang clear on day one: The National Child Support Enforcement Strategic Plan for FY 2005-2009 is here-ready to help guide every child support professional in their daily work, and to help them see how and where their work fits into the national program.

"My hope is for the Strategic Plan to be a map we can use to choose our course up the mountain to the summit," said Commissioner Sherri Z. Heller in her keynote address, referring to OCSE's theme for the conference, "Scaling New Heights in Child Support." "Different states, tribes and counties may choose different routes." And she reminded the crowd, "It's a five-year plan-a vision of where we're headed," and that it will take time to collect new data and implement new strategies. "It will not happen overnight."

The revised Strategic Plan is a thoughtful extension of the two five-year versions that came before. And, like its predecessors, this Plan is a testimony to the strong partnership of child support professionals from every level of the IV-D program, all of them "eager to collaborate" on this revision, explained Dr. Heller. She stressed her appreciation that everyone in the IV-D community is "so willing to work hard and to hold themselves publicly accountable for in creasingly ambitious goals, year after year."

Dr. Heller also summarized three themes in this Strategic Plan: (1) Putting families first, ensuring that child support collections can go directly to families; (2) making child support a reliable source of income for families, money that they can count on month after month; and (3) preventing the build-up of unpaid support through early intervention by the child support professionals, also called proactive case management.

Dr. Heller's talk followed remarks by Dr. Wade Horn, HHS Assistant Secretary for Children and Families, who summarized the IV-D program's history and trends, and detailed the Department's perspective on current initiatives, including healthy marriage and access and visitation grants. HHS annually awards about $10 million in grants to test new strategies to support healthy marriage and parental relationships, "with the goals of improving the well-being of children, promoting paternity establishment, and increasing financial and emotional support to children," said Dr. Horn.

If conferences are meant to promote networking and opportunities, then this one hit the mark.

An attendee from Arizona's Division of Child Support Enforcement reveled in hearing about North Carolina's computerized phone system, designed to confirm appointments, deliver messages and place collection calls. A federally funded SIP grant project, the "phone tree" serves as an example of early intervention.

Indeed, "You get some of your best ideas from other people" throughout the program, noted Connie White from Virginia's Division of Child Support Enforcement, who's own program based work on review and adjustment of child support orders from the Alaska IV-D program's example.

A first-time conference goer from Washington State "never realized how much we need to listen and how much we can get out of this conference." She, as well, planned on bringing ideas back home.

And Angela Hull from the Baltimore Department of Human Resources appreciated learning how she fits into the IV-D world, and believes more partnering agencies would find the conference worthwhile.

During a panel discussion about performance measures in the Strategic Plan, OCSE's Lily Matheson echoed Dr. Heller's thanks for the creative ideas that "come from you" in the local offices. The Plan considers things that are already in the works at the state level, she said.

And perhaps Nancy Thoma Groetken of OCSE's Kansas City office summed it up best when she told the audience that everyone must do their part. "Make sure the data we have to demonstrate our results is understood, and get it out there regularly ... Always look at the Plan within the context of trends and changes in public policy, not only in the child support program, but in other government programs, the economy, and the health insurance industry."

In other words, said Thoma Groetken: "Keep the Plan alive."

Pilot to Demonstrate Digital Signatures

By: Katie Donley and Joseph Gloystein

OCSE has been selected to take a lead role in supporting the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) initiative to build secure, electronic technology systems that will facilitate communication with states.

Encouraged by the President's Management Agenda, which includes a provision for agencies to undertake "a Federal Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to promote digital signatures for transactions" among various entities, OCSE has asked states to volunteer for a pilot that will allow them to submit their approved state plan amendments electronically (in addition to their written submittals). This includes the use of digital signatures attached to the electronic documents. A number of states have responded enthusiastically and, with support from the regional offices, OCSE will be moving forward with the pilot this fall.

The first question is "what is PKI?" PKI is a way of creating and validating electronic signatures. It consists of the software/hardware, protocols, policies, standards and services supporting authentication of electronic signatures and related security services. The PKI system is based on cryptography and using a mathematically related "public/private key pair." Both the sender and receiver of a digital document can be assured that the document has been signed with a valid signature. A public-private key pair is generated by the employee. The public key part of the pair is contained in an employee's digital certificate and is available and known to all. It is also used to either verify a signature or encrypt a message. The private key, however, is securely stored by the client, is available and known only to the employee and can be used to sign or decrypt a message.

When the public and private keys are used together by the person sending the electronic document, they are providing digital signatures that strongly authenticate participants in an electronic transaction. Such digital signatures are a document encrypted with an author's private code. This means that a person's hand-written signature is not actually seen, but a code equivalent to hand-written signatures. Thus, PKI uses a combination of technology, policies, and procedures to provide confidentiality, integrity, and authentication for electronic communications.

The use of the public and private key is extremely secure because a digital certificate is issued and managed by a trusted third party. This pilot utilizes an infrastructure that HHS has built to issue and validate digital certificates to Federal employees so that each person signing the state plan page submission (usually the IV-D director and someone in the Regional Office) must first obtain the certificate. Pilot participants who are not Federal employees will initially be provided vouchers for trusted third-party certificates acquired through the GSA Access Certificates for Electronic Services contract vehicle. Following the model of the Federal E-Authentication project, HHS will rely on other certificate providers when accepting electronic submissions.

If adding digital signatures of state and Federal officials proves to be more efficient, effective and secure for state plan amendment submittal, it could lead to other Federal programs piloting PKI and ultimately evolve into a system of all-electronic documents.

This pilot is a very important step in our goal for secure communications among government organizations.

One-Stop Job Center for Unemployed Non-Custodial Parents

By: Tammi Tilford and Steve Flores

Celebrating its one year anniversary, the new "JOBSOURCE Resource Center" first opened October 3, 2003, in the lobby of Kern County, California's Department of Child Support Services.

The collocated JOBSOURCE Resource Center consists of a collaborative effort and referral system developed between local employment training agencies, community-based organizations, and faith-based entities. The partners include: Community Action Partnership of Kern, Family to Family Mentoring, LOVE INC. of Greater Bakersfield, the Career Services Center, and the Kern County Department of Child Support Services.

The local Workforce Investment Board, one of the collaboratives, oversees a network of one-stop job centers in Kern County known locally as the Career Services Center (CSC). The CSC provides its full array of employment training services for non-custodial clients through the collocated JOBSOURCE Resource Center.

John Nilon, Director of the Kern County Department of Child Support Services, states, "This combination of employment training agencies, community agencies, and faith-based organizations provides a unique and comprehensive support system."

The JOBSOURCE Resource Center, community-based agencies, and faith-based organizations offer services such as education and training, classes on child development, assistance with parenting, and communication skills. These partner organizations also refer their clients with child support questions to the Department of Child Support Services for assistance.

A recent visit by child support officials from Sacramento and Washington, D.C., gave the visitors the opportunity to speak with a JOBSOURCE Resource Center alumnus and non-custodial parent, R. Rodriguez.

Mr. Rodriguez was referred to the Center by his Family Support Officer in December 2003. Staff assisted Mr. Rodriguez with registering for his unemployment benefits, job searching via California's state-wide job search system, and developing an updated resume. Mr. Rodriguez became successfully employed in April 2004, has been on wage assignment ever since becoming employed, and his child support account is current with no arrears. Mr. Rodriguez stated, "If it wasn't for the motivating staff and the necessary job search tools at the JOBSOURCE Resource Center, I don't know what I would have done."

Due to national interest in the Center, a variety of conferences have been providing information on how the partnership was developed, funding is obtained, services are provided, and performance is measured.

"We Are Not Finger Pointers, We Are Problem Solvers"

By: John Clark

The statement by Mark M. Poserina, Director of Berks County Domestic Relations Section, summarizes the attitude of the TANF and child support community in Pennsylvania after the second set of annual meetings on improving collaboration. There are 67 counties in the State with a centralized IV-A system and a State administered IV-D system which is county based.

In early 2003, the relationships between the County Assistance and Child Support Directors varied from tremendous noncooperation to no interaction. These problems were compounded by system interface issues and misunderstandings about each other. To address the issues and improve cooperation, the partners decided to develop a series of meetings throughout the state. These partners included the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, Bureau of Child Support Enforcement (BCSE) and Bureau of Operations, Domestic Relations Association of Pennsylvania (DRAP), and ACF Region III.

Rita Frealing-Shultz, Director of the Dauphin County Domestic Relations Section and Chair of the IV-A/IV-D Committee for DRAP summarized the partnership, "I believe the vision of Welfare Reform is to have the County Assistance Office help a family at the front end when they apply for assistance. Child support helps a family sustain self-sufficiency at the back end as they terminate cash assistance."

Region III, in cooperation with our partners, brought the county directors of both programs together to provide an overview of the programs. County Assistance Office Directors were informed about how much child support can accomplish with a name and social security number of an alleged non-custodial parent. Child support directors now realize the tremendous amount of information that must be secured at the time of the initial TANF interview in addition to information about the non-custodial parent.(e.g. medical, child care and transportation information must be obtained, training and food stamp eligibility must be assessed, etc.). In addition, participants received an explanation of system interface issues. For example, a common coding error prevented a TANF referral from ever reaching the child support office.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the county directors met separately to develop their own plan for improving cooperation. The diverse plans involved joint training, establishing liaisons, providing "real" (not automated response) phone numbers to each other and a focus on the redetermination process. This TANF semi-annual assessment process is an excellent opportunity for review of the status of the child support case and a time to determine whether any additional action can be taken to establish and/or enforce a child support order.

The primary request from these meetings was systems training for TANF workers. In addition to coding instruction, TANF workers wanted to know how to access the child support system. Many TANF workers had no idea what happened to their referral once it was sent to child support. The results were very impressive. Jim Fee, the PACSES team member providing the training, said, "Since January 2002, we have reduced the number of cases coded incorrectly by over 55 percent statewide. In the counties where we did individual training the number of cases coded incorrectly decreased by 74 percent."

All of the partners decided a second set of meetings throughout the State in 2004 involving the county directors of child support and the County Assistance Office Directors would help sustain the momentum. The meetings were held in the spring and summer of 2004.

These meetings focused on recent systems issues, updates, and employment issues. As indicated by Christine Bowser, the Director of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, Bureau of Operations, "we can benefit from each other's experience in attempting to secure employment for our customers. TANF provides employment training immediately. Child support often provides training after the NCP is found in contempt."

The results of the first set of meetings coupled with the training provided by Jim Fee are dramatic. Pennsylvania BCSE compared performance on IV-A cases before the meetings with performance one year later.

Approximately 5,000 more TANF children have paternity established, and 4,000 more have support orders established in Pennsylvania as a direct result of collaboration.

Paternity establishment performance on IV-A cases increased from 58% to 70% from March 2003 to March 2004. In addition, county performance on support order establishment on IV-A cases increased from 55 to 67 percent during this one- year period.

"We look forward to continuing the collaboration between the Federal, state and local partners in child support and the assistance offices as we work together for Pennsylvania families," said Daniel Richard, Pennsylvania Child Support Director.

PROJECT DADS - Assistance for Economically Disadvantaged Non-Custodial Fathers

By: Frank Fajardo and Susan Greenblatt

Project Dads of the Imperial Valley Regional Occupational Program was awarded a SIP grant in January 2003 to assist 42 non-custodial economically disadvantaged fathers living in Imperial County, California. This is a rural farm-worker area. Over 90 percent of those served by this SIP grant project were Hispanic and 52 percent of the clients were ex-offenders. The goals of the project were to provide economically disadvantaged non-custodial fathers with:

• skills and resources necessary for them to obtain unsubsidized employment, and be able to pay their child support;
• child support modification packages, so they can afford to pay their child support payments, and still support themselves;
• skills and knowledge so they can take an active parenting role in their children's lives.

Throughout the course of the 17 month project, Project Dads staff attended court with non-custodial fathers to assist with modification of child support orders, license reinstatement and referral to appropriate education and employment services so they could become more responsible parents. This project brought together organizations that had never sat down and collaborated before, such as the Child Support Office, the Probation Department, Social Services, Behavioral Health, the Housing Authority, and Faith-based organizations. Though Project Dads funding ended, these relationships continue to grow from the positive results of this project.

The results of Project Dads are demonstrated by:

• 78 percent of the clients were employed in unsubsidized employment (90 percent of these were still working at the end of the program); employment averaged a minimum of six months.
• Nearly 80 percent of the clients were making child support payments through the system - none were making formal payments before the project; 40 percent made payments in the full amount.
• 42 percent requested support order modifications (over half of these were granted); none of the modifications included reductions in arrears.
• 66 percent demonstrated improved communication and parenting skills.
• Over $60,000 was collected through the child support system.

Project Dads opened the doors of communication for non-custodial parents in helping them overcome their fears of working with the system. Many of the fathers were afraid they would be arrested if they went to the child support office alone, and would not go unless accompanied by a project staff person. Likewise, project staff worked with child support staff to help them understand and address the needs of these low-income fathers.

Debbie Cleveland, Project Dads Director, summed up the program by saying, "Once they started to see improvement in their situation, they became better men and ultimately better fathers. The custodial mothers started communicating with the fathers, which helped the situation extensively! Once the father is allowed to see his children and is meeting his responsibilities, he feels more confident as a father, thus providing financial and emotional support - he feels better about himself."

Important lessons learned in serving low-income NCPs:

• Address child support staff misconceptions concerning disadvantaged fathers' willingness to pay child support; low-income NCP's may be afraid of the system and often support their children informally.
• Educate NCPs about the child support system, about visitation and custodial rights and other services they need.
• Consider reinstating driver's licenses for NCPs meeting program requirements; a driver's license is critical for most NCPs to obtain and keep a job.
• Permit case managers to attend hearings for the NCP since most employers will not give new employees time off from work.
• Use mediators (e.g., Project Dads staff) as needed; they can make a big difference in affecting the attitudes of both the father and the child support staff.

NOTICE

Schedule UDC, Itemized Undistributed Collections has been approved by OMB. This form is effective with FY 2005 (beginning October 1, 2004) and will be submitted as an attachment to the quarterly collection report, Form OCSE-34A. The first submission is due no later than January 31. 2005.

For further information go to www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cse/pol/AT/2004/at-04-07.htm

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. Internet: http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cse/ Permission to reprint articles is granted Acknowledging CSR is appreciated

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