December 2021 Child Support Report

OCSE Welcomes New Commissioner

 

Tanguler Gray, commissioner of the Office of Child Support Enforcement
OCSE Commissioner Gray

This month, the White House appointed Tanguler Gray to lead the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement. Prior to OCSE, Gray was a deputy commissioner in the Georgia Department of Human Services. She previously served as the director for the division of child support services in Georgia, with over 26 years of leadership and child support experience there. Gray has served as a board member for the National Child Support Enforcement Association, including as president and secretary, and is serving a second term as a board member for the Eastern Regional Interstate Child Support Association.

OCSE is excited to have Commissioner Gray join the team! Keep an eye out for the Commissioner's Voice column and her first article in the new year.

Human-Centered Solutions

Chad Edinger, OCSE Program Specialist, Region 8

 

 

Graphic of hands forming the shape of a lightbulb

At OCSE, we continuously work to improve our collaboration with and services we provide to state and tribal child support programs. One of the ways we’ve made those improvements is by embracing Human-Centered Design. This approach provides us a new way to partner with state and tribal directors to identify problems and gain insight and input on the design, format, and delivery of potential solutions. We’re using Human-Centered Design as an iterative process to discover directors’ needs and design innovative solutions.

OCSE Innovation Program

With approval and support from OCSE leadership (Linda Boyer and Melissa Johnson), I helped design and implement an OCSE Innovation Program this summer in partnership with University of Maryland’s (UMD) Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Along with UMD faculty Brooke Smith and Christina Louise Hnatov, we introduced OCSE leadership to the Human-Centered Design approach.

We kicked off a 12-week OCSE Innovation Program in September with a 3-day Virtual Bootcamp. The UMD faculty and I taught three OCSE teams about Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and Human-Centered Design. Team members gained hands-on experience and learned a dynamic design thinking process that includes:

  • Gaining empathy by focusing on who we are designing for and conducting stakeholder empathy interviews
  • Identifying a need and refining project goals and scope
  • Synthesizing interview data and identifying themes or places of convergence/divergence
  • Brainstorming solutions and generating ideas
  • Prototyping and testing potential solutions with end users and beneficiaries

OCSE teams focused on identifying problems and solutions specific to tribes and tribal directors and applying Human-Centered Design methods informed by strategies to overcome potential cultural communication barriers. Lisa Skenandore, former IV-D director of Oneida Nation and past president of the National Tribal Child Support Association and National Child Support Enforcement Association, graciously joined as guest faculty to talk about cultural communication. OCSE teams engaged in a design sprint to ultimately “pitch” and present a clear and pressing problem that can be solved through a tested prototype and validated solution. Teams received additional support during three UMD advising sessions and six sessions from HHS Innovation Coaches from across the department.

The OCSE teams will present their findings during a webinar for tribal directors on Jan. 27.

Knowledge Works!

We started the OCSE Innovation Program because of the positive experience and feedback we received from the Knowledge Works program. The Knowledge Works resources were the result of OCSE’s initial Human-Centered Design project to support states with implementing or enhancing employment services for noncustodial parents. These services can increase noncustodial parents’ participation in the workforce, improve compliance with court-ordered child support payments, and provide low-income Americans with a path out of poverty to self-sufficiency. The Knowledge Works resources include peer-to-peer learning and training, subject matter expertise and technical assistance, and consultation informed by evidence-based best practices. In 2021, we helped Michigan, New Mexico, and Louisiana secure funding and successfully implement child support-led employment services for noncustodial parents.

Child support directors are one of our main stakeholders, and understanding their experiences and knowledge is crucial to the success of any of our Human-Centered Design projects. I want to thank the tribal directors who participated in the current innovation program, the state directors who participated in developing Knowledge Works, and other stakeholders who shared their insights and experiences with us. We look forward to continuing to improve our collaboration with all of you through these strategies. I encourage you to learn more about Human-Centered Design and consider it as a strategy to identify potential improvements and innovations for your end beneficiaries and users.

Who Receives Child Support Services and Who Doesn’t?

Elaine Sorensen, Technical Advisor, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation

 

OCSE recently published a brief (PDF) describing the characteristics of custodial parents with children under the age of 21 using survey data from the Census Bureau. This brief can help us better understand who is being served by the IV-D program. It reminds us that the vast majority of families served are single mothers and their children, and many live in poverty. 

 

Child support orders

 

According to the Census survey, about half of custodial parents in the IV-D program who have children under 21 did not receive child support in 2017. While most custodial parents had a child support order, only 58% received child support. If they had a child support order and received support, the average amount received was substantial—$5,381 in 2017. However, most custodial parents in the IV-D program with children under 21 either didn’t have a child support order or had an order but didn’t receive child support.

 

 

Figure 1 - Poverty Status of Children under 21 years old, 2017

Household demographics

The brief also shows that 26% of all children who lived in families in the United States had a parent living elsewhere and thus were eligible to receive child support in 2018. Among this group, about 40% were not served by the IV-D program. These children are less likely to live in poverty than those receiving child support, but 26% of them were poor in 2017 (figure 1). In addition, one-quarter of these children lived with a single father. In contrast, only 6% of children in the IV-D program lived with a single father. Among the 74% of children who did not have a parent living elsewhere in 2018, most lived with their two married biological parents, and only 11% lived in poverty in 2017.  

Read the full report: Characteristics of Custodial Parents and Their Children (PDF).

Vermont Program Helps Parents with Employment Barriers

Tom Killmurray, OCSE Program Specialist, Region 1

 

Vermont's Work for Kids program brochure

The Vermont Office of Child Support has an employment services program called Work for Kids . The program helps noncustodial parents find and maintain a job by partnering with the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, the Vermont Judiciary, the Vermont Association of Business Industry and Rehabilitation, and Invest EAP—a nonprofit that provides employee assistance services.

Parents can voluntarily participate in Work for Kids or be referred by the Court or child support staff. The referral is documented in support orders.

Benefits and success

By participating in Work for Kids, parents can:

  • Gain work skills and knowledge
  • Resolve issues that may be keeping them from steady work
  • Access supports like work clothes, transportation, training, and counseling
  • Find new or better jobs

An Invest EAP counselor screens every participant for employment barriers, including a criminal record, mental health issues, substance abuse disorders, no reliable transportation, unstable housing, and lack of education or training. Participants provide information about employment history and abilities, and they are referred to the appropriate consultants. For example, if there is history of a chronic medical issue, the program can refer participants to those who can assist with filing for Title II or Title XVI benefits. Parents can also be referred to other programs like TANF and SNAP.

Active participation in the program can result in driver’s license reinstatement, suppression of enforcement measures, and modification of child support orders based on ability to pay.

Work for Kids served 74 noncustodial parents in 2020. In 2019, 56% of participants referred to the program made at least one child support payment. The program plans to enhance marketing efforts to customers and regional child support staff to increase the number of participants.

For more information about Vermont’s program, contact sarah.turcotte@vermont.gov.

Standardizing Employment Verification Responses to Efficiently Support Families

Alice P. Jacobsohn, Esq., Government Relations, American Payroll Association

 

Graphic concept of standardizing employee information

The National Council of Child Support Directors has hosted an Employer Collaboration Workgroup for several years. The workgroup includes strong support from states, OCSE, the American Payroll Association, and representatives of many of the largest employers in the U.S. One workgroup project has been to standardize the response to verification of employment (VOE) requests from child support programs. The standard response form will not replace state requirements but, when allowed by a state, can be used by employers for employment verification.  

The value of standardizing the VOE response:

  • Employers will be more likely to respond to VOEs.
  • State child support agencies will have a better chance of getting important data. 
  • The administrative burden on employers and states will be reduced.
  • The process to get support to children and families will be more efficient.

Agreeing to common fields

Recognizing that states have different VOE requirements, the first step for the workgroup was to identify the information that states need to manage a successful child support program, including:

  • Employer’s and employee’s name and contact information
  • Employer’s Federal Employer Identification Number
  • Employee’s Social Security number or taxpayer identification number
  • Employee’s place of work, wage amount, rate of pay, hours worked, and pay period cycle (monthly, semi-monthly, biweekly, or weekly)

Some information requests are more difficult to standardize. For example, state child support agencies would like to know more about an employee’s termination to understand whether a noncustodial parent is attempting to avoid child support, needs employment assistance, or was laid off and could be rehired. Employers are reluctant to provide this information because of wage and hour laws, potential lawsuits, and to protect internal management decision-making. Therefore, at a minimum, the form identifies the employee’s separation from the employer. 

Third party information

Another complex topic is whether a standardized form could accommodate information from third parties, including health care insurance benefits and eligibility for dependent children. Employers offer a variety of health care programs to their employees and sometimes for dependents. Coverage may be available for children’s health, dental, vision, and mental health care. The workgroup focused on whether medical support information should be transmitted through the standard VOE form or the National Medical Support Notice (NMSN) process. Ultimately, the workgroup agreed that the standard VOE could alert a state that coverage may be available, leaving the details to the NMSN.

Using the standardized form

The new standardized form was published in November. Ideally, employers will be able to load the form into their management systems and pull most of the information automatically. States that accept the standard VOE could request additional information in those cases that warrant it.

You can get a copy of the new standardized form here. All states and territories have agreed to accept the form as of Dec. 17, 2021, except for New York where it is under review.

Resource Alert: Video – How Child Support Works

OCSE has a 3-minute video in English and Spanish that helps explain the child support process to parents. Child support professionals can use it for presentations, and programs can post it on their websites or social media.

About Child Support Report

Child Support Report is published monthly by the Office of Child Support Enforcement. We welcome articles and high-quality digital photos to consider for publication. We reserve the right to edit for style, content and length, or not accept an article. OCSE does not endorse the practices or individuals in this newsletter. You may reprint an article in its entirety (or contact the author or editor for permission to excerpt); please identify Child Support Report as the source.

JooYeun Chang
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Children and Families
Tanguler Gray
Commissioner, OCSE                                                                       
Crystal Peeler
Acting Director, Division of Customer Communications                     
Andrew Phifer
Editor, CSR.Editor@acf.hhs.gov                                                       

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