September 2022 Child Support Report
September 2022 Child Support Report September 29, 2022 | Volume 43 | No. 9 | Monthly
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Celebrating Child Support
August was a busy month for child support programs across the country and it was inspiring to see so many creative outreach efforts. We’re sharing photos and summaries from some of this year’s Child Support Awareness Month activities:
Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas

The Alabama-Coushatta Tribal Child Support Enforcement program hosted a series of events throughout August. The program was featured on a local podcast on KREZ The Wind where they raised awareness about child support and their upcoming events. They hosted a child support kick-off event in the administration lobby with information, history, and snacks. The program also hosted a door decorating contest where tribal departments drew illustrations of favorite children’s books. They also hosted a children’s book drive and a successful Community Outreach Day.
Georgia

The Georgia Division of Child Support Services (DCSS) held two livestream conversations with the public to raise awareness about their services. A panel of DCSS subject matter experts (dressed in orange in support of CSAM) talked about core services provided through the child support program and provided information about their Fatherhood, Parental Accountability Court, and Access and Visitation outreach programs. The panel also took questions during the livestream about DCSS and its services.
Illinois

Illinois Child Support Services partnered with the Salvation Army Community Center in Springfield to offer a Child Support Awareness Family Resource Day on Aug. 26. The event was staffed with over 50 child support employees who participated in shifts throughout the day offering expert assistance on case-specific child support needs. There was a particular emphasis on modifications, income withholding, medical support, enrollment, paternity, and collections. The planning team formed new processes for their Child Support Awareness Family Resource Day and future Illinois Child Support Services community outreach events.
Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma

The Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma Child Support Enforcement program celebrated Child Support Awareness Month with an “I love my child” theme to highlight the importance of co-parenting. They raised awareness about their services and provided ideas for family activities throughout the month, such as scheduling a movie night at home.
Klamath Tribes and the Oregon Child Support Program

On Aug. 26, the Klamath Tribes hosted the 36th Annual Restoration Celebration in Chiloquin, Oregon. This was the first in-person event held in two years due to the pandemic. The event marks the anniversary of the Restoration of the Klamath Tribes, which includes the Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin Bands of the Snake Indians. Also, the Klamath Tribes Child Support Enforcement Program and the Oregon Child Support Program office in Bend participated in the Health Row event. Staff from the Klamath Tribes distributed outreach items including t-shirts, healthy snacks, water bottles, and other items. Staff from the Oregon program held a drawing for six backpacks filled with school supplies for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Staff also met with members of the community and handed out child support information to parents.
Missouri

The Missouri Family Support Division in Jefferson City held a School Nurse Supply Drive (pictured left) benefiting the nurses and children within the Jefferson City School District. During August, donations of clothing and personal hygiene items poured into the Child Support Central Office ensuring enough products for the 18 schools across the district. Also, Department of Social Services Director Robert Knodell visited the Family Support Division booth at the Missouri State Fair (pictured right). Families and children who visited the Child Support Awareness booth received information about the services available from the Family Support Division.
North Carolina

Local programs across North Carolina had creative ways to promote the child support program, including back to school drives, “wear green” days in honor of child support, collecting items for a senior center, and employee appreciation events. Harnett County Child Support hosted a Community Day where they partnered with the NC Food Bank and donated enough food for 500 families.
Oneida Nation

The Oneida Nation Child Support Agency hosted a back-to-school drive-through event and distributed 200 backpacks to school-aged children. The free backpacks were a welcomed relief for families still recovering from the hardships caused by the pandemic. The program, in collaboration with Oneida Early Intervention programming, also distributed children’s books. The Oneida child support program co-hosted the Virtual Food Drive for Feeding Wisconsin with Wisconsin’s Department of Children and Families and Child Support Enforcement Association. All funds go to support six Feeding America food banks that serve families across all 72 Wisconsin counties. Trina Schuyler, the Oneida Nation child support director, notes that working together with their state and county partners helps stabilize families while bringing programs and communities together.
Oregon

The Oregon Child Support Program promoted its online account service with the campaign, Make More Time for What Matters Most. In their online account, parents can view case information, documents, and payment history, update their information, communicate with their caseworker, and upload completed forms. The program staff created online account brochures and flyers, sent postcards and messages in billing statements, and used a script when speaking with participants who weren’t registered for an online account. They also ran a customer survey in an email campaign and on their website.
Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe

The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe’s Child Support Enforcement Unit in Northern New York held a Family Fun Day Carnival on Aug. 31. The office teamed up with other tribal and community-based service program staff who set up carnival games, information booths, and served cotton candy, popcorn, and hot dogs. The carnival was a great way to show gratitude to those who support the program and ensure its success. The event was the perfect way to end the summer and give the children and families one last fun-filled event before starting the new school year.
Oregon Changes How It Reports Paternity Establishment Percentage
Oregon Child Support Program

When the Paternity Establishment Percentage (PEP) was introduced as a federal performance measure, Oregon chose to report using the statewide measurement approach rather than the IV-D program measure. The statewide approach worked well with our outreach programs to educate the public about the importance of establishing paternity. Over time, the program developed a positive working relationship with the Oregon Health Authority, which stores vital records.
Although the relationship between agencies remains strong and outreach continues, our PEP performance has struggled during the past five years. Like many state child support programs, we’ve seen a decline in paternity establishments. Oregon went from reporting more than 98% in federal fiscal year 2015 to less than 92% in fiscal 2020.
The challenge we face has led us to reconsider how we report the PEP measure and to adopt the IV-D PEP approach. We’ve exhausted available options to improve performance using the current statewide measurement.
Our drop in PEP performance coincides with a significant decrease in births during the past five years. Although the percentage of children born to unmarried parents remains the same, the decrease in overall births leads to that number being smaller each year. As the number of children needing paternity established decreases, the process of identifying those children becomes more difficult. The bottom line: With fewer children needing paternity established, we’ll struggle to meet the 90% benchmark when PEP performance relief ends.
Transitioning to the IV-D PEP approach will allow us to easily identify children needing paternity established. The list of children needing establishment can be retrieved from Oregon’s new child support system, Origin, which provides case managers a starting point for their work. Additionally, the number of children born to unmarried parents in the IV-D caseload remains relatively stable from year to year. This approach will stabilize the PEP measurement and help case managers assist more families who need our services.
What we intend to do
We’ve embarked on a multi-year project to move to the IV-D reporting method. The first task will be data cleanup. Frontline staff will review birth and paternity information and verify that correct coding exists in the system for each child. Staff will also get the appropriate supporting documents for every paternity established.
Behind the scenes, trainers and procedure writers will update their materials. Switching to the IV-D PEP methodology also requires creation of and alterations to system reports for case management. We’ll update permanent reports to reflect IV-D PEP numbers and create temporary reports to track the data cleanup progress. The reports will support staff as they move into the new PEP methodology.
What we hope to achieve
Despite this reporting change, the mission of educating all families about the benefits of paternity and parentage establishment remains the same. The program will continue outreach to families who need its services and continue to offer paternity establishment services to those who request it. Oregon has a paternity-only process it plans to continue.
Ultimately, the goal is to make it easier for us to identify a set group of children who need paternity establishment and reliably meet the federal performance measurement.
If you have IV-D PEP wisdom you’d like to share, please contact Oregon by emailing gene.gustin@doj.state.or.us.
Florida’s Model to Stop Automatic Referrals to Child Support
Patterson Poulson, Florida Child Support Program

Florida’s child welfare and child support programs have similar missions to help children and families — and their caseloads often overlap.
When the child welfare agency places a child in a nonparental household to prevent abuse and neglect, the parents are expected to support the child financially. Title IV-D child support programs must accept referrals for support from child welfare programs for children in foster care. In many states, the child welfare program’s computer system makes these referrals automatically. Case situations can change rapidly, and sometimes the child can be reunited with the parent(s) or moved toward adoption by another family. As a result, the child support program can establish an order for the parent to pay support to the child welfare program, only to learn the family has reunified.
To improve efficiency, we worked with the child welfare program to stop automatically referring a case when a child enters foster care. Instead, the child welfare program uses its statutory authority to establish paternity, support, or both as part of the foster care action for the child, when appropriate. The child welfare program only refers cases to us for enforcement of child support orders when it determines that is in the child’s and family’s best interest.
Because of this change, our program currently maintains fewer than a dozen cases for child welfare. Also, using the child welfare program’s authority to include child support means parents don’t have to attend additional hearings, which can help reduce stress on parents.
How the programs work together
Making this change requires open communication and flexibility between programs. Because of our low volume of cases, referrals and sharing information is manual and informal. A few individuals from each program are constantly communicating to support the cases in common and ensure a smooth overall process. We developed joint procedures and standard orders for child welfare cases related to child support. This ensures required actions, like income withholding orders and payment through the State Disbursement Unit, are included. We also coordinate resources to share information to keep the process moving.
The improved process has been well worth the time and effort to align our programs and ensure the child and family receive fair and timely services.
The Children’s Bureau in partnership with OCSE issued a joint DCL about the assignment of rights to child support for children in foster care. This article was written before the joint DCL was published. To learn more about Florida’s model, email patterson.poulson@floridarevenue.com.
Sharing Perspectives at the Child Support Employer Symposium
Alice P. Jacobsohn, Esq., Government Relations, American Payroll Association

Payroll professionals, child support staff, and representatives from OCSE, including the Employer Services Team, participated in the National Council of Child Support Directors (NCCSD) Employer Symposium in Boston this summer.
“The Employer Symposium was a great opportunity to bring together state, federal, and employer representatives to collaborate and share insight related to child support topics,” said Corrinne Flores, Director of Government Affairs — Wage Garnishments for ADP. Participants discussed managing lump-sum payments, creating a national employer database, and enhancing communication capabilities.
Lump sum payments
Payroll professionals identified processing issues about withholding from lump sum payments, including these:
- Payroll departments may not know the date or amount of an upcoming lump sum payment at the time of reporting.
- A delay in response from agencies may cause a delay in the payment to employees.
Despite the burden on employers and payroll departments, ideally a state considering introducing legislation to require lump sum reporting and withholding will adopt the model (PDF) developed in 2019 through NCCSD’s Employer Collaboration Workgroup. The model:
- Identifies employer reporting requirements
- Requires child support agencies to notify the employer to withhold from the lump sum payment or release the payment to the employee within 15 days of employer notice
- Establishes that an employee receives either the full amount of the payment based on a response from the agency to release the payment or 15 days have elapsed without notification from the agency, or a reduced amount based on a legal document to withhold from the child support agency. The reduced amount must fall within the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act’s withholding limits (preferably no more than 50% of the lump-sum payment).
National employer database
States identify information about employers and employees for purposes of child support through many federal and state data systems. During the symposium, several states said the process of collecting and storing information is inefficient. Yet, the idea of developing a national employer database all states could use seems daunting.
State program staff identified a collaborative effort to use existing state systems to share information. States interested in this project agreed to meet to begin the process of identifying how to share data.
Improving communication and processes
Attendees identified areas needing communication improvements. They talked about creating a way for employers without available servers to take advantage of OCSE’s e-IWO process and addressing numerous employment verification requests received by some employers.
Handling private cases is another area that needs better guidance and clarification. Employers receive non-IV-D withholding notices/orders from courts, attorneys, and entities other than child support agencies. These notices/orders may not always be on the Office of Management and Budget’s approved Income Withholding for Support Order (IWO) and may contain multiple withholding amounts and payment dates that are difficult for employers to process. A few states have opted to issue non-IV-D IWOs, making it easy for employers to process them.
“Often, we see things from just our vantage point—state, employer, and service provider—but the symposium reminds us of and gives us insight into the other viewpoints,” said Michael Brown, Ceridian HCM’s Associate Product Manager. “I am already looking forward to the next one.”
Update from Assistant Secretary Contreras
Assistant Secretary Contreras was busy in August promoting the well-being of children and families across the nation. Read about a few announcements and partnerships in the latest Assistant Secretary Monthly Update.
Resource Alert: e-NMSN Frequently Asked Questions
Have questions about the electronic National Medical Support Notice? Check out OCSE’s new FAQ page.
Policy Recap
OCSE issued recent guidance to help states and tribes develop and operate their child support programs according to federal laws and regulations:
- FY 2023 Federal Offset and Pre-Offset Notice Program Fees (09/19/22)
- Data Reliability Audit Requirements - FY 2022 (09/08/22)
- Submittal of Annual Certification Letter — 2022 (08/30/22)
- Submittal of OCSE-157 for FY 2022 by Oct. 30 (08/19/22)
- Family and State Benefits of Debt Compromise (08/18/22)
- Open Comment Period — Hague Convention Forms Annual Burden (08/03/22)
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.
January Contreras Assistant Secretary for Children and Families | Tanguler Gray Commissioner, OCSE |
Crystal Peeler Director, Division of Customer Communications | Andrew Phifer Editor, CSR.Editor@acf.hhs.gov |