Pennsylvania Domestic Relations Sections
Best Practices
In the
Child Support Program
Third Edition - August 2002
This is the third edition of child support best practices for the Pennsylvania Counties. The Domestic Relations Sections (DRS) in Pennsylvania have always been very creative in developing solutions to local problems. In this edition, we are highlighting statewide initiatives as well as effective local practices.
This booklet is an illustration of DRS and State creativity. It covers the entire range of child support operations. These booklets are a success. Counties are using these booklets to identify successful solutions to a variety of issues from customer service to work programs for non-custodial parents.
The booklet is intended to identify good ideas and best practices that have proven successful. This booklet is not a complete survey of current practices. The booklet does share practices volunteered by the counties. Allegheny County
There is an innovative and effective collaboration between Allegheny County Family Division and Goodwill Industries called the Arrears Pay-Off Program. This program is designed to facilitate gainful employment of non-custodial parents (NCP's) and encourage regular child support payments over a significant period of time. Goodwill operates on the basis of referrals, either self referrals or referrals from a third person or entity (church or court, for example). To assist non-custodial parents, the Goodwill Foundation will pay a percentage of the participant's arrears as they complete significant program benchmarks toward employment and compliance with child support obligations. The maximum grant is $5,000. In addition, the child support order can be modified during the enrollment period prior to employment to assist participants with successful completion of the program. Most NCP's will participate for a minimum of 25 hours per week for a maximum of six months (or until full-time employment is achieved). Of the participants initially enrolled, 93% (25/27) achieved the employment benchmark, 30 hours employment per week.
Most significant to the court is the fact that as of July 2001, of 150 participants who had been actively engaged in the program, 40% were continuing to make child support payments. In view of the fact that none of the participants were complying with their support orders before entering the program, 40% is substantial. Based on the success of this project, the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, Bureau of Child Support Enforcement is expanding the concept by funding a statewide project modeled on that one pioneered by Goodwill Industries of Pittsburgh to further evaluate the effectiveness of such initiatives.
Berks County
Local offices in Pennsylvania have developed innovative and effective methods for serving their customers. For example, the Berks County Domestic Relations Section has developed its own website. This site provides comprehensive information including answers to frequently asked questions and forms to clients, it allows direct e-mail contact with the county including enabling citizens to provide tips for locating non- custodial parents. Counties throughout Pennsylvania are encouraged to download information and adapt it to their own use. For example, Montgomery County has adapted the website for it's use. The Berks DRS website http://www.drs.berks.pa.us/ may be copied, used and altered as desired by any of the 67 County Domestic Relations Sections within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or any PA Commonwealth or Federal agency or for any use by the PACSES project. To receive a copy of the entire Berks website (including all html documents, stylesheets, graphics, and multimedia files), or to obtain additional information, please contact the Berks DRS webmaster at Support.Berks@pacses.com or PACSES network users may contact Michael Spilde via the PACSES network. For additional information, please see the description on the web http://www.drs.berks.pa.us/webexp.htm)
Also, the Berks County Domestic Relations Section recently developed a collaboration project with the schools. The response has been overwhelming and they have been invited to several Parenting and Contemporary Living and Health classes. There is a video followed by a question and answer session to explain the meaning of responsible parenting. The Outreach program has been widely praised. For example, a teacher from Wilson Southern High stated: "Our students had the opportunity to learn about "real life" responsibilities from the experts in the field of child support. Your presentation supports our curricular goals of exploring the financial, emotional social and physical impact of teen pregnancy…You and your staff were very well prepared as classroom speakers." Centre County
Attorney/DRS relations are quite unique in Centre County. We cooperatively work together on difficult issues and positive communication is reciprocated. The DRS has provided educational workshops for the local bar's Domestic Relations Committee when members have had questions or issues with procedure and policy, such as new guidelines and other revisions to Rules of Civil Procedure. The relationship is not combative and has been nurtured by both parties. Bi-annual meetings are held with the local DR committee and the DR Director/appropriate staff in order to facilitate positive attorney/DRS relations and improved client/attorney education. As a result of this open communication, we have enjoyed a professional and cordial relationship with the majority of local family law attorneys. Centre County DRS has benefited from the previous volumes of Best Practices Volumes I and II. We now share other ideas put forth first by fellow counties and have successfully applied them to local Centre County procedure. For example, we now provide all parties at establishment conferences with a folder to file all future DRS correspondence and orders for the client's ease and record. We then decided to develop Centre County-specific informational pages to include in the folder for new clients to assure the client and this office that important basic information was disseminated at the beginning of the DRS process. The packet has grown to ten pages of information ranging from basic office policy, to information on the state collection and disbursement unit, to change of address/employer forms. The packets have been well-received and have been duplicated by other neighboring counties as well. The DRS offices in Pennsylvania are very tight-knit organizations dedicated to providing the best service to the families and children of this state and because of this, idea sharing such as the ones described above are a regular practice.
Clarion County
Clarion County uses the FIDM Enforcement Remedy as a bargaining tool to collect long term arrearages on cases where the arrearages are larger than what is in the account to seize. When a Defendant calls to inquire on his frozen account, we try and make a deal with him to increase his arrearage payment from $50.00 a month to $100.00 as opposed to seizing his account. This is not done on every case. However it is done on the cases when a Defendant owes significant arrears that are much higher than his bank account balance. The theory behind this is that seizing a couple hundred dollars is not going to solve the long term problem to get his account up to date. The solution creates increased payments to the Petitioner and the DRS also benefits more from an incentive point to collect on arrears on a long term basis as opposed to a one time hit. Most of the Defendants jump at this deal as his bank account gets released and all the outstanding checks he has will then clear without other penalties to him and he also has a long term solution to getting his account paid up to date. When making these deals it is also explained to him that if for any reason DRS does not continue to get the increased amount, contempt is charged immediately and the seize order can be re- issued at any time in the future.
Clearfield County
In 1998, the Clearfield Co. DRS developed and implemented a high school based child support program designed to educate senior high students about all aspects of the PA Rules of Civil Procedure, PACSES, local court rules and the policies and procedures of the Clearfield Co. DRS. It is estimated that the DRS staff has educated over 1800 high school senior high students from 7 different school districts in all aspects of the child support program. This program is two parts in structure. First the DRS staff travels to the school and provides a one-half day intensive training that covers all aspects of Domestic Relations and the services offered. The second training is for support and enforcement court at the Clearfield County courthouse. Following the morning session of court, the Judge provides a question and answer session that allows any student to ask specific questions in regard to the child support program.
Delaware County
Delaware County Domestic Relations has concluded after much experimentation that in order to have an effective UIFSA unit it must be segregated from other units. We learned that many officers become fearful of just the thought of interstate, causing workers to push interstate cases to the side and not be worked. Moreover, those who tried working a mixed caseload found confusion with entering information into the PACSES system. We found that training UIFSA officers as regular officers first was the way to go. This technique made the officers comfortable in child support issues. Teaching this specialty was easier once they grasped the child support process as a whole. Our UIFSA department consists of four officers responsible for handling all aspects of UIFSA with the exception of outgoing petitions and registration statements that are prepared by the intake unit. In order to not duplicate work efforts, the team is assigned individual caseloads broken down alphabetically by defendant's last name. However, the team concept still allows for all cases to receive attention even when an officer is out sick or on vacation. The UIFSA officers complete all interstate registration packets and review registration statements and incoming UIFSA petitions for accuracy. Once a petition is approved, it is scheduled for a conference by our intake unit. The UIFSA officers handle conferences on a rotating basis. Furthermore, the UIFSA officers complete the necessary paperwork for the registration statements with the assistance of a support staff member. Additional duties performed on a daily basis by the UIFSA team are the handling of telephone calls, interstate transmittals and CSENet requests. When dealing with client's requests, we find it very important to only deal with the party who lives in our state. If a party is under another states jurisdiction, we advise them to contact that state and have the caseworker contact our office, if necessary, to resolve the issue. This process allows for both states to be aware of any particular issues in the case. Our office is continuously exploring various forms of technology including telephonic testimony or video conferencing, if available in the responding state. Communication is most important in running an efficient UIFSA unit. Knowing who to call or where to find information regarding another state is a vital part of the UIFSA department. Attending annual interstate conferences along with national conferences has helped the UIFSA department immensely. Meeting and exchanging phone numbers with caseworkers from other states makes communication faster and easier. We have found that a common bond is built between caseworkers from different states as a result of attending conferences. Another reliable resource is the Interstate Referral Guide found on the federal child support website at: http://ocse3.acf.dhhs.gov/ext/irg/sps/selectastate.cfm.This site gives an overview of state laws and procedures. Providing access to this resource has allowed the UIFSA staff to independently locate information that is shared amongst the team members. However, the most important aspect of being informed is helping our clients. Our officers are confident in their knowledge of the UIFSA process and are able to explain them to our clients. This enables our clients to be aware of all their options prior to making any decisions while at the same time providing quality customer service.
Erie County
The Domestic Relations Section of the Family Court Division has collaborated on special programs with the School District of the City of Erie, Pa. since 1984. One program is the ELECT Initiative through the Student Parenting Program. Having worked with teen parents and their families, Erie County DRS remains concerned about the vast array of problems associated with teen pregnancy. These issues affect not only the teen parents, but also the babies of teens, their families, and the community as a whole. The Family Court Division experiences the ripple affect of children having babies. Whereas, two veteran Support Officers provide experiential education through court related presentations. DRS endorses and support the goals and objectives of school based parenting programs, which include assisting pregnant and parenting (female and male) students with their dual role of parent/student. DRS representatives further enhance these objectives by teaching familial responsibilities within the community in the form of the moral and legal responsibilities of paternity establishment and future training and employment programs, which will enable parents to provide at least the basic needs for their children. We have received acclamations, both written and verbal, from Student Parenting Program Manager, Jeanne Bender. The terms positive influence, appreciated value of related content, and proper guidance have been communicated by Jeanne and other associated educators. AAA – Affordable Arrears Agreement Objectives: To collect money owed children in a timely fashion, eliminate pesky accounts that can be closed once a small amount of arrears are paid in full, reduce time spent on working MAIL, and lower the denominator for higher performance percentages. 1. Glean the delinquency list and target actions that will vacate upon payment of arrears under $1,000.00. (40.1% of the purges in Erie County are paid within two days if they are set at around $1,000.00.) 2. Recruit as many staff as possible, i.e., supervisors, enforcement, conference, and intake officers to conduct payment conferences. 3. Prepare an Order directing the defendant to appear to discuss full payment of arrears. Note: be specific in the language regarding the intent of the conference. 4. Divide these actions in two categories: a) those that have paid every payment since the MSO was suspended; and, b) those that have missed a payment on arrears. 5. An officer can set the tone a tad stronger and suggest contempt charges for those that have missed a payment. Those that have paid without fail brings out the salesmanship within all of us. 6. If the defendant missed a payment, an officer can suggest full payment of arrears or the action will be scheduled for contempt court. If they need an additional week or two to come up with the amount, have them sign an agreement that becomes an Order of Court holding them to a specific time period. 7. If the defendant is in compliance, explain to them how their children (call them by name) need all monies now, not later. Note: this project was completed in December. Also, tell them their name popped up on a Pennsylvania Statewide Report claiming they are delinquent in child support and if they pay it off their name will be deleted. Have them also sign an agreement that becomes an Order of Court to pay the amount off within specified weeks. 8. If they did not pay or if they did not appear for the conference, they were scheduled for contempt court, with the total amount due recommended. Make sure your Judge is in step with this project from the onset. Note: this also brought to the surface many that were not paying at all towards small arrears. Some had Non-TANF arrears of a couple hundred dollars or less while others had much larger amounts due. 9. Erie's targeted completion date for this project: one week – as officers took up to eight interviews daily. A common side benefit saw staff in all units working closer together. 10. This effort harvested $24,079.00 for the children, saved officers more time from addressing MAIL alerts needlessly (272 actions), and lowered the denominator for the performance ratio. Amnesty Program Objectives: To collect money owed to children from defendants whom are priority challenged, remind defendants who have had a lapse of memory that there is an outstanding bench warrant against them, save Court time by encouraging defendants to pay versus contempt hearings when apprehended, and save children the embarrassment and mental duress from knowing their parent went to jail rather than helping them with their needs. 1. Review the bench warrant list and select older warrants that are yet to be served. 2. Prepare a cover letter advising the defendant the Court is granting an extension until a specified date for him/her to pay a specific amount. Include where and how they can make the payment. The letter is somewhat informal and appeals to the embarrassment saved by taking advantage of this amnesty. Note: The purge amount is not modified. (letter available upon request) 3. Mail the cover letter with a copy of the initial bench warrant and contempt order. 4. Make arrangements with your financial unit to accept the specified amount in the same manner as a purge. 5. Monitor the list for payment. Submit a list to the Sheriff's Department of those that did not comply. Those that did comply a "lift warrant" are completed. 6. Make sure the Sheriff's Department is in step with the program from the onset. The Sheriff's Department then completes a "Bench Warrant Sweep". 7. In one sweep this effort harvested $109,132 from 34 defendants apprehended.
Guidebook for Unmarried Mothers and Fathers to Establish Paternity of the Children. Objectives: To help clients, the City of Erie School District, and hospitals understand the paternity process. Ultimately, the Court/DRS reaps the benefit when all parties are aware of the importance of establishing paternity of the true biological father and the steps to accomplish this right to the children. 1. In partnership with the City of Erie School District, the DRS wrote this guidebook in an elementary format so students could understand the process. 2. The County print shop printed 2500 guidebooks at a cost of .11 cents each. (book available upon request) 3. This guidebook is given to respective students, hospital representatives, and those coming through the DRS Paternity Unit. 4. Two DRS Officers give presentations regularly to the high schools on the importance of establishing paternity and paying support.
Amicable Agreements Objective: To spare non-TANF clients (and the Court/DRS) the expense of waiting to petition to modify and/or attend a support conference. 1. A form document was created where the parties check off designated areas that address their agreement. 2. This form bypasses our Intake and Conference Units to an Administrative Clerk. 3. This DRS representative is in a Clerk level but has SORD access/capability. 4. In the year 2001, the Administrative Clerk processed 1333 Support Orders. 5. Succinct written procedures are available upon request.
Franklin County
Morale boosting The enforcement unit has taken it upon themselves to be "secret pals" to everyone in the office. Everyone's name including their own is put in a basket and each member of the enforcement unit (those who choose to participate, it's been 100% so far) draws a name. These names are kept for two weeks. The object is to leave little presents on their desk and not get caught. These presents may be little things such as a candy bar, can of soda, card with a note for a job well done, cookie, candle, lotion, whatever...... The dollar store is wonderful. No one is sure who they got the gift from. Other people who are not in the Enforcement Unit are also doing random acts of kindness as well. It's been alot of fun. As one of my staff put it: "it takes so little time and effort to lift someone's spirits and make their day". Driver's Licenses The staff makes a copy of the driver's license and put in the folder. This information has been very helpful in our location efforts. Sometimes, this information is not updated on the DEMO screen and this Information provides accurate record of the birthdate, height, weight, eye color and other restrictions. In a case of mistaken identity, the picture can be sent to the plaintiff to identify if it's the correct person. Client Services Unit The Franklin County Domestic Relations Section found the establishment of a Client Services Unit to handle all incoming calls was very beneficial. The handling of the calls allowed the other workers to concentrate on their particular duties: such as reviewing the non-compliance list, working their electronic mail, handling conferences, listing cases for court, etc..... Only calls that needed worker intervention such as working out a payment plan to get off the court list, or an attorney requesting a continuance, etc...were forwarded to the staff. This allows for more efficiency and productivity among the DRS staff. The clients also have consistency with the answers they are getting from these four staff members. We wish we would have made this change sooner.
Interstate Unit During all of the reorganization that occurred in 1999, our office established an interstate unit. Now, this unit can fully concentrate on interstate cases. It has made a difference in a great way. A list of all the interstate cases is reviewed every sixty days. The first thirty days all enforcement action is taken if necessary. The second thirty days is for follow up. This has been successful in many ways. For example: ? It has reduced delinquency on a continual basis due to the follow-up procedures. ? It has established good relationships with the other courts as well as identifying good contact people ? We have been able to educate ourselves on the policies and practices of the other states and counties. ? Most importantly, ewe are now able to give the interstate cases the attention that they deserve One of the most challenging efforts has been to establish a full understanding of UIFSA. It is also one of the biggest concerns of the other States that we work with on a regular basis. Hopefully in the near future, we will have a complete and agreeable working relationship with the full understanding of UIFSA laws. Our office has received good feedback from clients on our efforts and results in helping them.
Lancaster County Health Care Coverage Description/Goal: Pursuant to 23 Pa.C.S.A. § 4326, in every proceeding to establish or modify an order which requires the payment of child support, the court shall ascertain the ability of each parent to provide health care coverage for the children of the parties and the order shall provide health care coverage for each child as appropriate. Since 1992, the majority of support orders entered in Lancaster County directed a parent to provide health care coverage. Verification of the coverage was maintained in the case file but not in the computer database. In November, 1997, Lancaster County Domestic Relations Section case data was transferred to the Pennsylvania's statewide automated child support enforcement system known as PACSES. It is important to note that during the conversion planning for transfer of data from the legacy system into PACSES, Lancaster County DRS made the decision to convert all cases with a medical indicator that the non-custodial parent is directed to provide the coverage (indicator: 'Y') since this represented the majority of cases. The design of PACSES provides easy access to enter or view the health care coverage data. However, in spite of ongoing instructions to workers, a report produced by PACSES in February, 2000, demonstrated poor results. Of the 14,328 PACSES cases with medical indicators which directed the non-custodial parent to provide health care coverage, only 1,411 or 10% of the cases had the information to verify that the coverage had been provided. Action was initiated to identify the cause of the poor results and to develop and implement a corrective action plan. Cause The result of the investigation for the cause appeared to be the absence of entry of the health insurance data into PACSES by DRS workers and the pre-conversion decision to convert all cases with the medical indicator 'Y'. In many instances, workers had obtained verification of coverage from employers and/or clients, but had failed to enter the documentation into PACSES. Case files contained the documentation with dates before and after PACSES conversion. At this point in time, it would have taken significant staff resources to review each case file to confirm if information has been provided. Therefore, the DRS decided to make use of the automated system to resolve the problem. Corrective Action Phase I DRS requested PACSES identify cases that met the following criteria: 1) health care coverage identicator 'Y'; 2) valid employer data; and 3) no medical insurance data in system. Next DRS submitted a request for PACSES to generate orders/subpoenas for health insurance information for employers. On June 2, 2000, 7,000 of these documents were generated and mailed to employers. PACSES entered a case diary entry that the orders were generated to the employers. Additionally, all DRS staff received a 'refresher' course related to proper use of the medical support indicators and to adding medical insurance information into the database in order to insure the accuracy of data on an ongoing basis. DRS also made procedural changes so that insurance information was being entered into the database by the Case Initiation Unit as soon as the order/subpoena for earnings and health insurance information was returned by employers. At the conferences where orders are established or modified, Conference Officers are required to verify the accuracy of the medical insurance information and make any updates to this information. This part of Phase 1 is critical so that the other ongoing actions to improve the statistical measures are primarily focused on converted cases. Results: Once the documents were returned by employers, case reviews were completed by DRS workers to insure the support order was still in effect and to validate the identification of the children as those on the support order. In cases where coverage was in effect, medical insurance data was entered into the PACSES database. If the employer information was no longer valid, employment records were updated so other enforcement remedies could be pursued. The reviews identified: * 300 employer verifications that coverage was available but the children were not enrolled (approximately 100 employers included enrollment forms for signature) *1,551 coverage was unavailable due to part-time employment; termination of employment(this produced a double benefit of updating our employment records) or coverage not provided by the employer *2,200 cases in which medical insurance coverage is in effect for children on the support order Corrective Action Phase 2 In completing Phase 1, it became clear that there were more cases with the incorrect medical indicator from PACSES conversion than was initially believed. It was noted that many cases were 'interstate initiating' where the responding state is required to maintain this insurance data or cases in which the DRS was only collecting the arrears owed without a current support obligation. Again, DRS took advantage of the automated system to assist with Phase 2. DRS requested reports from PACSES of all cases with an 'interstate initiating' indicator and all cases in which there was no ongoing financial support obligation. Results PACSES generated reports based on the criteria requested. DRS staff reviewed the cases identified to determine appropriate actions. This review included use of the legacy system to identify non-financial support cases versus those cases which were open for collection of arrears only. DRS staff then updated the medical indicators for the case in PACSES as appropriate. The reviews identified: 1,500 arrears collection only or interstate cases.
Corrective Action Phase 3 Phase 3 involved development of a strategy to deal with the remaining cases in which medical indicators indicate the non-custodial parent is obligated to provide coverage, but no medical information exists in the database. As before, DRS requested assistance from PACSES to identify cases for which the medical insurance obligation is indicated but there is still no verification of coverage in the database. Results PACSES identified 2,329 cases which fit these criteria and generated a report for DRS staff to use in updating the medical indicators. At this point in the process, DRS staff undertook the effort to review the current support order to determine those cases in which the custodial parent is directed to provide medical insurance or those cases where the Court has determined that medical insurance is not available to the non- custodial parent at a reasonable cost. On a case-by-case basis, the medical indicators were then updated by DRS staff. In those cases where the non-custodial parent was still obligated to provide coverage and had not done so, the medical indicators were updated to non-compliance indicators - 'P'. Once this change is made, a PACSES-generated alert is transmitted to a DRS worker in the Case Management Services Unit. The initial action of the DRS worker is to issue a notice to the non-custodial parent advising that the support order directs the parent to provide coverage and that proof of the coverage must be provided to the DRS within 10 days. Appropriate action by DRS staff will be taken based on the response or lack of response (lack of response results in another PACSES-generated alert). The reviews identified: 625 custodial parents were directed by the current support order to provide medical insurance.
Examples of required follow up action by DRS staff ? Mailing enrollment forms to the non-custodial parent. ? Updating PACSES data to reflect current employment status, medical insurance information and the party responsible for coverage. ? Initiating enforcement action in cases where non-custodial parent fails to provide medical insurance information or to provide medical coverage ? Providing assistance to parties in modification of support orders in cases where circumstances have changed and the other parent is currently providing the medical insurance ? Drafting qualified medical support orders by DRS Staff Attorney in which employers are directed to enroll the children in available group medical plans in instances where the non-custodial parent fails to comply. Outcome of Efforts as of June 30,2001 As a result of efforts to correct data records and gather health insurance information through the variety of means described above, Lancaster Co. Domestic Relations has verified that health care coverage is provided in 55% of the cases in which non- custodial parents are ordered to provide it. The raw data is that this coverage is ordered in 8,076 cases and health insurance verification was obtained in 4,439 cases. Ongoing efforts DRS staff continue to work on an ongoing basis to insure that the coverage is provided by non-custodial parents as ordered by the Court. This includes ongoing efforts to enter and verify health insurance information every time a case action is taken and insuring that the medical indicators in PACSES properly reflect the provisions of the support order. PACSES periodically updates the data report which shows cases in which health care coverage is ordered, but not provided. The Case Management Service Unit continues to systematically work on these cases to seek voluntary compliance from non-custodial parents through written requests for the health insurance information. If this effort is unsuccessful and the non-custodial parent is employed, staff members issue order/subpoenas for health insurance information to the employer. As appropriate, these cases may be referred for qualified medical support orders or be scheduled for contempt conferences as resources permit. Outcome of efforts as of January 31, 2002 Based on the ongoing efforts noted above, the Lancaster County Domestic Relations Section has verified that health care coverage is now provided in 60% of the cases in which non-custodial parents are ordered to provide it as of January 31, 2001. CareerLink Program Introduction For several years, Lancaster County Domestic Relations Section (DRS) has been in partnership with a job program in order to implement the welfare-to-work portions of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) for non-custodial parents. This program provided an additional remedy to the DRS's enforcement arsenal whereby a non-custodial parent (NCP) could be ordered to participate in job training programs or engage in job search activities. While this program has enjoyed successes, PRWORA has limitations which targeted specific groups of parents who were eligible for funded job programs. Many DRS staff felt that there were other groups of NCP's who could benefit from similar assistance that were not eligible for participation in the Welfare-To-Work program. Program Development and Description To address the above concerns, a committee comprised of DRS line staff and management was formed to brainstorm about creating a different program that would be accessible to more clients. After initial brainstorming occurred, the committee began to research other jobs programs available to assist citizens in career and job services. The result of this research has been the development of a program of the DRS in partnership with Team PA CareerLink. The program has been aptly named CareerLink. Team PA CareerLink is connected to the Lancaster Employment and Training Agency (LETA) and is funded by the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). Whereas an NCP can be ordered as part of an enforcement proceeding to participate in the Welfare-to-Work program if NCP fails to remit necessary child support payments, the CareerLink program has been structured as a totally voluntary program. DRS staff identifies potential referrals for this program through the routine review of enforcement alerts generated by the PA Automated Child Support Enforcement System (PACSES). Those targeted for this program are NCP's with a history of chronic unemployment or underemployment that are not currently involved in other enforcement actions. NCP's are sent a letter of invitation to come into the DRS office and discuss this program with a Conference Officer assigned to the Case Management Services Unit. These appointments are scheduled in 15 minute increments on 2 days per week and are designed to give the DRS staff the opportunity to briefly explain the program. When the NCP appears in DRS and shows interest in participating, the NCP is given a date to attend a general orientation at LETA's CareerLink center. The DRS staff notifies LETA of the NCP's scheduled to attend an orientation session and documents the program participation in PACSES. After the general orientation, CareerLink staff schedules a subsequent appointment with the NCP to perform an initial assessment and to determine if NCP meets eligibility requirements for any of the job training/assistance programs offered. If eligible, the NCP is enrolled in the most appropriate program and job searching begins under the guidance and with the assistance of the CareerLink staff. As a part of the DRS/CareerLink partnership, staff members at the CareerLink center regularly update DRS regarding NCP participation in the program as well as any positive or negative results of this participation. As may be expected, some NCP's appear for the program orientation but then are unwilling to schedule the subsequent intake appointment. Some NCP's fail to appear for the appointment after it has been scheduled. Other NCP's cooperate fully with the CareerLink staff and are fully involved in the program and are searching for a higher paying job that will not only lift their personal esteem but make it possible for them to meet their child support obligations. Results The program has been in operation since December 11, 2001. Between December 11, 2001 and January 30, 2002, approx. 476 invitations have been mailed to NCP's identified as meeting criteria for this program. As a result of this initial mailing, approx. 76 NCP's have appeared in DRS to discuss the program. Approx. 30 NCP's from this group participated in the orientation program at CareerLink. From that group, 24 progressed further into the program. As a further note, 80 NCP's from the initial group of 476 which had not responded to the CareerLink invitation from DRS had already attained employment and were remitting child support payments via income withholding.The cases of those NCP's who chose not to take advantage of this program are subsequently reviewed and traditional enforcement remedies are initiated based upon the specifics of the case. However, at this point in time, the number of cases requiring further enforcement action has been reduced by more than 30%. This reduction in enforcement conferences enabled DRS in the short term to eliminate the backlog of cases waiting for enforcement conferences without impacting performance measures related to collections. In the long term, it may enable DRS to make more conference time available for establishment conferences which will impact performance measures related to support order establishment and paternity establishment.
Philadelphia County In an effort to serve the community, there have been many new and exciting developments in Philadelphia County Domestic Relations Division. The staff and administration have worked hand-in hand to break some new ground and forge ahead in new directions. Intake Triage The case initiation process has been enhanced with Intake Triage located in the lobby area of 34 S. 11th Street. Clients who wish to file support /custody complaints or petitions are interviewed by staff assigned to the Triage center. The PACSES system is updated, and clients are directed to the proper court helping to reduce long waits for clients who wish to file support and custody petitions. Support Enforcement Triage Due to the success of the Intake triage, support / enforcement triage has been added to our available client services. Clients scheduled for support or enforcement conferences are pre-screened in the Customer Service Center. The PACSES system is updated and supporting documentation collated prior to the scheduled conference, and customers spend less time waiting. In October alone the Customer Service Center pre-screened 2695 people enabling them to move more rapidly through the system. Support Enforcement Merge The Child Support Enforcement and Principle Enforcement Units merged. This merger has allowed for expeditious case processing. The conference officers now can address paternity establishment, order establishment, and enforcement of outstanding arrears simultaneously, eliminating fragmented case processing. Group Conferencing On March 5, 2001 all cases that involve clients who receive Welfare are scheduled for group conferencing. Ninety cases are scheduled daily; 60 cases in the morning, and 30 cases in the afternoon. Due to the massive scheduling effort, paternity establishment, support obligations, and modifications can be entered quickly on these voluminous cases. This also reduces the time between the filing of complaints and the actual scheduled conference date. Order Establishment Unit This unit's concentration is focused on Federal Case Closure requirements, and special projects designed to enhance Federal performance measures. This unit commenced as a pilot with a multi-task purpose of managing the influx of welfare referrals with a speedy conference date resulting in child support orders or case closure. Extended Hours Customer Service Telephone Bank The Customer Service Center Telephone Bank is now open for extended hours on Wednesday evenings until 8:00 p.m. Clients are encouraged to contact the center with any general or specific questions they have. This helps to serve the segment of the public whose work schedule prohibits them from calling the court during regular business hours. Child Care Subsidy Paper Referral Project Based on a cooperative plan with the Domestic Relations Division, the Department of Public Welfare, the School District of Philadelphia, and Philadelphia Child Care Resources, a paper referral process is now in place for child care subsidy cases. Parents who are re-entering the work force and have applied for day care, can now seek child support through an initial paper referral process. Bench Warrant Unit In an effort to expedite the processing of bench warrants, newly renovated offices have been completed in the basement of 34 S.11th St. The Bench Warrant Unit and the Trial Commissioner's Court room are now housed side by side helping to move clients with outstanding warrants through the system in a timely fashion.
NEW ORDER ENFORCEMENT The following is an outline of the Enforcement Operations Unit "New Order Enforcement" procedures. The New Order Enforcement process is designed to compel defendants to comply with their court ordered support obligation before extensive enforcement action is required. The process includes notices which are mailed to the defendant when the initial order is entered at fifteen days, thirty days and a final forty five-day notice. New Order Notice The initial notice (New Order Notice) advises the defendant an order of support has been entered on the case and payment is due immediately. The notice includes payment instructions and three envelopes which have the PA-SCDU payment address preprinted. This notice advises the defendant they are to continue to make the court ordered support payments until the attachment of their wages has been initiated. The case is then placed in a fifteen day follow up file. Fifteen Day Notice At the fifteen day follow up date the case is reviewed for payment status. If a wage attachment is in effect the case is noted and no further action is required. If no payments have been received, a second notice is mailed to the defendant (Fifteen Day Notice) advising a review of their case indicates fifteen days has lapsed since the entry of a support order and payment has yet to be received. As with the New Order Notice this notice contains payment instructions and advises the defendant payment is due immediately. The case is again placed in a fifteen day follow up file. Thirty Day Notice At thirty days the case is again reviewed for payment status. If a wage attachment is in effect the case is noted and no further action is required. If payments are not being received at thirty days, the defendant is mailed a final new order notice. The final notice advises the defendant a review of their case confirms they were recently notified that an order of support was entered in their case and they were required to begin making payments immediately and continue until their wages have been attached. This notice advises payment must be received by a specific date in order to avoid the entry of a contempt petition and possible initiation of enforcement actions such as drivers license suspension and credit bureau notification. Again payment instructions are provided with this notice. The case again is placed in a fifteen day follow up file.
Tioga County In Tioga County, many attorneys are successful in obtaining support agreements that are subsequently forwarded to the Domestic Relations Section. In order to process the agreements, the DRS usually must contact some or all of the parties for further information or clarification of outstanding issues such as medical support, wage attachment, verification of DOB's or SSN's, effective dates, etc. In order to improve service to clients and their attorneys, the DRS will now require that all submitted agreements be in the form of a standardized order. This form will become the actual court order in the case and the DRS will no longer produce a new order. By completing the actual order attorneys and their clients will be made fully aware of their responsibilities as well as the actions the court will pursue if compliance with the order becomes an issue.
Statewide Initiatives Communication
The unique partnership that exists within the Pennsylvania child support enforcement program among the county Domestic Relations Offices, the Courts, PACSES (the automated Pennsylvania Child Support Enforcement System) and the Bureau of Child Support Enforcement lends itself to a constant monitoring of the services being provided to the users. In this light, the user is the client paying or receiving support, the Domestic Relations employee working in the system, other interested legislative and Human Service agencies and the State, administering the Program. Pennsylvania's success in the area of child support is keyed to having clear lines of communication and receptive, knowledgeable listeners.
The Pennsylvania child support program employs many forums to ensure everyone has a voice in the process, from Daily Production Reports sent statewide via email to reports on system enhancements and schedules, to weekly PACSES management meetings to quarterly PACSES Advisory Committee meetings where the County Domestic Relations Sections (DRS)'s and the State negotiate the prioritization of system enhancements. Also, the IV-D Director and his staff meet with the County Director's quarterly (and more frequently if needed) to examine and resolve critical issues. Within PACSES the County Domestic Relations offices can access a myriad of information via the Data Warehouse to determine if any program area requires attention; request specialized, county-specific reports to aid in data or case clean-up and contact a County assigned subject-matter-expert (SME) to address system navigation issues.
Pennsylvania's success hinges on the fact that none of the players ever lose sight of our mission - providing excellent customer service in the collection of support.
Customer Service
The Pennsylvania Child Support Enforcement program has established several channels for constituents (i.e. plaintiffs, defendants, employers) to seek information and obtain answers to their child support questions. For example, the Statewide Collection and Disbursement Unit (SCDU) Automated Voice Response (AVR) system, the "pachildsupport.com" web site and the SCDU customer service unit provide answers to questions regarding child support collections and payments. Customers who call the SCDU customer service unit with specific case or enforcement questions are directed to the appropriate county DRS for resolution of their questions. Monthly statistics are gathered and recorded for the number of SCDU customer service calls, the number of AVR calls and the number of home page hits. These statistics are published to Project management and county users, and are used to modify the operation of these channels as necessary.
The Pennsylvania Child Support Enforcement program has developed various tools and launched initiatives to better serve the program constituents (i.e. program management staff, welfare agency staff, and county users). The Enterprise Data Warehouse, a tool that was implemented in early 2000, enables county management and program management to monitor and evaluate summary program data collected by different systems (i.e. FIDM, New Hire, CIS). In addition, it supports the Commonwealth's Child Support federal reporting (OCSE 157, 34A, Data Reliability Audits), Self-Assessment reporting, and Outcome measures for critical PRWORA initiatives – Driver's License program, New Hire Match program, Credit Bureau reporting, and Financial Institution Data Match program. Trends in program performance and data reliability are used to draw conclusions about customer service effectiveness – high performance and quality data implies better customer service.
Understanding that the ability to measure performance and evaluate constituency service is based on the integrity of the data being measured, the concept of a Data Integrity Team evolved. The mission of this task group is to ensure complete and accurate data in the PACSES database. To achieve this goal, the team identifies factors that cause data problems, extract the problem data from the PACSES mainframe and distribute clean-up lists to the counties for follow-up action. Additionally, remedial steps are taken to prevent future data problems from occurring through modification of software, worker training and user documentation such as quick reference guides and best practices.
The data integrity initiative has lead to tremendous accomplishments in the following areas:
? Improved child support collections ? Improved business practices ? Enhanced communications with counties and courts ? Implementation of more efficient enforcement remedies ? Improved county performance
Ultimately these accomplishments have improved client customer service.
A critical factor for effective and successful customer service is good communications to all users of PACSES. The Commonwealth understands that providing accurate and timely information to PACSES users better serves the users. Thus, an Intranet application was created for information dissemination. The PACSES Intranet web site is constantly evolving with new content based on user requests and needs. Reference information such as the Daily production status, PACSES publications, User tips, What's New, local contact directories in other states for interstate cases, data clean-up lists and PACSES statistics reside on the Intranet.
Several in-house intranet applications manage problem identification and resolution. These applications allow caseworkers to make requests for operational tasks such as – financial adjustment requests, employer information change requests, ad hoc reporting requests and workshop requests. Close monitoring of the volume and nature of these requests are valuable indications of the effectiveness of service delivery. Interstate Issues
In addition to effective utilization of the automated system, Pennsylvania is taking several additional actions to maintain quality and consistency. For example, in 2001, three conferences were hosted by Pennsylvania and co-sponsored by Region III to improve the establishment and collection of child support orders involving interstate cases. The first conference hosted by the York County Domestic Relations Section included state and local child support professionals from Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. The second conference hosted by the Lehigh County Domestic Relations Section addressed concerns of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The third conference hosted by the Allegheny County Domestic Relations Section addressed interstate issues of New York, West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Participants provided very favorable evaluations for the conferences. For example, in answer to the question: How would you rate the conference, on a scale of 1 to 5, the highest number of participants gave the York conference an "excellent" rating of 5. In Pennsylvania, during the period 4/1/01 through 10/31/01, Interstate collections were up over $700,000 compared to the same period in 2000. The active participation of more than 60 of the 67 Pennsylvania counties and the Bureau of Child Support Enforcement in the series of interstate conferences is credited with much of the improvement.
Management Reviews
The Pennsylvania BCSE provides extensive management reviews of local offices upon request. These reviews provide technical assistance and have been very successful. For example, Montgomery County used this review to reorganize their office resulting in annual collection increases of more than $20 million.
Self-Assessment
Pennsylvania effectively utilizes the Self-Assessment Report mandated by OCSE. This program gauges the performance of the 67 county Title IV-D agencies so that the Commonwealth can maximize its share of available Federal incentive dollars. The Self- Assessment Report measures County Title IV-D performance in eight specific areas of operations. Pennsylvania utilizes every case in developing the Self Assessment report. This provides a more accurate picture than a selected sample.
At the State level, the Self-Assessment Report is used by Title IV-D audit staff for risk analysis to establish a statewide audit plan annually and to identify the operations in a specific county Title IV-D agency that require review. The pre-planning capability provided by the Self-Assessment Report allows the auditors to use their time more efficiently and effectively. Additionally, Pennsylvania's Title IV-D agency is able to provide a more timely reaction to identified problems and offer technical assistance to the county Title IV-D agencies. Technical assistance is provided in the form of management reviews, training in the specific high risk areas identified by the Self- Assessment Report, and cooperative projects involving State and county staff.
The county Title IV-D Agency Directors use the Self-Assessment Report as a diagnostic tool. The Directors can identify areas of their operation that are not performing at acceptable levels and develop or revise business practices accordingly. Additionally, the county Title IV-D agency directors use the Self-Assessment Report to compare their performance against that of the other counties in Pennsylvania. Such comparison often leads to exchanges of ideas and best practices between the county directors, and at times results in statewide changes in Title IV-D policy and practices. The result is a collaborative environment among the counties and the counties and the State. The calculations and determinations of the efficiency ratios on which county Title IV-D performance is determined are fully automated.
Statewide Disbursement Unit In October 1999, Pennsylvania implemented its State Collection and Disbursement Unit (SCDU) statewide. By the end of November 1999, SCDU had 16,507 receipts for $2.4m which could not be distributed because the payments lacked sufficient information to identify the payor. Pennsylvania immediately instituted a process whereby a letter requesting additional information required to post the payment is mailed to the payor. The letter requesting additional information is mailed within 24 hours of receipt of the unidentified payment and includes a self-addressed envelope. Using this process, Pennsylvania was able to dramatically reduce the number of unidentified and undistributable collections at their SCDU. Currently, Pennsylvania has less than 1000 unidentifiable/undistributed payments totaling less than $100,000. This amount of undistributed collections is truly remarkable considering annual collections of nearly 1.3 billion dollars.
TANF Referrals Currently when the County Assistance Office (CAO) enters child support related data into their IV-A eligibility system, the Client Information System (CIS) generates a child support referral that evening during batch processing. The referral is passed through the interface and appears on the Domestic Relations Section (DRS) worker's MAIL screen. The DRS worker then researches the referral and attempts to either merge the referral to an existing case or creates a new case on the Pennsylvania Child Support Enforcement System (PACSES). In some instances the worker cannot process the referral because of incorrect data received from the CAO. The DRS worker cannot change any information on the referral. While there can be many reasons for not being able to process a referral, the 4 most common are: 1.Wrong plaintiff on referral 2.Incomplete name in Defendant/Alleged name field 3.Wrong children associated with Defendant/Alleged 4.Incomplete child's name on referral When the DRS cannot process a referral they send a request to PACSES headquarters staff to have the referral deleted. PACSES staff reviews the request to see whether it is valid. If it is a valid request, PACSES staff deletes the referral and instructs the DRS to contact the CAO to correct CIS and resend a new referral. This process is used in all counties except Philadelphia, and has been in effect since March, 2001. Special initiatives for Philadelphia are being developed to accommodate the volume of referrals. A problem has developed with the CAOs correcting the problem and resending a referral. Until correct referral is received and processed, child support cannot be reassigned to the Department of Public Welfare (DPW). At the request of Westmoreland County DRS, a training class was held on January 29th and 30th for 8 counties in the southwest part of the state and included both CAO and DRS staff. The training was primarily for CAO staff on how to avoid sending incorrect referrals and how to correct a referral and resend a correcting referral. Since the time of the training there has been over a 50% reduction in the number of bad referrals being received by the DRS's. Numerous County Assistance Offices applauded the training because they did not understand the referral process and how to successfully correct a referral when needed.
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