Focusing Frontline Staff on Performance Goals

1. Focusing Frontline Staff on Performance Goals Carla Smith, Ethan McKinney and Steven Golightly

2. WELCOME! Pennsylvania St. Joseph Co., IN LA County, CA

3. Crawford County, PA • Located in NW PA, Crawford County borders both Trumbull and Ashtabula Counties, OH • 2,338 open cases in Crawford County • 427,634 open cases in PA

4. PA Performance Measures

5. Cases with Orders • Data Integrity Tasks (DIT) • Data Warehouse Reports (DW) • E-Reports

6. Cases with Orders continued DW - OCSE 157A DIT List - Pending Complaints

7. Cases with Orders continued E-Report R606 Pending Paternity and Support Order Actions

8. IV-D Paternity Establishment • Paternity Tracking System (PTS) • E-Reports I know who my daddy is!

9. IV-D Paternity Establishment continued PTS AOP Form

10. IV-D Paternity Establishment continued

11. Current Support Paid • Parent Support Services Coordinator (PSSC) • Performance Improvement Module (PIM) • Payment Score Calculator (PSC) • Data Warehouse Reports (DW)

12. Current Support Paid continued PSSC Number of Agreed Upon orders went from 40.70% to 63.12% Proactive vs. Reactive 30-Day Collections increased from 67% to 77% 90-Day Collections increased from 74% to 84% 60-Day Collections increased from 80% to 84%

13. Current Support Paid continued PIM

14. Current Support Paid continued PIM (continued)… PIM Dashboard– Default Filter PIM - Projects

15. Current Support Paid continued PSC Payor Probable Payor Unlikely Payor Very Unlikely Payor 4 3 2 1

16. Current Support Paid continued DW

17. Arrears Ratio • Arrears payment notices • First Payment Agreement • Performance Improvement Module (PIM) • Child Support Lien Network

18. Arrears Ratio continued Initial Conferences Modifications

19. Arrears Ratio continued First Payment Agreement

20. Arrears Ratio continued PIM

21. Arrears Ratio continued CSLN Collections Calendar Year 2013

22. Office Culture

23. St. Joseph County • Located in North Central Indiana on the Michigan Border. • Approximately 16,000 open cases. • Judicial State: Court must enter orders.

24. Creating a Performance Culture • Educate Elected Officials. • Number of cases likely impacts more constituents than any other issue. • Ties to family reduce recidivism. • Children who are supported less likely engage in crime. • Improved performance = greater service to the community.

25. Creating a Performance Culture • Educate your staff. • Explain how by focusing on performance you can improve service. • Emphasize how dollars collected go directly to families. • In FFY: 2013 $28,509,039 went directly to families and $318,905.07 went to TANF. • Improved performance = more $$$ directly in households who need it.

26. Creating a Performance Culture • Utilize any tools you have to track your success. • State Reports • Caseworker Statistics • DPA Statistics • Court Statistics • Celebrate Successes!

27. Decide Where to Focus • Assess where you stand in the 4 federal performance areas: • Paternity Establishment Ratio • Support Order Ratio • Current Support Collections • Cases Paying on Arrears

28. Paternity Establishment • We have the most direct control over this performance measure. • BOW Indicator Report (Born Out of Wedlock) • Work this report from beginning to end and repeat. • Correct any indicators that are wrong. • If paternity legally acknowledged by affidavit change the indicator. • Set Paternity Hearings or Stipulation Appointments

29. Support Order Ratio • Like Paternity can be directly improved by our actions. • New Case/Case Type Change Report • Make sure all new cases have support orders. • This includes divorces. • Parties may have been divorced and not gotten a support order. • Case may have a support order but no one updated your system. • Set any hearings you need.

30. Support Order Ratio Continued • New IV-D Case Report • If a new case opens, confirm the data is correct. • Was support entered? • Update system correctly. • Set appropriate hearings if no support entered.

31. Support Order Ratio Continued • No Support Order Report • This is one of our most productive reports. • Yes I talked about it last year! • All cases where paternity is established; legal, affidavit or court order but no support order. • Have a supervisor work this report. • Update BOW indicator, set court dates, set stipulation appointments. • Started with 5500, last year down to 700 and now down to 400 cases w/o support orders.

32. Current Support Collections • Not Paying in Full, but paid within last 30 days. • This is an NCP who is willing to pay, caseworkers to review why not meeting full amount. • Issue EV to determine if wages justify support order. • Does NCP have multiple orders? • Employer submitting wrong amounts? • Tip Income position? • Other targeted enforcement.

33. Cases Paying On Arrears • Cases that have not paid in 1 fiscal year. • Non-Payment Letters • Collection Calls • Administrative Enforcement • Administrative Hearings • Judicial Enforcement (per State Law) • Repeat until compliance

34. Cases Paying On Arrears • Cases with a $0.00 support order and owe arrears. • Cohabitation Order or Incarcerated • Stipulation to Zero Arrears due to in-kind or direct support. • IWO to Prison for minimum amount on arrears. • SSI Case = Close!

35. Modification Program • Federal Requirement is: • If Active TANF and no review in the past 3 years. • Party Requests Modification and no review in the past 3 years. • Parties do not have to provide evidence of a substantial change if the order hasn’t been reviewed in 3 years.

36. Modification Program • Nothing stops you from doing more. • 3 years is a long time for many of our participants. • Indiana Law allows for modification 1x per year with 20% change in support order or anytime there is a substantial change in circumstances. • Check your State Law and see what is the minimum time an order must be in effect.

37. Proactive Modification Program • Develop a proactive modification program. • Consider your resources • Court’s resources • Procedures you can implement to streamline.

38. Proactive Modification Program • SSI • SSD • Prison • Co-Habitation • Oldest Child Emancipates • Reported Substantial Change

39. SSI Modification • Streamline a process for SSI Modifications. • SSI modifications we file to modify to $0.00 and then Close. • Motion and proposed order, no hearing unless objection. • Wait the appropriate time under your trial rules then submit the Order. Our Court approves typically in 7-10 days.

40. SSD Modification • SSD Modifications • File a Petition when the NCP files for SSD. In Indiana this preserves the retroactive date for the modification. • SSD Income plus any derivative benefit the child or children receive. • Lump sum custodian received credit off the arrearage. Ongoing overage credit off the arrearage.

41. Prison Modification • Prison Modifications • We do these like our SSI Modifications. • Petition, Proposed Order, no hearing unless of objections. • Only objections are other income. • We have had a few, an NCP with book royalties and an NCP with a monthly payment from an annuity.

42. Cohabitation Modification • Parties living together, sharing expenses but not married. • Agreed deviation off the worksheet to zero based on direct support, so long as not on TANF. • Address arrears, may be zero if direct support was going on in the past too. • Payment arrangement for any TANF arrears prior to cohabitation.

43. Oldest Child Emancipates • In Indiana the emancipation age is now 19. (used to be 21) • Support Orders for multiple children are entered en gross. • When oldest child turns 19 on an en gross order we file petition to modify on our own. • Recalculate support only for remaining un-emancipated children.

44. Substantial Change • Can modify in Indiana at any time with a substantial change in circumstances that makes the prior support order unreasonable. • Caseworker determines if substantial change is a possibility and sets a Modification Stipulation appointment. • DPA determines if it is appropriate to modify based upon this.

45. Substantial Change • Examples of Possible Substantial Change: • New Child • Change in Income/Job Loss • Emancipation of a child • Custody Change • Dramatic parenting time change • Any other change deemed substantial.

46. Substantial Change • DPAs Decide • Our policy is the caseworker sets the appointment on good faith belief it may apply. • DPA conducts interview with parties and completes worksheet and makes decision to go forward or not. • These require your DPAs to make judgment calls.

47. Benefits of Proactive Mods • Correct Orders are entered. • More likely to pay correct order. • Higher percent of current support can be more reasonably collected. • More regular amount for Custodial Parent to budget. • Less time spent chasing people who want to pay. • Enforcement actions more justified.

48. Court Time Issues • We were set out 3 months for most hearings. • Court gives us a lot of time, could not give us more. • We had to look at what we could do in office to improve results.

49. In Office Programs • Created in office Modification Stipulations • A scheduled appointment with a DPA. • Also better customer service than Court. • Created in office Administrative Reviews for enforcement. • Fulfills OCSE AT-12-01 – Case Screening • Now Court is set out 4-6 weeks. • This is the perfect time for service issues.

50. Los Angeles County Demographics • Los Angeles County’s population is larger than the population of 43 individual states in the nation. • Most populous county in the nation with close to ten million people. • Los Angeles is home to people from more than 140 countries, who speak at least 224 languages and dialects.