Colorado Child Support and Child Care Assistance – Picking up the County Option

1. Colorado Child Support and Child Care Assistance – Picking up the County Option Trish Logan Liz Trujillo Christian Maddy 6/4/13

2. Agenda • Provide the information about the County Option and it’s requirements • Provide the State Office Perspective • Share Arapahoe County’s Story • Open Discussion / Questions

3. What is the County Option? • CRS 26-2-805 • Volume 3, Section 3.919 • Requirements • Develop a referral process and notify CSE • Low Income Child Care • Determine a Good Cause process • Develop cooperation and non-cooperation procedures

4. What is the County Option? • Requirements (cont.) • Notify CSE of CCAP Closures within 11 days (What do you think of this requirement?) • All children must be referred regardless of child care assistance eligibility if Good Cause is not approved • Inform caretakers of the CSE requirement and right to apply for Good Cause in writing at the time of application

5. Good Cause • Includes but is not limited to: • Potential Physical or emotional harm to the child(ren), adult caretaker or relative • Pregnancy or birth of a child related to incest or forcible rape • Legal adoption in a court of law or a parent is receiving pre-adoption services

6. Pros and Cons of Child Support Involvement Pro Con Assists families in goal of self-sufficiency by accessing all available income. Counties have seen a drop in child care that allows elimination of wait lists. Fraud reduction due to unreported members of the household. Some families will not apply for child care due to this requirement. This may due to misconceptions and other anxieties.

7. Counties that require CSE (75%) Adams Alamosa Arapahoe Bent Boulder Broomfield Chaffee Cheyenne/Kit Carson Conejos Costilla Denver Douglas Elbert El Paso Garfield Gilpin Grand/Jackson Gunnison/Hinsdale Huerfano Jefferson Lake La Plata/San Juan

8. Counties that require CSE (75%) (Cont.) Pueblo Rio Blanco Routt San Miguel Summit Teller Washington Weld Larimer Lincoln Logan Mesa Mineral/Rio Grande Montrose Morgan Otero Ouray Park Phillips

9. CSE and Wait Lists Denver County had been on a waiting list for several years, when they added child support enforcement to their plan the waiting list was eliminated within one year.

10. Counties with wait lists that do not require CSE Eagle Prowers

11. CSE and Fraud Weld County found that a lot of their investigations and recoveries were due to another parent in the home but not reported. Child Support Enforcement often stops this because we receive information when the non-custodial parent and custodial parent have the same address. If the non-custodial parent is in the home the family often does not want to pursue child support because the parent is already contributing.

12. Arapahoe County • Fraud Cases • Altered Birth Certificates (The recipient provided a birth certificate to CSE in which the father’s name was “photo shopped” off the document. CCAP had the original for comparison) • TANF Recipient / Child Care Provider (A relative payee / head of household was also the childcare provider for a case in which she had instructed her great granddaughter to apply for CCAP while she received TANF) • Fictitious child (The recipient was receiving services for an older unrelated child while her actual child had not yet been born. She then attempted update the date of birth)

13. Arapahoe County • Starting March 2011 • Worked out cooperation and good cause process before beginning • Determined the requirement for an application fee (started with yes, then later to waived) • Informed existing clients through the redetermination process • Every ongoing case was captured within 6 months • Followed that all children referral requirement regardless of CCAP eligibility • Developed a database for referral and information sharing

14. Arapahoe County • Promoted families from the waitlist August 2011 • Closed cases that did not meet the CSE requirement allowing for waitlisted cases to be opened • Added CSE requirement documents to the application and added an additional CSE requirement letter generated by the database open referral (this was later applied to new cases) • Eliminated the waitlist March 2012 • Increased the income requirement to 185% of the Federal Poverty Line March 2013

15. Database • Tracking and letter generation • Mail merge database designed to do both • Evolved into a system to track incoming applications • Now tracks timeframes for compliance along with its originally intended uses • Latest enhancement includes all child care assistance application (outside of child support referrals)

16. Database

17. Outreach • CSE developed a reverse referral process in which existing child support cases with day care and a guideline with both child care costs and income below income requirement • Both CSE and CCAP have been trained to explain the benefits of CSE to applicants

18. Lessons Learned • Why the County Option closes Child Care Cases • Fear • Fear of the other party • Fear of losing control of parenting time • Fear of a fraud investigation • CSE and CCAP must have a collaborative working relationship in order to be successful • Could have done better up front training with staff (we learned while doing)

19. Parental Fee and Guidelines

20. Parental Fee and Guidelines

21. How is your process going?

22. What are your successes and what have you learned?

23. Conclusion • Questions • Thank you!