Court Technology Bulletin

DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTER DCL-98-77
DATE : August 6, 1998
TO : All IV-D Directors
RE : Court Technology Bulletin

Dear Colleague:

Enclosed is a copy of an article by the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) entitled "Child Support Enforcement Reform and Its Impact on Court Technology," which appears in the most recent issue of the Court Technology Bulletin published by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC).

The article describes changes in child support enforcement mandated by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996, the critical role the judicial system will play in the success of the legislation, and how court technology needs to be adapted to meet the new requirements. It focuses on the implementation of the Federal Case Registry (FCR) and the State Case Registries (SCRs), emphasizing the importance of cooperation between State IV-D agencies and the court system in order to transmit information from court records to each SCR.

With the October 1, 1998 deadline just around the corner, we encourage you to contact your local court officials to discuss how the required data will be transmitted from the court system to the SCR, if you have not done so already. As you are aware, the Federal law requires that a Family Violence Indicator (FVI) be set on all persons with an active protection order entered on their behalf. It is strongly recommended that you work with your local court system to find out if they administer a protection order registry that can be adapted for the purposes of reporting to the FCR. We hope that this article will facilitate such discussions between your office and the judicial community. OCSE is prepared to provide technical assistance to State IV-D agencies and State court systems to help them jointly implement the new law. If you have any questions, please contact Philip Browning at (202) 401-5530, or the FPLS Information Line at (202) 401-9267.

Sincerely,

David Gray Ross
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement

Enclosure / Link
Court Technology Bulletin