DCL-98-85, Calendar Year 2000 status

DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTER DCL-98-85
DATE: August 25, 1998
TO: All State IV-D Directors
RE: Calendar Year 2000 status

Dear Colleague:

As you know, there is major concern about the impact of the Calendar Year 2000 (Y2K) "computer glitch" in all areas of the economy, including child support enforcement programs. We've reflected that concern in regulations implementing the systems requirements in Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. This regulation was published on August 21, 1998. Among other things, the regulation provides that we will require States which have not adequately addressed Y2K issues and are thus at high risk of failure or disruption of services to obtain Independent Validation and Verification services.

Most of the Advance Planning Documents submitted so far don't provide ACF with adequate or up-to-date information on the Y2K-compliance status of State child support systems nor on actions States are taking to correct those problems. So that we may determine which States are at risk and to help us target our technical assistance resources, we're requesting that each State child support agency submit an addendum to its Advance Planning Document Update. The information we're requesting is detailed in the attachment to this memorandum.

To minimize the paperwork burden of this request, we'll accept the Y2K addendum in a variety of forms:

If your APD already contains the necessary information and we've overlooked it, you can just direct us to the appropriate section of your APD;
If your State has already responded to the GAO Survey of State's Welfare Automated Systems Year 2000, simply send us a copy of the completed survey. It appears that this survey will address most of the issues listed in the attachment to this memorandum;
If you've already prepared reports on your Y2K activities which address the items listed in the attachment to this memorandum, simply send us copies of those reports; or,
Send us the information by E-mail, fax, or provide a summary and status update through a phone conversation with your Regional Office contact; we'll type up our notes based on the telephone conversation and incorporate that into your APDU.

We aren't looking for a voluminous submission. Rather, we'd like to get a snapshot of where your systems are with respect to Y2K compliance, what steps you're taking to correct Y2K problems, and your time frame for completing the tasks of making your child support, check issuance, and interfaced systems Y2K compliant.

I appreciate your efforts and look forward to working with you to address this problem. If you have questins about this request, you may direct them to your systems contact in the appropriate ACF Regional Office.

Sincerely,

David Gray Ross
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement

Enclosures

INFORMATION REQUESTED FOR CSE Y2K APD ADDENDUM

States' Y2K APD Addenda should include as much of the following information as possible:

1) State contact name, title, address and phone/fax numbers.

2) The current status of the State's Y2000 efforts related to the statewide automated Child support Enforcement system in the following categories. Please provide the percentage complete and estimated completion dates for any stage that isn't finished yet.

Assessment
Renovation
Validation
Implementation
Contingency plans

Definitions of these terms are attached.

3) If the State automated system that issues child support checks is separate from the State's child support automated system, please provide the same information in the same format as for Item 2, above, for that system.

4) What are the critical interfaces to the child support automated system that you have identified?(i.e. TANF, DMV, SESA). Please report on the Y2K status of those systems, using the categories in Item 2, above.

5) Describe the contingency plans for the child support enforcement program if any of the above systems are not Y2K compliant by January 1, 2000. If your State does not yet have contingency plans, describe the status of efforts to develop such plans and the expected completion date for this effort.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

GAO defines Y2K activity categories as follows:

Assessment is assessing the impact on the enterprise, identifying core business areas and processes, inventory and analyze automated systems supporting the core business areas, and prioritized their conversion or replacement. Develop contingency plans to handle data exchange issues, lack of date and bad data. Identify and secure the necessary resources.

Renovation: Modify, replace, or eliminate selected platforms, applications, databases, and utilities. Modify interfaces.

Validation: Test, verify and validate converted or replaced platforms, applications, databases, and utilities. Test the performance, functionality, and integration of converted or replace platforms, applications, databases, utilities and interfaces in an operational environment.

Implementation: Implement modified or replaced platforms, applications, databases, utilities, and interfaces. Implement data exchange contingency plans, if necessary.