DCL-00-111, New Online Course for Small Business Employers

DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTER

DCL-00-111

DATE: November 1, 2000

TO: ALL STATE IV-D DIRECTORS

RE: New Online Course for Small Business Employers

Dear Colleague:

I am pleased to announce a new online course entitled Child Support Enforcement and the Small Business Employer: What Every Employer Needs to Know About Child Support. This course is included in the curriculum available on the Small Business Administration's "Small Business Classroom" a digital strategy for training small business clients.

To expand its outreach effort to six million small business employers, the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) collaborated with the Small Business Administration (SBA) by placing this course in SBA's web-based classroom. Since most small business employers have neither the time nor the financial ability to attend workshops and conferences, this online course gives them the information they need, when and where they need it, free of cost. It also serves child support professionals and attorneys who want to review the basic responsibilities and practices of the employer community with respect to child support.

Based on The Employer's Desk Guide to Child Support, the online course presents the highlights of every employer's responsibilities. The course includes a downloadable version of the standardized Order/Notice to Withhold Income for Child Support. Also provided are a quick self-test, glossary, and list of additional online resources. Appealing graphics, voice-over narration and video clips make this an interesting site for employers to visit. A text-only version of the course is available for employers with minimal technology.

The training can be accessed from: http://www.sba.gov/training/css/childsupport.html. The course has a direct link to the OCSE website, which in turn links to all the state sites so employers can easily get state-specific information. Technical hint: If you are having trouble running the course, it may be that you do not have a multimedia program on your computer. One can easily be obtained, for free, by visiting the website www.macromedia.com and performing the following tasks:

Click tab marked "Downloads"

Click button for "Macromedia Shockwave and Flash Players"

Follow the three steps for downloading and installing

Return to SBA Classroom and reload the course.

I encourage you to visit the site and share its address with your internal staff and the employer community in your state.

Sincerely,

David Gray Ross
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement

cc: Regional Program Managers
Regional Training Liaisons
Regional New Hire Contacts
State Training Liaisons
State New Hire Contacts
ACF Regional Administrators