DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTER

DCL-04-29

ATTACHMENT:  General Registration and Travel Information

DATE: July 14, 2004

TO: ALL STATE IV-D DIRECTORS

RE:  Replacing or Enhancing your Legacy Child Support System” August 26-27, 2004

Dear Colleague:

The Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) is hosting a Child Support Systems meeting to be held at the Fairmont Hotel and Mid-America Club in Chicago, Illinois from August 26-27, 2004.  The primary objective of the 2 day meeting, “Replacing or Enhancing your Legacy Child Support System”, is for child support systems staff who are currently involved or in planning to enhance their existing child support system to meet informally to discuss common issues and best practices. The meeting will be held all day on August 26-27, 2004.    

This event will bring together state IV-D staff, Federal OCSE staff, regional staff, and OCSE contractors.  Specific topics to be discussed include:

• How FPLS Modernization and OCSE strategic plan will impact statewide CSE systems
• Planning Phase: What’s included?
• Data standards- a look at current Federal and state efforts at standardizing data elements used in child support enforcement automation.
• Cost Allocation Methodology- A new toolkit is now available.
• APD 101 and 201- a refresher course for new state staff
• Identifying Alternatives for new/replacement systems
• State to State communications
• Cost Benefit analysis for Feasibility Studies and Annual CBA updates
• Risk Mitigation- minimizing risk when system is transitioning between different hardware platforms, DBMS, conversion of data
• Role of Independent Validation and Verification contracts
• Increasing the level of automation in your CSE system (case closure, review and adjustment, alerts)
• The close-out AT- the pros and cons of closing an APD versus keeping it open
• Use of Web-based front ends to legacy systems.

The conference will provide an excellent opportunity for your staff to participate in building our road to the future of the program, both from the systems and programmatic perspectives.

OCSE will pay the travel costs for one participant from each state, as designated by each IV-D Director.  Travel costs include coach round-trip airfare, lodging, per diem, and ground transportation costs incurred in association with this event.

The State Information Technology Consortium (SITC) is assisting OCSE in the development and management of the conference.  Please contact Sheila Drake (Event Planner, SITC) at (703) 742-7127 or drake@software.org to RSVP.

Sincerely,

Sherri Z. Heller, Ed.D.
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement

Enclosure

cc:    Regional Program Managers
       ACF Regional Administrators