DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTER

DCL-04-45

DATE: October 15, 2004

TO:  ALL STATE IV-D DIRECTORS

RE:  Data Exchange Standards

Dear Colleague:

In recognition of the increasing opportunities for electronic exchanges of data, the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) is facilitating the development of standards to guide data exchange. Data exchange standards are intended to establish common business definitions to support initiatives such as enabling case workers to access child support data in other states’ systems and submitting electronic income-withholding orders to employers.  Developing data exchange standards is an important part of connecting systems and improving communication. Agreeing to and adopting data exchange standards will provide a number of benefits, including:

• Streamlining communication between states, OCSE, employers, courts, financial institutions, and other stakeholder communities,
• Ensuring OCSE workgroups use the same terms and definitions while addressing specific issues and tackling new initiatives,
• Reducing system development time,
• Introducing opportunities for increased automation, and
• Improving data quality.

Data standards generally originate from state/OCSE workgroups. The workgroups define commonly used business terms and the methods and formats in which exchanged data elements are represented and presented. The resulting draft standards will then be released for review and comment by state child support enforcement agencies and members of the stakeholder communities. The workgroup will incorporate any necessary changes into the draft standard and presents it to a Data Standards Committee for final approval.

The Data Standards Committee is being formed to oversee the data exchange standards process and guide the workgroups. The members of this committee are to be recommended by the IV-D Directors Association, and will also include representatives from OCSE. This committee will be expected to review procedures for developing data definitions and approve the data standards developed within workgroups. 

If you have any questions or concerns regarding data standards, please contact Helen Smith at (202) 690-6639 or hsmith@acf.hhs.gov. Your comments and suggestions for developing successful data exchange standards would be appreciated.

Sincerely,

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

cc: Regional Program Managers
     ACF Regional Administrators