DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTER

DCL-06-01

DATE: January 4, 2006

TO:  ALL STATE IV-D DIRECTORS

RE:  Interstate Case Reconciliations

Dear Colleague:

Building on the success of the two Interstate Case Reconciliations (ICRs) conducted in 2004, OCSE is pleased to announce a third ICR match in January 2006.

The ICR method of matching files of interstate cases nationwide, and returning response files for the states to review, has been extremely successful.  States have used their response files to automatically correct other state case IDs in their systems; over a million corrected case IDs have been provided to states during the first two ICRs, with a potential savings of millions of dollars.

Increased communication via CSENet, without the need for state-by-state manual reconciliation, is another important benefit arising from correcting other state case IDs through the ICR process.

States have also reconciled case status errors (where an interstate case is open in one state but closed in the other state) to ensure that services are being provided to the family as needed.

There are several important reasons for conducting a third ICR and for you to participate:

• Alabama and Tennessee are now able to participate in ICR, and other states will now have the opportunity to reconcile the interstate cases they share with them.

• California has changed all case IDs in eleven of its counties as it moves toward a statewide system. The ICR will provide an efficient, cost-effective means for states to update these new California case IDs into their systems.

• Additional functions to the ICR process will now provide SSN information on all interstate case participants: SSN data from one state will be provided to the other state, which may not have a SSN, or may have a different SSN, for a given participant. The SSNs will also be verified through the Social Security Administration’s verification process.

Even with this additional functionality, there is no change to the ICR extract files sent by participating states to OCSE. This means that there are no additional programming burdens on your staff.

The following schedule has been established for ICR-3:

• January 6 – 13: States submit ICR-3 extract files

• January 23: OCSE begins returning ICR-3 response files

If you have any questions regarding this schedule, please contact Christine Jennings at (703) 345-8099 or cajennings@acf.hhs.gov.

Your ongoing participation in this important endeavor is appreciated as we work together to improve the lives of our nation’s children. 

Sincerely,

Margot Bean
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement