DCL-07-41, Submittal of the OCSE-157 Report for FY 2007 and Resubmission of FY 2006 Data Found To Be Incomplete or Unreliable

DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTER

DCL-07-41

DATE: December 7, 2007

TO: ALL STATE IV-D DIRECTORS

RE: SUBMITTAL OF THE OCSE-157 REPORT FOR FY 2007 AND RESUBMISSION OF FY 2006 DATA FOUND TO BE INCOMPLETE OR UNRELIABLE

This letter is being issued as a reminder to States of the importance of submitting current and revised OCSE-157 reports to the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE). State agencies administering Child Support Enforcement Programs under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act are required to submit an OCSE-157 report as revised in AT-05-09 no later than December 31, 2007 via mail or online reporting.

Since this is only the second year of reporting several new lines under the revised reporting requirements, please refer to AT-05-09 for detailed reporting instructions. In particular, please give special attention to the reporting of lines 5a and 8a, making sure that data being reported for these lines are the audited numbers from lines 5 and 8 of the prior year’s OCSE-157 report (except as described below). For example, data reported on line 5a must be the exact audited number that was reported on line 5 for FY 2006. Similarly, data reported on line 8a must be the exact audited number that was reported on line 8 for FY 2006.

There are only two reasons that data reported on lines 5a and 8a would not be carryover numbers. Those are:

the State failed the audit for line 5 or line 8 in FY 2006 and the State is reporting a revised number on line 5a or line 8a or
the State, historically, has not reported the current fiscal year’s number on line 8 because it did not receive data from its vital statistics office in time to report the information for the current fiscal year. In this situation, the state will not report a number on line 8 and will always report the previous fiscal year number on line 8a.

The Online Data Collection (OLDC) system is the most convenient and efficient way to submit the required report, so we encourage all States to use this electronic system. For information on this system or to be issued log-on IDs and passwords, please contact Delores Johnson at 202-401-5537 or at djohnson@acf.hhs.gov. If a State chooses to submit the 157 report through the OLDC system, it must also submit a hard copy to the regional office, in addition to its submission through OLDC. (Please note that revisions made via OLDC are only available to the State for the FY 2007 OCSE-157 report. Resubmissions for prior years must be made via hard copies sent to OCSE and Regional Offices.)

When submitting the report, please be sure that an original is submitted to OCSE in Washington, DC and a copy is submitted to the appropriate regional office. Officials are also reminded to place the State name in the appropriate field, mark the report new or revised, and indicate which Paternity Establishment Percentage (PEP) the State has chosen.

We are also reminding States of the importance of correcting and resubmitting any incomplete or unreliable child support data reported for FY 2006 and previous years; and of other circumstances under which the States can resubmit data. States may only resubmit data, if they fall into one of the three following categories:

A State's data were found to be incomplete or unreliable and are needed to show improvement in performance for any measure.
A State's data were found to be incomplete or unreliable for paternity lines 5 and 6 (IV-D) or 8 and 9 (Statewide) for FY 2006, or lines 5 (IV-D) or 8 (Statewide) for FY 2005.
A State is changing its PEP option from Statewide (lines 8, 8a and 9) to IV-D (lines 5, 5a and 6) or from IV-D to Statewide PEP for FY 2007. Data must be submitted for FY 2007 (lines 5, 5a and 6; and 8, 8a and 9) and for FY 2006 (line 5 or line 8), and, perhaps, lines 5 or 8 for 2005 if the State performance is under 90%.

States may revise previously submitted reports by submitting new ones; however, all final revised reports must be in OCSE or postmarked no later than December 31, 2007, to be accepted. State officials should review reports for accuracy and make sure all fields are completed. The reports should be sent to:

Department of Health and Human Services
Administration for Children and Families
Office of Child Support Enforcement
DPRE, 4th Floor
370 L'Enfant Promenade, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20447
Attention: Joyce Pitts

An audit trail as described in DCL-07-26 (September 5, 2007) must be submitted to the appropriate regional audit office. If you have any questions concerning the audit trail, please contact your local audit office.

If you have any questions regarding this notice, please feel free to contact Joyce Pitts at (202) 401-5368 or e-mail her at jpitts@acf.hhs.gov.

Sincerely,

Margot Bean
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement