DCL-08-01, Technical Information Tool for Judicial/Child Support Business Case Development

Giving Hope and Support to America's Children

DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTER

DCL-08-01

ATTACHMENT: Business Case Template (Child Support Version) (File Size: MS Word, 884 KB)
Business Case Template (Judicial Version) (File Size: MS Word, 918 KB)

DATE: January 4, 2008

TO: ALL STATE AND TRIBAL IV-D DIRECTORS

RE: Technical Information Tool for Judicial/Child Support Business Case Development

Dear Colleague:

The Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) sponsors the National Judicial-Child Support Task Force as part of our continued focus on child support/judicial collaboration. The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) is a member of the Task Force. One initiative of the Task Force is to improve electronic data exchange between child support agencies and judicial entities.

Many steps are involved with developing an electronic data exchange. The first step is to develop a business case. OCSE and the NCSC are pleased to provide you with templates for developing business cases for electronic data exchange between child support agencies and courts. These business case templates are intended to support both State child support staff and judicial staff in gaining executive approvals to enhance electronic exchange of information.

The electronic exchange of data between the courts and child support entities can improve child support collections and services for children and families. The advantages of automation include:

Increased Collections – Quicker delivery of child support orders as well as quicker child support order establishments and enforcement actions lead to timelier initiation of collections.
Improved Access to Current Case Information – Alleviates the need for staff (caseworkers, court staff, process servers, attorneys, etc.) to call, fax, or email requests for current case information.
Faster Case Intake/Potential for Automated Case Initiation – Reduces data entry time per case and staff time dedicated to data entry.
Paper Reduction – Achieves dollar savings in paper, postage, storage, courier, etc. as well as minimizes the staff burden of archiving records and destroying archived records according to State regulations for both child support and judicial entities.
Error Reduction – Single entry for electronic exchange reduces the opportunity for keystroke error and thus decreases the time spent by child support and judicial/legal agency staff correcting data entry errors.

Two business case templates are enclosed; one may be used by child support staff and the other by judicial staff. The templates are customized to support their respective audience. Each template gives you a starting point for building your own business case by providing a structure for documenting the reasons, costs and benefits, and justification for the development of electronic exchange of data between child support and the courts. OCSE and NCSC are providing these in the hope that they can be used to accelerate the administrative processes that are always necessary to gain resources for automation projects.

Additional materials and documents will soon be provided by OCSE and NCSC to help child support agencies and courts in the development of electronic exchanges.

For additional information on the child support business case template, please contact Helen Smith at helen.smith@acf.hhs.gov.

For more information concerning the template for the judicial community, please contact Kay Farley at kfarley@ncsc.dni.us or Moira Rowley at mrowley@ncsc.dni.us.

Sincerely,

Margot Bean
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement

Mary McQueen
President
National Center for State Courts

Enclosure

cc: Regional Program Managers
ACF Regional Administrators
Conference of Chief Justices
ce of State Court Administrators

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This is a Historical Document.