Colorado

Caseload Management Training

Goal

Meet statewide performance goals in the program's strategic plan by providing each county with training on systems generated reports. Reduce excessive "deadwood" in the caseload. Ensure cases move through the system efficiently to comply with findings of a legislative audit.

Description

In November and December 1999 Colorado's Division of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE) trained 440 county staff to use system-generated reports to manage a caseload. In addition, county staff shared their own "best practices" in using various system-generated reports to better manage their cases. Although county participation was voluntary, 60 of Colorado's 63 counties were represented at one or more of the seven one-day training sessions held throughout the state.

The training focused on training staff to use available systems generated reports. These reports included:

• The Caseload Listing Report, at the team and technician (tech.) level. At a glance, the tech. can determine the case's next appropriate step (i.e., establishment of paternity and support, location of the NCP, enforcement of the child support order and/or medical support, closure of the case due to emancipation of the child, lack of locate, etc.)
• A Monthly Monitoring Report which tracks performance on over 50 performance measures for each county. The report is used by the State to evaluate county performance.
• The OCSE 157.
• A report which identifies cases with no court order.
• A report which identifies cases with orders on the system, but no ledger established in accounting
• A report which identifies cases with judgments, but no arrearage posted on the system.

Proper use of the reports enables workers to move "stagnant" cases by taking the proper action. The goal is always to move "stuck" cases into paying status. Examples:

• No order established for 90 days? Move the case back to locate for better locate information to permit service of process.
• No money coming in on a case with an order? Use locate to find an employer. Explore other enforcement actions if no employer can be found.
• Order on the system, but no ledger in accounting? Establish ledger.
• Interstate case? Is a request to another state to take action needed?
• Unworkable case? If case closure criteria are met, close the case.

In addition, the training was designed to help supervisors manage their teams. Besides assisting individual workers to identify problem cases and take action, the system-generated reports can help supervisors to identify overall problems and see where the team needs to focus their efforts.

The training also gave the state the opportunity to explain to county staff the federal performance measures on which the state is now evaluated in order to receive federal incentives.

Results

The training provided a year-end boost to performance, according to DCSE staff. The state achieved its year 2000 goal of collecting $200,000,000 by the end of 1999 - a year ahead of schedule. In addition, the state achieved its performance measures for the year overall. While a number of factors contributed to this outcome, a marked improvement was noted on a number of factors between October (before the training) and the end of the year.

The biggest benefit: Instilling the mindset "You always need to be aware of your caseload. Be sure that it is a workable caseload and one you can manage."

Location

Seven training sessions were provided in six sites throughout the state of Colorado. All counties in the state were eligible to send staff to the training. The training was developed by Colorado DCSE.

Funding

Regular IV-D funds were used for the training project. There was a cost of $3,039 for reserving meeting sites, refreshments, and equipment. This did not include the travel expenditures for the three trainers from DCSE. Each county covered time and travel cost of its own staff attending the training.

Replication Advice

Be sure to cover both systems and policy issues - and involve both systems and policy staff in planning and delivering the training," says Diane Young, the DCSE Policy Specialist who managed the caseload management training project. "The systems person was able to explain where the data came from, for example," says Young.

"This kind of training can be used to impress upon staff how their individual working of the cases impacts the whole - in particular, the state's ability to draw down federal dollars," she says.