Florida

Management Method/Case Closure/Automatic Case Closure Process

Description/Goal

To meet Federal Certification requirements, Florida identified cases for automated closure and generated appropriate notice and alert to custodial parent and case worker, respectively. On a monthly basis, the following criteria are used to identify cases eligible for automatic closure:

1. Noncustodial Parent (NCP) Location Unknown, Sufficient Information 45CFR303.11 (b)(4)(i) -- If case has been in Location greater than 3 years.

2. No Current Support Order 45CFR303.11 (b)(1)

   1. If all children are emancipated (greater than 18), paternity IS NOT at issue and there are no accounts or open accounts on the case.
   2. If all children are emancipated, paternity IS at issue, no open activity to establish paternity or obligation and total payoff of all OPEN accounts is less than $500. Open account cannot be an arrears account and case cannot be a PA Arrears Only case.
3. All IV-D Obligations Paid -- If the Case is a PA Arrears Only case, all open accounts have zero balances and at least one open account is NOT for Current Support.
4. Child Emancipated 303.11 (b)(1) -- If all children are emancipated, paternity IS at issue for at least one of the children, all accounts are closed or no accounts and no open activity to establish paternity or obligation.

Results

The first run of this process identified 27,448 cases for closure. The review of the case, and subsequent closure, when manually performed, is estimated to have taken approximately 1 hour when performed correctly. At a $10 average wage per worker and a closure of 27,448 cases, the process succeeded in a cost avoidance of $274,480 just in the first month.

The implementation of this software also enhanced the productivity of caseworkers by allowing them to focus on case management activities.

Location

The process was implemented statewide in the Program Office's Systems Unit in Tallahassee, Florida. The program is included in the monthly batch processing cycle.

Funding

This project was funded by regular federal matching funds.

Replication Advice

It is imperative to involve personnel from the Systems, Policy and the regions in the Requirements and Analysis phases of the project to ensure completeness in the defining of the case closure criteria.