COLORADO

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

Goal: To learn from the top performing county child support workers how to increase the percent of current support paid and to share that information statewide.

Description: Colorado collected 53.1% of the current support owed in calendar year 2001. The Policy and Evaluation Section of the Colorado Division of Child Support Enforcement (CSE) analyzed Colorado's performance in the collection of current support. Although Colorado had a low national ranking in the Percent of Current Support Collected (ranked 33 ^rdfor the last federal fiscal year), 33 of the 64 county child support offices achieved the 2001 goal to collect 58% of the current support due. Additionally, most of the counties that did not meet the 2001 goal had county workers on staff who achieved it for their specific caseloads. It became apparent that our performance in the percent of current support collected could be improved if the experience of the successful county workers were shared.

The CSE developed a proposal to learn from the experts and then share what was learned with child support staff throughout the state. The Colorado Association of Child Support Enforcement Administrators (CACSEA) and the IV-D Task Force (a strategic planning group of state child support professionals) supported this proposal. The proposal contained the following components:

1) Utilize reports from Colorado's Automated Child Support Enforcement System (ACSES) to identify the county workers who had excelled in the collection of current support.

2) Conduct phone interviews with some of the county workers who collected a high rate of current support and use the information gathered to help set the agenda for a series of seven regional meetings.

3) Policy and Evaluation Section staff would facilitate a series of seven regional meetings throughout the state that would include a target audience of IV-D administrators, supervisors and county workers who excelled in the collection of current support. We would include representatives from the ACSES and Operations Sections of the state office.

4) Send letters to IV-D administrators inviting them, their supervisors and their top performers in the collection of current support to attend one of the regional meetings. The purpose of the meetings would be to have the top performers share the techniques, practices and philosophies they use to collect a high percentage of current support and to brainstorm how to improve performance statewide.

5) Document and share the results of these meetings with child support staff throughout the state.

The agenda for the meetings included:

1) Caseload and workload dynamics, effective tools for working cases, and organizing the workday.

2) Philosophy and approach for working with different populations of obligors (self-employed, voluntary payors, incarcerated obligors, etc.).

3) Roadblocks and barriers to collecting current support.

4) Effective manual locate efforts.

5) Effective non-traditional enforcement tools.

6) Assistance needed from county administration and state staff to improve performance.

Results:

The county workers who participated in the regional meetings were creative, dedicated, and full of energy and focus. It became apparent that it takes a team effort to successfully collect current child support.

• Enforcement technicianswho collect current support.
• Intake staffwho obtain quality information when the case is opened.
• Establishment technicianswho establish orders that are collectible and take the time to educate the obligor about the importance of paying current support and the consequences of not doing so.
• Bookkeeperswho maintain ledgers that accurately reflect what is owed.
• Customer servicemust be provided in a high quality manner at all times in order to collect a high rate of current support.

There were some consistencies among the top performing county workers in the collection of current support that were important to note:

1) Daily routines were important. Often the routines include responding to mail and working automated tips and response, such as calendar reviews and locate responses.

2) Working reports are a priority.

3) County workers should take time to understand the obligor's circumstances, and take those circumstances into consideration when setting a monthly amount due (MAD) on arrears and taking enforcement actions.

4) County workers should take the time to establish a relationship with obligors and obligees by using phone calls, personalized letters and other means. These contacts educate obligors about the importance of paying child support.

5) Workers should be creative in their efforts to manually locate and enforce against non-paying obligors.

The regional meetings were documented in a report entitled "Show Me the Money, A Report of the Regional Meetings on Percent of Current Support Paid." Highlights covered were Organization, Manual Locate, Intake, Establishment, Enforcement, Modification, Review and Adjustment Reports which were shared at the regional meetings. We also included a section in the report entitled: IV-D Task Force Goals and ACSES" was also included in the report. This section contained telephone hints for the state office on how to positively impact the IV-D Task Force goals through the maintenance of ACSES. The final section, "Other States," included information obtained through interviews with other states that are high performers in the collection of current support. The Appendix included a compilation of materials that were provided by county workers who participated in the regional meetings.

The IV-D administrators, supervisors and other county workers were encouraged to review the information shared during the regional meetings and to apply some of the techniques, practices and philosophies used by Colorado's top performing county workers. The state office staff is reviewing the results and identifying practices, procedures and techniques we should work to adapt statewide.

Location: The seven regional meetings were scheduled throughout the state in rural and urban settings in order to minimize the amount of travel for county workers to attend and increase attendance.

Funding: Regular IV-D funds were used.

Replication Advice: It was a worthwhile endeavor to learn from the experts. Most of the top performers had assumed that the practices, procedures and techniques they had developed had already been conceptualized and implemented throughout the state. We found that this was not a correct assumption. It is important to develop processes for county workers to share their ideas with their peers.

Contact:

Larry Desbien

Phone: (303) 866-4300

Email: larry.desbien@state.co.us