FLORIDA

QUARTERLY INTERSTATE REPORT

Goal: Increase Florida's accountability for processing interstate child support cases and improve communication with other states regarding performance of these cases.

Description: The Florida Child Support Enforcement Program identified several strategies to increase accountability of interstate case processing and improve customer service when interacting with other states. One of the strategies, described below, is to provide other states with quarterly reports of Florida's performance on state interstate cases.

Florida processes both interstate and intrastate cases using process management where a specialist handles different aspects of the case such as locate, order establishment, etc., rather than assigning a case manager to all aspects of the case. The quarterly interstate reports provide information on Florida's performance in the processing of these cases. In addition, it is expected that these new reports will provide Florida the ability to analyze the state's interstate caseload on a state-by-state basis.

Report Contents: Florida has issued two quarterly reports at the time of this writing. The data for the reports were gathered from Florida's data warehouse and are based on federal fiscal quarters and/or federal fiscal year-to-date. The initial reports included the following information for both responding and initiating cases:

• A case inventory with the previous quarter balance, cases closed in quarter, new cases received in quarter, and end of quarter balance.
• Three federal incentive measures: percent of IV-D cases with a support order; percent of current support collected; and percent of cases with arrears due that are paying toward arrears. (The table also provides Florida's statewide performance percentage for each of these measures as a comparison.)
• Total collections in dollars (including current and past due) with a quarterly total and a year-to-date total.

Distribution of Reports: In order to get feedback and suggestions, initial reports were sent to states which border Florida and to states with a high interstate caseload with Florida. The implementation schedule for distribution of the reports is shown in the following chart.

Implementation Schedule

Report	Quarter	Mailing	Distribution
Initial	April - June 2003	July 2003	Big Ten States: California, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin; ACF Region IV states: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee. OCSE Central office and Region IV office.
Second	July - September 2003	January 2004	Initial states - same as initial report States with 400 or more responding cases in Florida at the end of the quarter which included: Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia. Federal OCSE and ACF Regional Offices.
Third	October - December 2003	Scheduled for March 2004	All 50 states, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, District of Columbia and Guam Federal OCSE and all ACF Regional offices

Future Reports: Florida plans to provide additional information in future reports, including:

• An expanded case inventory to indicate new cases received that have an existing order versus new cases received without a support order.
• Inventory Snapshots that would provide the number of cases pending certain actions -- for example, cases in locate -- and number of cases making full payment and partial payment.
• A Status Request Processing Cycle Time Report.

Florida Analysis of Performance: These reports and the underlying data provide a basis for analysis of interstate case processing performance and trends, including:

• Interstate responding caseload distribution within Florida's counties and corresponding performance.
• Trends in the number of cases received from individual states and the required actins on these cases (for example, establishment of paternity, establishment of an order, or enforcement only).

Results: The Quarterly Interstate Reports have provided the initial information necessary to evaluate performance on processing interstate cases. Distribution within the state has heightened staff awareness of our performance and has resulted in increased accountability for these cases. As Florida moves forward with this strategy, further analysis of the data will be conducted.

Initial feedback from other states has been positive. Some states have identified discrepancies in "caseload" counts that resulted from Florida examining and refining data fields used to determine case counts. This type of feedback coupled with the National Interstate Case Reconciliation Project should improve interstate case data and performance reports.

Location: Statewide

Funding: Regular IV-D funds were used.

Replication Advice: Other states should consider examining available data to determine their performance on interstate cases. Through analysis for such data, areas needing improvement can be identified and best practices can be shared. Participation in the National Interstate Case Reconciliation Project and the maintenance of consistent date definitions between states will assist with state-to-state comparison of caseloads and performance.

Contact:

Lillie Bogan

Director

Phone: (850) 488-8733