PENNSYLVANIA

CSENET STATEWIDE TRAINING

Goal: To develop a CSENet training curriculum aimed at Pennsylvania Domestic Relations Section (DRS) workers and conduct training sessions at various locations throughout the Commonwealth.

Description: Training manuals, handouts and PowerPoint presentations were developed for use and distribution during six training sessions which were each two days long. Sessions were held in Wilkes-Barre, Lock Haven, Media, Harrisburg and Butler. The course content consisted of the following:

• Overview of the history of interstate case processing from URESA to UIFSA.
• "CSENet 101" PowerPoint presentation highlighting the basic concepts of the national CSENet system.
• In-Depth review of every Interstate/CSENet processing screen and table within the Pennsylvania Child Support Enforcement System.
• Hands-on explanation/review of Interstate/CSENet diaries and alerts using actual production environment cases supplied by the attending workers.
• Conferring of "CSENetology" diplomas" to each attendee at the conclusion of the two-day session.

Results: Participants appreciated that the training sessions used layman's language and could easily be understood. Workers who had taken the course found that colleagues in other states were impressed by their ability to use CSENet. Participants were pleased to find they could send a CSENet message to the courts and get a response back faster than by writing up an instruction sheet requesting secretarial staff to send the transmittal out.

Five months after the CSENet training was presented, compared to the same five-month period a year earlier, showed an increase of 136.3%. Pennsylvania workers kicked off 48,694 CSENet transactions during the post-training period compared to 20,607 CSENet transactions a year earlier. Likewise a comparison of these same two five month periods shows that interstate collections in the Commonwealth increased by $1.18 million dollars.

Replication Advice: Pennsylvania's CSENet System is only as good as the frontline workers who use it. The key to a successful training is in the preparation of materials and live demonstrations which remove the confusion and mystery from CSENet. Through the demonstration it can be shown that CSENet is a simple-to-use, electronic communication tool.

Funding: The cost is minimal. Expenses include the development and printing of training materials, trainer salaries, lodging and transportation expenses.

Contacts:

Michael J. Noreika

Interstate/CSENet Subsystem Lead PACSES

Phone: (717) 705-5158

Email: mikenoreika@pacses.com

John Clark

Program Specialist ACF RO III

Phone: (215) 861-4067

Email: jclark@acf.hhs.gov