Colorado Multiple Initiative Grant

Table of Contents

Part I: A Study of Interest Usage on Child Support Arrears, State of Colorado

1 Introduction

1.1 Federal Regulations

1.2 Colorado Law, Policy and Practices

1.3 County Interest Usage

1.4 Report Organization

2 Experiences of Other States

2.1 Prior Studies of State Practices

2.2 Survey Design

2.3 Why Charge Interest?

2.4 Statutory Provisions

2.5 Statewide Automation Capability and Costs

2.6 Moral Issues

2.7 Effects of Interest on Payments

2.8 Relevant Findings from IRS Study

2.9 Empirical Evidence

2.10 Factors Contributing to Effective Interest Usage

2.11 Planning and Development

2.12 Automation

2.13 Information and Notification

2.14 Worker Impact

2.15 Policy Variations

2.16 Challenges of Charging Interest

2.17 Lawsuits

2.18 PRWORA Distribution Requirements

2.19 Adding Interest to an Automated System

2.20 Summary and Recommendations

3 Collections from Interest

3.1 Data, Methodology and Limitations

3.2 Colorado-Specific Data

3.3 Data from Other States

3.4 Methodology

3.5 County Usage of Interest

3.6 Q.1 Will Interest Inflate Accounts Receivable?

3.7 Q.2 What Proportion of Interest Arrears is Likely to be Collected?

3.8 Q.3 Does Interest Encourage Timely Payment of Current Support?

3.9 Q.4 Is Interest an Effective Negotiation Tool?

3.10 Will Interest Assessment Cause Excess Burden on Some Obligors?

3.11 Q.6 Does notification of interest increase collections?

4 Costs of Interest

4.1 Development of Business Rules

4.2 Automating Interest

4.3 Programming

4.4 Other Automation Costs

4.5 Total Estimated Automation Costs

4.6 Adding Interest to Automating Systems

4.7 Training

4.8 Notification

4.9 Customer Service

4.10 Conclusion

5 Conclusions and Recommendations

5.1 Lessons Learned from Other States

5.2 The Effect of Interest on Child Support Collections

5.3 Costs of Statewide Interest Assessment

5.4 Other Issues

5.5 Recommendations

Part II: Updated Colorado Staffing Standards for Chld Support Enforcement

1 Introduction

1.1 Purpose of the Study

1.2 Colorado’s Existing Staffing Standard

1.3 Report Organization

2 Staffing Standards in Other States

2.1 State Survey

2.2 States with Staffing Standards

2.3 States without Staffing Standards

2.4 Summary

3 Methodologies and Data Collection

3.1 Overview

3.2 Child Support Functions and Processes

3.3 Time Estimates

3.4 Estimates from the Focus Groups (Professional Estimates)

3.5 Time Logs

3.6 Time Estimates from the Focus Groups and Time Logs

3.7 Alternative Methodology

4 Developing a Staffing Standard

4.1 Building a Staffing Standard

4.2 Step 1: Count the Number of Processes Completed

4.3 Step 2: Multiply Time Estimates by Number of Processes Completed and Repeat for Each County and Processes

4.4 Step 3: Adjust for staff time not spent directly on processes.

4.5 Step 4: Relate hours needed to caseload by function.

4.6 Step 5: Make additional adjustments for managers and supervisors and other functions.

4.7 Proposed Staffing Standards

5 Special Issues and Updating

5.1 Special Issues

5.2 Updating the Staffing Standards

5.3 Conclusions

A Appendices

References

Part III: Driver's License Suspension

Multiple Intervention Grant: Longer Term Evaluation of Colorado's Driver's License Suspension

1 Evaluation of Colorado's Driver's License Suspension Initiative

2 Introduction

3 Method

4 Impact of Driver's License Revocation

5 Outcomes

6 Conclusions

Multiple Intervention Grant: Driver's License Suspension as a Tool of Child Support Enforcement

1 Introduction

2 Background: Driver's License Suspension as a Tool of Child Support Enforcement

3 Initial Effects of Driver's License Suspension

4 The Effects of Subsequent Driver's License Suspension

5 Patterns for Single-Order Obligors

6 Patterns for Multiple Order Obligors

7 Conclusions

Part IV: Incarcerated Parents

Part V: A Profile of Former TANF and Non-TANF Clients in the IV-D Caseload

Part VI: Management Training Curriculum