Invitation to Engage in Written Consultation Concerning the Report to Congress

Dear Tribal Leader:

On September 29, 2014, the President signed Public Law 113-183, the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act of 2014 (Act.) The Act requires that the Department of Health and Human Services submit a Report to Congress (Report) by June 30, 2015, in consultation with stakeholders including state, tribal, and county child support directors, judges who preside over family courts and organizations that represent them, custodial and noncustodial parents and organizations that represent parents, and fiduciaries such as financial institutions and employers.  This letter is an invitation to tribal leaders to engage in written consultation concerning the Report.  The information below will help inform your feedback.

Background

The Report will address cost-effective improvements to the child support enforcement program funded under title IV-D of the Social Security Act, including:

• Effectiveness and performance of the program;
• Analysis of  program practices;
• Identification of possible new collection tools and approaches; and
• Identification of strategies for holding parents accountable for supporting their children and for building the capacity of parents to pay child support with specific attention given to front-end services, ongoing case management, collections, tribal-state partnerships, interstate, and intergovernmental interactions, program performance, data analytics, and information technology.

The Report also will specifically address:

• An analysis of the effectiveness of state child support programs and collection practices and an analysis of the extent to which the practices result in unintended consequences or performance issues;
• Recommendations for methods to enhance the effectiveness of child support programs and collection practices;
• A review of state best practices in regards to establishing and operating state and multistate lien registries;
• A compilation of state recovery and distribution policies;
• Options, with analysis, for methods to engage noncustodial parents in the lives of their children through consideration of parental time and visitation with children;
• An analysis of the role of alternative dispute resolution in making child support determinations;
• Identification of best practices for determining which services and support programs available to custodial and noncustodial parents are non-duplicative, evidence-based, produce quality outcomes, and connect parents to those services and support programs;
• Identification of best practices that provide employment support, job training, and job placement for custodial and noncustodial parents;
• Identification of best practices that establish child support tracking, services and supports with options for preventing and resolving uncollectible arrears;
• Options, with analysis, for methods for states to use to collect child support payments from individuals who owe excessive arrearages;
• A review of state practices used to determine which individuals are excluded from the requirement to be reported to the Passport Denial program, including the extent to which individuals are able to successfully contest or appeal decisions; and
• Options, with analysis, for such legislative and administrative actions as are determined to be appropriate for improvement in child support enforcement.

We published a public notice soliciting comment in the Federal Register October 23, 2014 (79 FR 63406  (PDF)).  We also sent a Tribal Dear Colleague letter to the Tribal Child Support Directors soliciting input concerning the Report.  In addition, we requested input from the National Congress of American Indians and the National American Indian Court Judges Association.  

I am committed to effective and meaningful consultation with tribes.  Please send your input via email to OCSEreport@acf.hhs.gov by March 15, 2015.  Email submissions will receive an electronic confirmation acknowledging receipt of your response. You may also mail them to: ACF/Office of Child Support Enforcement, Attn:  OCSE Report — Sheila Drake, 370 L’Enfant Promenade SW., 4th Floor East, Washington, DC 20447. 

Thank you for the important work that you do.  I look forward to working with you as we move to strengthen child support programs in tribal communities and across the nation.

Sincerely yours,

/s/

Vicki Turetsky
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement

cc:  Tribal IV-D Directors
       ACF/OCSE Regional Program Managers