November 2021 Child Support Report
Mediations Prove Successful During Pandemic and Beyond
Chickasaw Nation Child Support Services
When the pandemic interfered with scheduling hearings in the District Court of the Chickasaw Nation, our child support program developed a creative solution: mediations.
Our program handles child support cases for the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations. We have child support cases in the district courts of 22 Oklahoma counties and the District Court of the Choctaw Nation, but most of our cases are heard in the District Court of the Chickasaw Nation. The Chickasaw Nation court closed to the public and transitioned to Zoom hearings during the pandemic. We needed a way to ensure continued resolution of our child support cases. Additionally, we wanted to accommodate clients who didn’t have the resources or technical expertise to participate in Zoom hearings. With support from the court, we filed establishment, modification, and arrears determination actions as normal. But instead of setting the cases for hearing, the court ordered parties to attend mediation at our offices.
How the mediations worked
The mediation notice indicated that failure to appear could result in a default order being issued without further hearing. We held mediations in a large conference room that allowed parties to maintain the appropriate social distancing. In addition to other COVID-19 mitigation strategies, only the parties to the case and their attorneys were allowed to attend. We screened everyone for COVID-19 symptoms, required masks, and sanitized the conference room between mediations. The parties met with one of our attorneys to discuss the child support action and address any issues or concerns. If there were disagreements, we tried to mediate and reach a solution. If they did not reach an agreement, the matter was continued and set for a Zoom hearing with the court.
Our office was a more relaxed environment than the formality of court, enabling parties to ask questions that may have otherwise gone unasked. Also, we could provide clients more focused attention at individual mediations than is possible during a crowded child support docket. Ultimately, 99% of the mediations resulted in agreements.
The District Court of the Chickasaw Nation has returned to in-person hearings, but based on the positive feedback, we continue to set establishments, modifications, and arrears determinations for mediation. The pandemic has changed the way we do things, and in this case, it’s created a better process for the future.
Suquamish Tribe’s Workforce Partnership
Suquamish Tribe
As COVID-19 restrictions continue to lift and tribal members look for jobs, the Suquamish Child Support Enforcement Office has found a new collaborative partner in the tribe’s Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act (WIOA) program. This Suquamish workforce program assists tribal members in finding employment through education, training, and networking with regional employers.
Our program and WIOA have a shared interest in helping tribal members achieve financial and holistic well-being. WIOA helps parents achieve this, in part, through financial literacy education and training on how to budget. WIOA is also reconnecting disengaged noncustodial parents in these trainings with our program to ensure that parents make a plan to meet their child support obligations. This collaboration helps us eliminate the stigma many noncustodial parents associate with child support enforcement.
Many parents are surprised—and pleased—to find out how devoted our program is to making sure they’re able to find and maintain a job with a child support payment plan that is appropriate for their situation. Disengaged noncustodial parents are often the ones most in need of a case review. Out-of-date support orders may require modification, and specific circumstances may even warrant some debt forgiveness.
We hope this partnership will spread the word that resources and assistance are available to every parent and that parents can benefit if they engage with the child support program. Suquamish WIOA’s commitment to improving workforce opportunity helps us in our mission to meet the needs of every child.
Successful Digital Marketing in Texas: Live chat, paid ads, and AI chat bot
Texas Child Support Division
The Texas Child Support Division prides itself on using technology and innovative thinking to meet customers where they are and continuously improve their experience. The Digital Marketing Demonstration Grant helped us implement two-way digital communication, online application improvements, search engine optimization, digital marketing outreach, and an artificial intelligence chat bot. Our goal was to increase the overall number of child support applications, increase the percentage of online applications versus paper applications, and decrease the abandonment rate during the application process.
We developed four 30-day interventions, each building upon the previous one. During development, staff gathered internal data to identify geographical areas with a low online application percentage compared to paper applications. The data showed that in fiscal year 2018, only 13% of online applications were from Spanish speakers. Spanish-speaking counties also had a higher percentage of paper applications when compared to the majority of English-speaking counties. This information helped us select our digital marketing areas.
Live chat pilot
During our first intervention in April 2019, we launched live two-way communication through an online chat feature on five child support application web pages. The chat feature ran throughout the grant period and provided almost an entire year of testing and refining the technology. We used feedback from a survey built into the chat to make quick application changes and implement larger redesigns to fit the needs of our customers. In April 2020, we decided that we needed to roll out the chat feature statewide due to the success of the pilot.
Finding areas for progress
For inventions II, III, and IV, we used English and Spanish stationary banners, social media ads, and videos in our target areas to evaluate online traffic flow, use of an AI Bot, and a public service announcement. The ads directed users to the child support application website and allowed us to track the click-through rate. Each intervention highlighted our online application and/or the chat feature. The results confirmed our assumption that Spanish-speaking communities need more effective communication and that the AI chat bot shows great promise.
This grant allowed us to reevaluate how we interact with our customers, understand some of their needs, and move the agency forward. We are thankful for the opportunity and will continue to use the findings to enhance our services for children and families.
For more information, email justin.reed@oag.texas.gov.
e-IWO from the Employer’s Perspective
Corrinne Flores, Chair of the American Payroll Association’s Government Relations Task Force Subcommittee on Child Support
Electronic Income Withholding Orders for child support (e-IWO) has a proven track record for being an efficient and cost-effective way for states to send and employers to process IWOs. All state child support agencies use the e-IWO process, which means employers may opt to receive child support orders electronically. Thousands of employers are currently using e-IWO either directly or through their payroll provider.
There are several benefits to using e-IWO, including:
- Faster processing, which results in families receiving support sooner
- Ability to send personally identifiable information securely
- Cost savings for both child support agencies and employers
However, one challenge employers using e-IWO encounter is that they continue to receive paper copies of IWOs. Employers would appreciate help from child support agencies to decrease the number of paper IWOs.
e-IWO training
One way to ensure states issue e-IWOs to participating employers is to provide training to local offices and caseworkers. This could be accomplished through a partnership with employers and members of the American Payroll Association’s Government Relations Task Force. We could provide training and outreach via webinars or meetings to share the benefits of using e-IWO from an employer’s perspective.
Encourage more states to send lump-sum IWOs electronically
Employers would like more states to use less paper by sending lump sum withholding requests via e-IWO. Another option would be for states to use the new Communication Center application on OCSE’s Child Support Portal to request lump sum withholdings.
Ability to send all IWOs electronically
Employers would also like to explore the option of using the e-IWO system to send all IWOs—not only those issued by child support agencies, but also orders issued by courts, attorneys, and other entities for non-IV-D orders (also knowns as private orders). Receiving most child support orders electronically would increase efficiencies, reduce paper processing, and result in cost savings to employers and states. Since this would be a long-term effort, there’s an opportunity for collaboration between stakeholders to determine next steps to explore this option.
With the successful e-IWO tool and partnership between employers and the child support program, employers are ready to take e-IWO to the next level together.
Resource Alert: FAQs about tribal child support
Share OCSE’s frequently asked questions about tribal child support for those who might have questions about how tribal programs work and how they interact with state programs.
About Child Support Report
Child Support Report is published monthly by the Office of Child Support Enforcement. We welcome articles and high-quality digital photos to consider for publication. We reserve the right to edit for style, content and length, or not accept an article. OCSE does not endorse the practices or individuals in this newsletter. You may reprint an article in its entirety (or contact the author or editor for permission to excerpt); please identify Child Support Report as the source.
| JooYeun Chang Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Children and Families | Linda Boyer Acting Commissioner, OCSE |
| Crystal Peeler Acting Director, Division of Customer Communications | Andrew Phifer Editor, CSR.Editor@acf.hhs.gov |