Child Support/Child Welfare Pilot Project Evaluation

DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTER

DCL-14-12

DATE: June 10, 2014

TO: All State Child Support Directors
       All State Child Welfare Directors

RE:  Child Support/Child Welfare Pilot Project Evaluation

Dear Colleague:

Over many years, the Office of Child Support Enforcement and the Children’s Bureau, which oversees the Title IV-E and IV-B child welfare programs, have partnered on projects to improve family services.  The most recent collaboration between the two programs included a pilot project that gave staff from Alabama, Arizona, District of Columbia, Iowa, Indiana, and Texas child welfare agencies access to Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS) data via the Federal Child Support Services Portal.  This enabled the child welfare staff to locate parents and other relatives of children who have been removed from their home without the need to involve a child support worker.  The pilot project ran from October 1, 2013 through November 30, 2013.  We have attached the project evaluation for your review.

Now that the pilot project has concluded, OCSE will host a conference call on July 9, 2014 at 11:30 am ET for state child support and child welfare directors.  The conference call will address the option available for state child welfare agencies to access FPLS data to locate parents and relatives, as well as youth for the National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) survey.  OCSE will provide a detailed overview of what is required by state child welfare agencies before they obtain access to FPLS data and the potential impact to state child support agencies. The conference call number, agenda, and presentation are forthcoming and will be distributed via another communication prior to the call.  If you have any questions, please contact Linda Boyer at linda.boyer@acf.hhs.gov or 202- 401-5410.

Sincerely,

Vicki Turetsky
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement

JooYeun Chang
Associate Commissioner
Children’s Bureau

cc:  ACF/OCSE Regional Program Managers
ACF/Children’s Bureau Regional Program Managers