CHILD SUPPORT AND PATERNITY


The Child Support and Paternity Program (CSP) promotes the financial and medical security of children by offering the following full range of child support services:
The services are administered through the cooperative efforts of the Mercer County Board of Social Services, Probation Department, Family Case Management and Sheriff’s Office. Mercer County continues to strengthen and build upon these inter-agency relationships to improve the quality and effectiveness of its child support services.

2004 Year in Review


This past year has seen many changes for our agency as well as the Child Support Department. A change in leadership occurred when Frank Cirillo, Administrative Supervisor of the Child Support Department for over 20 years, was promoted to agency director. Many of the initiatives originated during the year were continued and completed. Staff also experienced a change in the MCBOSS legal staff.

The Child Support Program continued its concerted effort to strengthen its well-established partnerships with Probation, Family Court, and the Sheriff’s Office.
Regular meetings were held between the agencies to problem solve and further enhance cooperation to improve service delivery.

A review of Child Support procedures and work duties was begun. Procedures were revised so ongoing staff could be more proactive in obtaining information from applicants. This allowed for a more expedited delivery of service to the client.

The Mercer County Child Support Program continued its participation in the “Bench Card” pilot. The program assists non-custodial parents obtain work and/or job training. Fifty-seven non-custodial parents participated in the program in 2004. Of those participating, twenty-seven remained actively enrolled in the program at year-end. Sixteen participants were employed.

The Child Support Program continued its relationship with the fatherhood initiative of “Childrens’ Futures,” a program to improve the health and well being of children 0 – 3. Child Support works with the Union Industrial Home for Children (UIH), to provide essential child support information and services to non-custodial fathers in an effort to promote responsible parenting.

Additionally, Mercer County CSP staff participated in important Automated Child Support System (ACSES) Federal certification reviews, and served on several State committees to improve program operations.

The following is a statistical look at the CSP program for 2004:

Locates 1650
Paternities Established 135
Orders Established 782
Orders Modified 208
Referrals Completed 4323
Outreach Appointments 351
Outreach Related Actions 300
Total Public Assistance Collections $3,264,247.00
Total Non-Public Assistance Collections $37,537,924.00

Challenges and Goals for 2005


Maintaining and improving efforts to meet Federal performance standards will be the continuing challenge of the Child Support Program in 2005. A management review process will be developed to track cases as they are processed to evaluate compliance to standards and outcomes.

Ongoing training will be provided to ensure that all workers are knowledgeable of CSP regulations and performance standards. Staff will be trained on the new web based guideline software that will be used for calculating child support orders as well as changes to the Automated Child Support Enforcement System as it moves closer to recertification.

Renovations of CSP office space will be done in 2005. This will allow for a more efficient use of space and provide a more productive work environment for employees.

Goals for 2005 will address key program issues:

[ Table of Contents ]