Child Support CommuniQue - August 2020

ChildSupportCommuniQue

Table of Contents
President’s Message …………………………………………………………..3
Executive Director’s Message………………………………………………….5
Community Corner: Evolutionary Change: Marking a Milestone
in Child Support Enforcement ………………………………………………….6
COVID-19 Response and Transition to Telework…………………………….9
To Offset or Not to Offset……………………………….................................21
Insights from the Private Sector: Pandemic Lessons and
the New Normal…………………………………………………………………26
Insights from the Private Sector: Pulling Together as Partners,
Professionals, and Peers............................................................................29
The Perfect Foil…………………………………………………………………32
Training: Or How We Became Quick Artists…………………………………38
NCSEA INSPIRE………………………………………………………………..40
Work/Life Balance: Emotional and Mental Wellbeing……………………….41
Live from the Child Support Associations – It’s a Joint Virtual Event!…….43

President’s Message August 2020
by Tanguler Gray, NCSEA President
It is hard to believe it has been a year since I began my
term as NCSEA president. Over the last 12 months we
have accomplished so much as a team, despite the global
pandemic. I am proud of the way we all rallied together to
serve the child support community while supporting the
well-being of children and families.
Through the ups and downs of the year, it’s been my
personal goal and the mission of our association to
prioritize Engagement with members as we advocate for
families across the country. Earlier this year, NCSEA
approved a resolution seeking to increase program flexibility and funding so IV-D
programs can serve families through technology and the expansion of
employment programs for noncustodial parents. The financial stability of families
and child support programs nationwide was severely affected by the global
pandemic, and this resolution was only one of many steps to address these
problems. I extend a special thank you to members of the Board of Directors and
all committee members for their hard work this year as NCSEA holds to its vision
of Shaping the Future of Child Support.
As an organization, it has always been important to us to educate those who
work in child support services. We began the year with a highly successful Policy
Forum attended by a record-breaking number of 535 professionals. Our amazing
NCSEA staff and committee members increased online training opportunities and
created not only an extensive library of resources, but a fabulous new website to
ensure that our members had access to high-quality education, even during a
global pandemic. Our new interactive Engagement Lounge quickly became a
popular series and one of my favorite ways to connect with members and other
leaders. All these efforts strengthened the financial standing of the association
and could not have been accomplished without all of you.
I am also proud of the new, beautiful format of the Child Support CommuniQue
(CSQ). The first edition of CSQ did an amazing job of addressing many issues
that not only affect our work but also our well-being as professionals. As child
support professionals, we often spend time educating ourselves about policies
and best practices. However, we should not neglect taking care of ourselves. I

hope the CSQ helped remind you of the importance of creating a healthy worklife
balance and prioritizing self-care.
Our partnerships throughout the year have been a continuous pillar of support. I
am grateful to leaders and members of the National Council of Child Support
Directors (NCCSD), the Eastern Regional Interstate Child Support Association
(ERICSA), the Western Intergovernmental Child Support Engagement Council
(WICSEC), the National Tribal Child Support Enforcement Association (NTCSA)
and the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE). Their collaboration
and support have made this year one of exceptional Engagement.
Thank you all for the honor of serving as your president. It has been a joyous
experience that has been instrumental in both my personal and professional
growth. I hope that I have provided the same level of support, commitment, and
excitement that you all have provided me. Thank you to all the child support
leaders for making this a year of true perseverance. I look forward to continuing
this work with you all.
Tanguler Gray, is the IV-D Director for the Georgia Department of Human Services Division of
Child Support Services. During Director Gray’s 23 years in child support she has held
leadership roles in accounting, fiscal operations, customer service, organizational
effectiveness, field and state operations and executive management. She spearheaded the
Rapid Process Improvement (RPI) Initiative; leading the Georgia program to capture the 2007
Governor’s Award for Customer Service and the 2008 National Child Support Enforcement
Association (NCSEA) Commissioner’s Award for High Performance. Prior to serving as
NCSEA President, Tanguler served as secretary and president-elect of the orgranizaion, and
has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2014. She is a graduate of Valdosta State
University.
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Executive Director’s Message August 2020
by Ann Marie Ruskin
This is a phrase heard numerous times already…but what a
year this has been! I am proud to say that NCSEA has taken
these uncertain times to offer many opportunities and new
initiatives to our members, as well as emphasize the numerous
resources and programs available through member benefits.
NCSEA is proud to launch our new website and we encourage you to go to
www.ncsea.org and take a look. It is a fresh, updated website, and we look
forward to new additions and revisions in the coming weeks. Be sure to log
into your NCSEA member profile and access the NCSEA Member Website,
which is redesigned for better functionality and user experience.
This is also an exciting time of year as we welcome new directors to our
NCSEA Board of Directors. Congratulations to re-elected Board members
Margot Bean (Deloitte Consulting, LLP), Robbie Endris (Conduent), and
Hannah Roots (Hannah Roots Family Law), as well as newly elected Board
members Laura Galindo (CSG Government Solutions), David Kilgore
(California Department of Child Support Services), and Lewis Jackson
(Wake County Child Support Services). The 2020-2021 Board will be led by
NCSEA Officers: President Lisa Skenandore (SMI); President-elect Lori
Bengston (YoungWilliams); Treasurer Jim Fleming (North Dakota Child
Support Services); Secretary Erin Frisch (Michigan Child Support); and
Immediate Past-President Tanguler Gray (Georgia Division of Child
Support Services). Incoming officers and board members will take office
September 1, 2020. We look forward to working with the NCSEA volunteer
leadership in the program year ahead.
I will certainly miss seeing all of you in Anaheim this summer, and I am very
disappointed to miss the many events and activities of the now-canceled
2020 Leadership Symposium. In lieu of in-person education programs,
NCSEA will be offering several virtual programs, titled “NCSEA Inspire,” on
relevant and timely topics of interest to child support professionals. The
programming will be held in October and registration will open September
3 rd . In addition to the professional development programs, our Corporate
Partners and private sector participants will bring you sessions featuring
their products and services critical to the child support program.
Information on all offerings will be emailed soon.
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Community Corner
Evolutionary Change: Marking a Milestone
in Child Support Enforcement
by Jim Fleming, North Dakota Child Support Division
Evolutionary change has a way of sneaking up on you: it happens slowly,
and you may not even notice the change until something prompts you to
have an “aha” moment. For child support and NCSEA, April 21, 2020, was
one of those moments.
The NCSEA Board of Directors adopted a resolution on April 21, 2020,
urging Congress to exclude any future COVID-19 related relief payments
from offset for past-due child support until Congress determines that
parents who owe past-due support have enough employment opportunities
to be self-sufficient without a relief payment.
Yup, the National Child Support ENFORCEMENT Association went on
record in a specific circumstance against collecting money from a parent
who owes child support arrears.
The resolution explains how a lot of the money that would be offset would
be applied to assigned arrears and not be paid to families, but there was
also a deeper factor at work—the importance of self-sufficiency for parents
who owe child support.
For years, lots of the discussion at training conferences has focused on
ways to establish and modify child support orders for appropriate amounts
based on the parents’ ability to pay and on ways to enforce such orders
that are consistent with notions of procedural justice. The changes to
federal regulations that were adopted in 2016 are unmistakable

confirmation of the fact that right-sizing and procedural justice are concepts
that are now embedded in delivery of child support services.
Why the focus on the needs of the parent who owes support? It’s certainly
not about downplaying the importance of child support for the family or
condoning the arrearage. Consider the number 216 – that’s the number of
months between the birth of a child and when the child reaches 18 years of
age; thus, also the number of monthly payments a child support agency
hopes to receive over the life of a case opened at birth. As the IV-D
program enters the middle of our fifth decade and continues to look for
ways to improve collection rates, we’ve learned that sustainability of
collections is important. My former boss was known for throwing out
colorful one-liners, and one of his favorites was “Don’t Shoot Your Milk
Cow” – meaning an action taken today to meet an immediate need may be
less beneficial over the long run. A one-time collection of a larger amount of
money can impair future collections if it denies a parent the ability to pay
rent or buy food or cover all of the other life expenses inherent in being
self-sufficient.
For Federal Fiscal Year 2019, 66.09% of current support was collected, 1
which leaves lots more to collect, and so we cannot forget to continue to
think of more creative and effective ways to find and take possession of
money or assets owned by a parent who owes child support. However, we
also need to recognize barriers to payment and find ways to motivate
parents who owe child support to cooperate with our program and make
reliable payments moving forward. A powerful way to do this is to connect
parents who owe child support with employment programs specifically
designed for parents in our caseload who may need to be nudged to
participate in the program in order to comply with the support obligation.
This nudge can be missing in voluntary services offered under other
programs to unemployed individuals.
Some will disagree with NCSEA’s resolution and that’s okay. There are
some really good reasons that COVID-19 payments should be offset
considering many parents owed arrears prior to the pandemic and many
families needed child support more than ever during the pandemic. For
many it probably makes a difference that the first round of COVID-19
payments was subject to offset. I sure didn’t hate the extra millions paid to
1
Table P-39 of the OCSE Preliminary Data Report for 2019.

families in my state in the middle of the pandemic; we are in the collection
business after all.
Notions of ability to pay and procedural justice are not new to child support
professionals. But in the course of evolving and improving the child support
program for the families we serve, we can mark down April 21, 2020, as a
point in time when NCSEA looked at child support case management and
went on record that the interests of self-sufficiency and sustained
collections were such that a certain type of collection should be avoided—
in this case, from a payment intended to protect public health by keeping
people housed and able to meet other basic needs. Whether you agree or
not in this particular case, such a thoughtful and balanced analysis of the
situation of both parents will serve us well moving forward and shows how
nuanced we have become as a program.
James C. Fleming is the director of the Child Support Division of the North Dakota
Department of Human Services, President of the National Council of Child Support
Directors (NCCSD), and Treasurer of the National Child Support Enforcement
Association (NCSEA). Jim is a member and former co-chair of NCSEA’s Policy and
Government Relations Committee and NCCSD’s Policy and Practice Committee, and a
member of the editorial committee for the NCSEA Child Support CommuniQue (CSQ).
A second-generation attorney, Jim earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the
University of North Dakota and his Juris Doctorate from Notre Dame Law School.
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COVID-19 Response and
Transition to Telework
by Leslie Prichard, Contact Wireless
It’s a strange new world as child support agencies, employees, and parents
attempt to navigate and respond to COVID-19. When the virus descended
upon us this past spring and states shut down offices and halted person-toperson
contact, child support agencies were forced to send staff home and
quickly figure out how to provide and maintain critical child support
services. Thus, we witnessed an explosion of telework offices across the
nation.
In a coast-to-coast look at the response to the pandemic throughout the
child support community, the NCSEA CSQ Editorial Staff has queried
agency leaders in small and large offices to find out how they responded,
what worked, and what the future holds for telework. The feedback
obtained may be helpful to your office as you prepare and manage
operations as the pandemic continues to impact services, employees, and
parents.
Our participants answered a
series of questions and provide
extremely useful information as
to what is working for their staff
and parents. And, most
importantly, they have shared
their lessons learned from this
unusual experience and the
transition to working from home.
The participants’ responses are
listed below followed by a brief
summary of their answers. We want to thank each participant for taking the
time to provide this useful information.

CALIFORNIA
Greg Wilson
Executive Director
Child Support Directors Association of California
(CSDA)
Questions:
1. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, did your agency/office utilize
telework staff? If so, in what capacity and percentage?
Neither CSDA nor the local child support agencies used telework very
frequently. A few local child support agencies (LCSA) used limited
telework, but on a case-by-case basis for select classifications. Most
of the child support infrastructure required employees to report to a
physical location: call center, lobby reception, mail room, interview
rooms, etc.
2. What challenges did you face in transitioning to a telework
staff?
We were missing policies and equipment. First, we had to quickly
develop policies that addressed work schedules, staff availability, and
confidentiality. And then we had to get computers, monitors, and
telephones to the employees’ homes. We also had to ensure the
employees had a spot at home that was not only comfortable but
somewhat secure and private. The equipment caused a few
problems. Internet connections were inconsistent across employees
and the connection to the physical office was not as fast as it should
be. While working in a physical office, upload speeds are not critical.
But when you are connecting from home the office’s limited upload
speed really caused a slowdown in productivity.
3. Were there any procedures in place for transitioning to telework
prior to the pandemic?
I had been thinking about remote work for some years so had a
general idea of the policies and equipment needed. All our
employees were using laptops and we had changed out the phones

to a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system prior to the transition.
So that made getting the computers and telephones to homes quite
easy. Employees literally just packed them up and plugged in at
home. We are set up now so we could work from anywhere in the
world if we have an internet connection. We also transitioned from a
traditional conference telephone system to the Zoom application
before the transition, so we were able to keep running using video
conferencing for meetings.
4. What tools and/or policy did you find helpful for your staff as
they worked from home?
There are two: the upload speed for servers in the physical office and
video conferencing. Before we upgraded the upload speed for the
physical office servers, our work was really bogged down as all five of
us logged in at the same time. The second was the video
conferencing. Staff check in once daily in the morning which is a
combination of catching up on each other’s lives and parsing out that
days’ work. The daily connections have been valuable in maintaining
a sense of teamwork and connection.
5. Will telework staff continue in your office/agency after the
pandemic?
We are leaving the option in place for employees that wish to
continue working remotely. It does not look like there is a clear end to
the pandemic just yet, so it does not make sense to me to rush back
into the office. We still must check on mail and do some paperwork
filing, but nearly all the work can be done remotely. I think the only
thing holding me back from moving to an all remote work environment
is the office lease. If that were ending soon, I would likely not renew
and just work remotely from there forward.
6. Were there any benefits that arose from using a work-from-home
staff that you were not expecting? Staff seem a bit happier and
satisfied. They do not have morning and afternoon commutes and
can have lunch with their families every day. There seems to be a bit

more focus on getting work done as well. The employees have told
me they feel more productive and focused.
COLORADO
Kaye Templeton
Deputy Director
Denver Child Support Services
Questions:
1. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, did your agency/office utilize
telework staff?
No.
2. What challenges did you face in transitioning to a telework
staff?
Ensuring that staff were provided with the proper technology
necessary for work to continue to be completed while working from a
remote location.
3. Were there any procedures in place for transitioning to telework
prior to the pandemic?
Yes, the Division had developed a Continuity of Operations Plan to
ensure work could be completed from home.
4. What tools and/or policy did you find helpful for your staff as
they worked from home?
Laptops were previously issued to all staff within the Division. State
and Federal guideline policy changed to allow for staff to engage with
customers telephonically to conduct interviews and the need for “wet”
signatures has been limited.

5. Will telework staff continue in your office/agency after the
pandemic?
Yes.
6. Were there any benefits that arose from using a work-from-home
staff that you were not expecting?
Lower abandonment rates experienced in the Customer Call Center.
Thoughtful development of virtual and electronic processes to
complete legal documents and cases prepared for court.
NEBRASKA
Troy Reiners
Program Director
Nebraska State Treasurer’s Office/SDU
Questions:
1. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, did your agency/office utilize
telework staff?
No
2. What challenges did you face in transitioning to a telework
staff?
Overcoming resistance of staff to accept the change in their work
environment. Assisting staff to understand they still have all
resources required for them to complete their daily work tasks.
Convincing staff of the environmental changes required in order to
optimize the new work environment i.e. no more printing of paper,
utilizing scanning and emailing of documents, communication no
longer in person but now over the phone, Skype, or even mobile text
messaging.

3. Were there any procedures in place for transitioning to telework
prior to the pandemic?
Yes
4. What tools and/or policy did you find helpful for your staff as
they worked from home?
Our network, availability of hardware (Just prior to COVID-19 we had
ordered all new monitors/workstations for all staff), existing
information technology infrastructure i.e. readily available VPN
connection capability and security policies to assist staff in
recognizing the continued importance of security necessary in a
remote environment.
5. Will telework staff continue in your office/agency after the
pandemic?
Yes, upper management is likely to be more open to permanent
remote work once we have worked our way completely through the
COVID-19 situation. Plans for updating our existing business
continuity guidelines are already in the works with the changes we
will need to make given learned experiences during the COVID-19
time period.
6. Were there any benefits that arose from using a work-from-home
staff that you were not expecting?
We did not expect to see the degree of improvements on nearly all
our workflows in addition to the rapid adoption of our staff to embrace
the remote work environment. Our office established more new
records during the remote work environment then during any other
time in the history of our office. Improvements came with better call
volumes split amongst staff, improved digital communications with
our clients, reduction of workflow times, physical resource savings
included not just cost of paper, materials, postage, but a significant
savings in time needed; basically we realized massive efficiencies
due to being thrown into a new work environment. This speaks highly
of our team and their abilities to adapt, embrace, and see what
improvements could be realized; which all brought about more
satisfied staff.

INDIANA
Sean Gorman
Assistant Deputy Director
Indiana Child Support Bureau
Questions:
1. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, did your agency/office utilize
telework staff? If so, in what capacity and percentage?
Prior to the pandemic, Indiana’s IV-D program staff utilized telework
on a very limited basis. Indiana’s IV-D program is administered by the
state’s Child Support Bureau (CSB), with most case management
duties handled by county prosecutors in each of Indiana’s 92
counties, operating under cooperative agreements. Prior to March
2020, approximately 10% of CSB staff worked remotely – those
remote working positions were almost exclusively represented by
CSB’s staff assigned to assist county offices on a regional basis
throughout the state.
2. What challenges did you face in transitioning to a telework
staff?
Indiana’s IV-D agency experienced the same challenges that many
organizations likely encountered who were able to transition to
telework. There were logistical concerns, such as how to continue
mailroom operations, how to print or receive hardcopy documents
remotely, and the relative speed of the transition process. And for
physical storage of documents containing sensitive information, CSB
needed to evaluate how staff would be able to maintain those hard
copy documents remotely.
There were equipment challenges, as many workers had desktop
computers and external monitors that were inconvenient to physically

move from the office to remote locations, lacked
headphones/microphones, or had limited internet access at home.
Finally, there were the personal challenges that many faced with the
stress of the unknown course and risks of the pandemic, children
home full time with schools and day-cares closed, and the adaptation
to a home work environment with new distractions and the
adjustment to the lack of physical proximity to coworkers and social
isolation.
3. Were there any procedures in place for transitioning to telework
prior to the pandemic?
CSB had in place, prior to the pandemic, broadly defined contingency
plans that did not envision circumstances where a nearly complete
transition to telework operations would be necessary for any duration.
4. What tools and/or policy did you find helpful for your staff as
they worked from home?
CSB had begun piloting the use of Microsoft Teams for remote
meetings and limited file sharing prior to the pandemic. This early
experience helped prepare it for use agency wide after workers
began teleworking full-time. Indiana implemented statewide policy for
state government workers to provide flexibility for those who were
burdened with personal responsibilities as a result of the pandemic
that interfered with the ability to work the same schedule or number of
hours.
Increased flexibility for staff during the transition combined with a full
embrace of the use of video meeting applications has kept staff in
constant contact with management and coworkers and helped to
keep everybody engaged in continuing to operate the child support
program with no disruption.
5. Will telework staff continue in your office/agency after the
pandemic?
Yes, indefinitely. Through the pandemic and going forward, CSB has
a handful of positions that continue to work primarily at the main
office to coordinate administrative tasks and to process and scan

incoming correspondence. Staff at the office have access to agency
provided personal protective equipment (PPE), hand sanitizer, and
are able to practice social distancing, especially now that 95% of the
agency staff is exclusively working remotely.
6. Were there any benefits that arose from using a work-from-home
staff that you were not expecting?
With only a few exceptions, staff report that they prefer the
opportunity to continue working from home. Staff are saving money
on transportation costs and enjoy greater flexibility in meeting work
obligations while scheduling around family/home obligations. The
forced transition to work from home provided an opportunity for the
agency to engage staff in an evaluation of pre Covid-19 work
process, interim processes, and how work should proceed going
forward. CSB gained a greater understanding of new opportunities
for improved work processes because of this.
There are also some practical, cost-savings benefits that are
becoming apparent: Remote workers are printing far fewer
documents – Staff do not have agency issued personal printers and
for the most part have adapted to working exclusively with electronic
documents.
PENNSYLVANIA
Daniel Elsass
Project Coordinator
Allegheny County Family Division
Questions:
1. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, did your agency/office utilize
telework staff? If so, in what capacity and percentage?
Prior to the pandemic we did not utilize telework staff.

2. What challenges did you face in transitioning to a telework
staff?
We faced challenges in obtaining the necessary equipment,
identifying the essential staff to move processes forward remotely.
3. Were there any procedures in place for transitioning to telework
prior to the pandemic?
There were not any procedures in place prior to the pandemic. All of
our current telework procedures were a product of the pandemic and
the closure at the state level, which enabled us to pivot to telework.
4. What tools and/or policy did you find helpful for your staff as
they worked from home?
As we moved to working from home, we found the use of smart
phones, tablets, and laptops (hardware) became very important and
discovered which pieces of hardware worked better than others for
the different job functions within the court. We have utilized the
Microsoft Teams platform consistently for remote meetings,
document collaboration, file sharing and storage for those working
remotely as the platform can be accessed on any piece of hardware
available to our staff.
5. Will telework staff continue in your office/agency after the
pandemic?
This is a question of continued discussion within our organization.
There may be some jobs, or job functions that can continue to be
handled from home after the pandemic through telework and remote
access, though whether we will continue to utilize telework after the
pandemic is a question of how our organization is changed by the
pandemic.
6. Were there any benefits that arose from using a work-from-home
staff that you were not expecting?
The introduction of new technologies to the courts was one of the
unexpected benefits from the work-from-home model. The pandemic
and the need for remote access opened us instantly to new
technologies that we otherwise may have passed up without

consideration. Our staff has been keen to learn and innovate with the
new models we are utilizing for remote work in order to continue to
provide necessary services to our clients.
Conclusion
The participants’ responses have provided a valuable overview of office
procedures, helpful tools and policy, and a glimpse into what the future may
look like for child support offices.
It is apparent from the responses that the move to telework, while initially
challenging logistically, proved to be a positive experience overall with
increased staff productivity
and morale. As your office
and staff continue to adapt to
the new world of COVID-19
through telework, we hope
that this glimpse into what is
working for other child
support offices across the
nation may be helpful to you in considering tools, policy and resources to
make your transition smoother, more effective and result in a positive
impact for your staff and parents.
_________________________________________
It is apparent from the responses that the
move to telework, while initially
challenging logistically, proved to be a
positive experience overall with increased
staff productivity and morale.
Greg Wilson is the Executive Director of the Child Support Directors Association,
serving the more than 6,500 employees of California’s Local Child Support Agencies.
He has been a member of NCSEA for two years and currently serves on the Legislative
Education Subcommittee. His areas of expertise are in association management,
advocacy/lobbying, public administration and finance.
Kaye Templeton has 18 years of experience in the Child Support Services
program. Her main focus has been customer outreach and education through the
development of relationships with community partners and other stakeholders to build
supportive Parenthood programs.
Troy Reiners has been the Director of the Nebraska Child Support Payment Center
(NCSPC) for 16 years. Troy appeared in Visa’s Currency of Progress campaign
highlighting Visa’s partnering with governments. He has 31 years of management
experience working for the NCSPC; in retail management as store manager, division

manager & special projects manager and eight years served in the Nebraska Army
National Guard.
Sean Gorman leads the Indiana Child Support Bureau’s Program Support Unit, which
is responsible for policy analysis and development, ensuring Indiana’s compliance with
federal mandates, supporting business initiatives, conducting outreach activities, and
coordinating federal Data Reliability Audits and Self-Assessment activities.
Daniel Elsass has worked for the Allegheny County Family Division since 2008. He is
currently the Project Coordinator, serving since 2018. Daniel has a Bachelor of Science
in Public Administration from Point Park University, and holds memberships to the
Domestic Relations Association of Pennsylvania (DRAP), Eastern Regional Interstate
Child Support Association (ERICSA), National Child Support Enforcement Association
(NCSEA).
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To Offset or Not to Offset:
That is Not the Only Question
by Erin Frisch, Michigan Child Support &
Kate Cooper Richardson, Oregon Child Support Program
As IV-D programs around the country wrestled with policy and practice
around the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES)
Economic Impact Payments—the so-called stimulus payments—many of
us found ourselves trying to balance the immediate needs of families with
our traditional role of enforcing collections. While the crisis demanded an
immediate response for both the families we serve and our own programs,
we also felt the pull to think more deeply about our evolving values around
supporting both parents for the well-being of children.
Many states have worked hard over the last ten years to set orders that are
manageable and based on ability to pay. We don’t get it 100% right, but in
more and more cases, we no longer see the old-school orders figured on
what it costs to raise a child regardless of means. If a parent doesn’t pay all
or some support when an order is based on ability to pay, it’s not because
we did a bad job setting an order—the parent has done a bad job following
the order. It is our responsibility to get reliable, consistent financial support
for children—when a parent doesn’t pay regularly, we must not lose sight of
our purpose by shying away from using the tools available to us.
Setting payable orders is only the start, however. Things change. Once an
order is in place, we’re usually not nimble enough to respond to rapidly
shifting family circumstances. The system we operate within hasn’t caught
up to our recognition that payers and recipients of child support need us to
consider their entire economic situation for the good of their children. When

there is economic hardship—and there is a lot of it—our program still
doesn’t serve families well. How do we balance our core responsibility to
collect child support without driving a family further into poverty? When
Congress decided that the stimulus payments would be subject to offset for
past-due child support, and to use the federal tax offset program to execute
the policy, that question became fundamental.
Many states initially reacted to the CARES Act by trying to figure out how
not to intercept stimulus payments. The federal tax offset program was
created to first “pay back” state and federal government for expenditures
from the Title IV-A (cash assistance) program, to recoup public assistance
costs. That means intercepted funds go first to government arrears, not to
family arrears. It quickly became clear after the rushed passage of the
CARES Act that those in Congress who intentionally required intercepting
past-due child support from the stimulus payments didn’t understand that
most states’ collections through the federal tax offset enforcement tool
don’t end up in the hands of families on either side. In addition, the difficulty
in working with IRS dictates made wading through the required processes
daunting. Many of us believed significant effort to recoup public assistance
costs was not the goal of the stimulus payment and was the wrong thing to
do during a crisis, especially one so unpredictable.
The federal tax offset program is
complicated and much of it is out of our
control. While many states would have
liked to find a more nuanced way of
distributing stimulus payments, the fact
is there are not many options available
The federal tax offset program
is complicated and much of it
is out of our control.
to us. A few states managed to make some distribution changes
depending on the flexibility of their automated systems, state laws and
rules, tolerance for risk, and the policy support (or pressure) of their elected
state leadership. That’s not enough. Overall changes in the federal offset
program itself are needed that better reflect the balanced approach child
support programs are attempting to take. Without changes, there are very
practical reasons to avoid intercepting stimulus payments at all.
As an income transfer program, we strive for balance in our guidelines
calculations and setting of orders. Fairness is important, and equity should
always be a consideration. Because a stimulus payment was extended to
every person (plus children in the home), there isn’t inequity between

families of payers and recipients--the financial equation remains balanced.
In other words, without an offset, relatively speaking, neither parent is
worse off nor better off than before the stimulus payments hit their
respective bank accounts. The parent with the children in the home
receives more than the parent without children in the home, also consistent
with a balanced equation. That’s not to say that the overall equation is
balanced—because, indeed, it is not if arrears are owed—and that is a
solid basis of the argument for offset. But in this unique circumstance, with
a one-time payment across the board to all citizens, it is neutral. It’s fair at
the micro-level (each person receives a payment) and does not affect the
macro-level (the case balance is status quo).
There are practical drawbacks to offsetting the stimulus payments—and
those drawbacks can extend to
regular federal tax offsets as well.
There’s been significant
administrative expense, delay, and
disruption caused by the offset
process of stimulus payments,
especially when the offset process
deviates from the standard tax
offset process. In addition, public
confusion and angst (on all sides of
Our program resources are a zero-sum
game, which means that right now
significant resources are being drawn
away from our regular work to focus on
this matter for many weeks. That in turn
means that other cases, activities, and
actions suffer, which ultimately has a
negative impact on families.
the equation) divert attention and time of child support staff to calls, emails,
and inquiries that are not easy conversations, even with parents who will be
receiving the offset funds. Our program resources are a zero-sum game,
which means that right now significant resources are being drawn away
from our regular work to focus on this matter for many weeks. That in turn
means that other cases, activities, and actions suffer, which ultimately has
a negative impact on families. It’s tangible across our programs right now—
while there are some gains against arrears, there also are losses
elsewhere in establishment, modification, and enforcement because we
cannot get to those pressing matters as quickly.
The child support program struggles with its public perception, and
Congress’ choice that the stimulus payments be offset only for child
support thrust our program alone to the front of the stage with a bright
spotlight on us—but without us knowing our lines in the play, if you will. The
stimulus payment is a unique, one-time event in a time of deep national

crisis and anxiety—and our bureaucratic program is now smack in the
middle of it for many citizens. Our reputation is taking a beating, and this
experience may damage some of the good work we’ve done on that front.
We haven’t been able to be clear and forthright with customers because we
haven’t known (and still don’t completely know) how it all works. We can’t
be swift for a great number of reasons (including that we haven’t yet
received all the offset funds, although our customers are strongly
convinced otherwise since many of them have received notices of offset
from the U.S. Treasury). The perceived obstructionism on our part irritates
everyone—paying parents, parents who’ll receive support, and injured
spouses. These practical problems were foreseeable and undermine the
policy goal of quickly getting money to families and into the economy.
All our social service systems,
including the child support program,
are not separate or objective. They
have been constructed by humans
with intent and bias. In this instance,
while it might seem that the tax offset
program is complex and diffused “just
because,” it was designed a long time
ago for policy goals that are no longer
as relevant. We know there is more to
our program than just collections, yet the tools available to us and our
incentivized goals leave little room for meaningful policy change. We must
advocate for changes to the tax offset program that better align with our
values as a child support program.
At a minimum, we need a way to identify the receipts coming to us from the
IRS, especially “special payments.” Doing so would give state programs
some ability to control our policies around distribution to account for things
like economic hardship or extenuating circumstances. Another suggestion:
allow states to determine which cases are submitted for offset. As we move
toward tailoring case management activities to the specific needs of
families, we need to build the flexibility into our regulations. These changes
would also allow us the ability to avoid intercepting funds that were
intended for children in the first place.
As we think about the needs of families both paying and receiving child
support—including how best to serve them responsively, especially low-

income families—we see other program changes that could help us live our
values. Basing intercepts on income (similar to how the stimulus payments
were paid out) is one way. If income of the debtor is less than a certain
amount, we would not be allowed to intercept for child support. We also
need a legal distribution option to pay family-owed debt before state-owed
debt when it’s clear the goal is to use this program for more than
recoupment of public assistance. Finally, requiring states to have hardship
policies and procedures (that actually work) would allow us to make
determinations quickly when it’s not the right thing to collect through offset.
Sound policy poorly executed doesn’t achieve its purpose—witness the
stimulus payment. Outdated policy perpetually executed doesn’t move our
society forward—witness the federal tax offset program. We assert that
who we say we want to be and who we are don’t line up yet—to get there
we are going to have to really change our programs and policies around
our systems of enforcement, including this one. Sign us up.
_________________________________________
Erin Frisch became the Title IV-D Director for Michigan and Director of the Michigan
Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Office of Child Support (OCS) in
2012. Erin served for a year as Senior Chief Deputy for Opportunity at MDHHS where
she oversaw the children’s services agency, the Bureau of Community Services, and
the Economic Stability Administration where she focused on integration between public
assistance programs and health, community services, child support and child welfare to
reduce poverty for Michiganders. Erin is a former President of the National Council of
Child Support Directors and serves on the Board of Directors for NCSEA.
Kate Cooper Richardson is the administrator of the Oregon Department of Justice
Division of Child Support and the director of the Oregon Child Support Program,
Oregon’s federal Title IV-D program. Kate joined the Program in 2010,and was
appointed by Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum in January 2013 as director. A
graduate of Willamette University School of Law, her public service career spans work
in all three branches of state government, including eight years as Chief of Staff to the
Oregon State Treasurer. Kate is an NCSEA board member and has served as co-chair
of the Policy & Government Relations Committee, and an active member of NCCSD.
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Insights from the Private Sector:
Pandemic Lessons and the New Normal
by Scott Cade, Vice President and Managing Director
of Child Support, Conduent
It is the summer of 2020 and we are in the middle of a global pandemic.
This pandemic has touched all of us both personally and professionally,
and the road ahead remains uncertain. The spread of COVID-19 has not
only changed how we live our lives and conduct our business but has
vividly reminded us that none of us are an island and our choices impact
others.
Conduent is an industry leading child support provider, delivering mission
critical services and solutions on behalf of our state child support
customers. Our goal is to create exceptional outcomes for our clients and
the millions of children and families who count on them—and while the
pandemic cannot change that goal, it certainly has changed how we work
to achieve it. In early March, state and county child support programs
began to close offices, including courts, to fight COVID-19’s spread. As a
State Disbursement Unit (SDU) and system maintenance provider to states
coast to coast, we too were challenged by the health and safety risks that
drove government decisions to close offices and send workers home.
Because uninterrupted child support payment processing was defined as
an essential service, we worked with our state customers to devise staffing
plans that supported daily payment processing throughout the pandemic.
Our company implemented new health and safety policies consistent with
CDC recommendations and state-specific guidelines and enhanced certain
employee benefits related to the pandemic. Keeping our workers and
workplaces safe was fundamental to our ability to support our state
customers and their constituents.
As March turned to April, the economic impacts of the pandemic took hold
and unemployment filings soared to historic levels. With 75% of all child
support paid by income withholding, widespread job loss led directly to

lower child support payment volumes in April. Stimulus payment and
Unemployment Benefit intercepts were collected towards arrears. With
offices closed, loss of income, reduced payments and now intercepts,
families served through the child support program sought answers through
any available customer service channel. At times, this stressed the
customer support model implemented to augment socially-distanced work
environments with work-from-home resources.
May and June brought realization that this pandemic was not going away
anytime soon. Solutions designed to address short-term interruption had to
be re-evaluated. Staff who covered assignments for colleagues unable to
work due to health or child care issues were exhausted. Many vacation
plans were canceled due to travel or social gathering restrictions. Under
these circumstances, empathy was critical to our continued ability to deliver
for our customers.
I have worked in the child support program for almost twenty years. In that
time, I have served as a State IV-D Director, President of the National Child
Support Enforcement Association (NCSEA), and the leader of Conduent’s
child support business. In each of those roles I initiated and experienced
change. As I reflect on those experiences, consider the events and lessons
of the last several months, and look ahead to the future, I’m reminded that:
• Child support professionals are resilient and committed to the
program’s mission of serving children and families. Every payment
received at a Conduent SDU during this pandemic has been
processed on time, so families facing other potential uncertainties did
not have to worry about their child support payment being delayed.
• Electronics are more sustainable. Digital interactions, whether
payments, correspondence or notifications, continue uninterrupted
when mailrooms and print shops are impacted by closures. Digital
interactions can also be exchanged faster, more reliably, and at
lesser expense.
• Clear, consistent and continuous communications are a critical
aspect of leadership. During the pandemic, effective communications
have been key to implementing new policies, successfully
transitioning large numbers of employees to work from home and
maintaining awareness of dynamic issues.

As state and county child support programs across the country start
contemplating their post-COVID reality, I recommend considering:
• “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Acknowledge and embrace the
fact that the pre-COVID way of delivering services will change. For
example, due to restrictions on large gatherings and the transition of
many staff to work from home, consider the exclusive adoption of
online training.
• Re-focus on the “why” not the “how.” Focusing on performance
achievement rather than process compliance can result in good
conversations and potentially creative solutions—we’ve already seen
it happen.
• Lead with empathy. Change can be hard. Time and again, child
support professionals in state and county offices have embraced
change through new policies, practices, and technology. This time,
however, empathy will be especially important as each of us brings
our own COVID thoughts and experiences to the question of change.
How the pandemic will impact our lives in the days and months ahead may
be unclear, but it’s clear that our approach to work in the future won’t look
exactly like the past. Some decisions may be temporary, others permanent,
but all will be informed by our experiences during this pandemic period.
Scott Cade is currently Vice President and Managing Director of Child Support at
Conduent, former New York State IV-D Director, Past President and Honorary Lifetime
Member of NCSEA, and Kathy Duggan Memorial Award recipient. Conduent is
NCSEA’s Platinum Partner.
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Insights from the Private Sector:
Pulling Together as Partners,
Professionals, and Peers
by Laura Rosenak, Senior Vice President
Maximus Health and Human Services
In an environment where circumstances are changing rapidly and
unemployment has skyrocketed, the need to provide holistic services for
parents and children continues to be a critical service for all child support
professionals. We, as a nation, remain in a crisis mode as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic. For individuals who are owed or owe support, that
crisis has had a very real impact—whether the result of layoffs or lost
income—on their financial and emotional circumstances.
As a company, we’ve compiled numerous insights on what we’ve learned
about the landscape of child support during a pandemic.
• We realized that the need to continue services in unique ways is
key to providing help, leveraging all available technologies and
resources. From HIPAA-compliant Zoom hearings and meetings
via video to informational text and email campaigns, staying in
regular communication with those we serve to keep them informed
about what to expect and when is what matters most. The
insecurity of not knowing if a stipend will be offset, not knowing
whether unemployment benefits will be offset, not knowing when
hearings will be scheduled or orders entered as court and office
closures impact all facets of the program, in turn deeply impacts
those we serve. And across the nation, every program and vendor
has responded to that need through the introduction of flexible
solutions and methods, providing much needed information in the
ways our customers both prefer and expect.
• We know that right-sizing orders swiftly to help to minimize
disruption of payments is necessary. Swift enhancements to digital
capabilities to address that need in a secure environment enables
individuals to submit critical information without the need to come

into the office or mail documents. Providing critical updates on the
progress of a review and expediting outcomes is key to supporting
the ability of both parties to know and understand what obligations
will be in place for the family.
• Our number one priority remains ensuring the health and wellbeing
of our teams and those we serve. From office closures to
controlled access to maintain operations (like having staff onsite to
process mail), we’ve followed the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) guidelines, provided enhanced salary protection
plans to support COVID-related circumstances, and worked in
partnership with our clients to ensure the safety of not only our
own teams, but our customers as well. As we work to reopen sites
in various phases aligned with the states where we operate, we
continue to put the safety of our teams at the forefront of the
actions we take. From social distancing to the use of masks,
gloves, decontamination cleaning efforts, enhanced cleaning
protocols, glass and plexiglass partitions, and more, the need to
work together as a society to help curb the continuation of the
pandemic is key to our operations and our core philosophy as a
company.
Partnership continues to be the cornerstone of recovery. Together, as child
support professionals, we must partner to provide the best service possible
to those in need. The need to understand our program and the policies
surrounding child support is morphing into a need to understand what
programs are available to the families we serve to help with housing, child
care, financial needs, and more. To that end, we’ve broadened our rapport
with local services to include food banks, clothing, and ministry services, as
well as many other partnerships. While multi-generational programs have
been in place for years at most of our offices, expanding those initiatives to
focus on the core family and their needs in this unprecedented landscape
has become a major focus for our teams. Finding new resources,
leveraging existing partners, and establishing firmer and wider networks to
help families today, in this environment, is our mission. We know that
finding resources to assist families has made a great impact over the years.
And now, more than ever, those relationships are needed to simply help

the children and parents we serve find that emotional and financial security
they need.
Our world has changed—both at a macro and micro level. Civil unrest,
financial instability, and uncertainty about the future demand that we pull
together as partners, professionals, and peers to provide the best level of
support to those most in need. It’s what we do, it’s what we’ve done, and
now, more than ever, it’s what we must continue to do.
Laura Rosenak has more than 25 years of direct experience managing health and
human services operations and provides executive oversight for the Maximus North
America child support practice, including full-service outsourced operations, new hire
reporting, voluntary paternity acknowledgment programs, national medical support
notice (NMSN) processing, financial institution data matching (FIDM), call center and
contact center contracts, and specialized services projects. Maximus is NCSEA’s Gold
Partner.
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THE PERFECT FOIL
by Karen Hebert, New Hampshire Bureau of Child
Support Services
What became apparent to directors, like so many around
the world, was knowing no one is alone in this crisis. This is a powerful
realization, igniting strength and a sense of greater control, as people all
over the world are fighting a single threat, and for the most part trying to do
it together.
At Center Stage
In the strong child support community, IV-D directors have always played
an important leadership role in the success of the program. How they fare
as leaders, and are later judged, is determined by their skills, adaptability,
and characteristics to lead, particularly in times of emergent crisis or
extraordinary unplanned change.
The current situation lends itself to a
metaphor. Literature and filmmaking (and
even politics) have gifted us with
character types that nearly always include
a protagonist—often the hero. By design,
there is also an antagonist or “foil” whose
role is to emphasize the characteristics of
the protagonist. Tybalt in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a marvelous
example of a foil character, as is Lord Voldemort to Harry Potter.
Not unlike infamous foils, COVID-19 has played a tremendous antagonist
role that has accentuated the leadership qualities and abilities of IV-D
directors. Who knew that something unseen by the eye alone could be
such a powerful catalyst for leading? If there is any positive from this
experience for directors, this may be it.
Blue Skies
“Even though we’ve got a fight
ahead of us, we’ve got one
thing that Voldemort doesn’t
have….something worth
fighting for.”
- Harry Potter
In early 2020, state child support directors were making great progress in
taking the child support program to new levels, envisioning their “blue sky.”
Progress was being made in system modernization, new service delivery
models, and public relations. Directors were engaged in policy issues

elated to business, such as child support incentives, employer relations,
and intergovernmental cooperation.
Suddenly that stopped. What had seemed like a problem for those on the
other side of the world almost instantly became a complete global crisis,
like a surreal sequel to the 1995 medical disaster film, Outbreak. No one
ever could have predicted what was about to happen. Directors faced one
of the most extraordinary events of their time as leaders.
Coordinating in Chaos
Typically, organizational leaders strategize
long-term plans, evaluated annually. To
coordinate in the emergent chaos, directors
were forced to immediately resynchronize in
24-hour periods—not an easy task.
Continuity of operations, particularly
maintaining mission-essential functions,
was, well, essential. The landscape
changed, sometimes even hourly, as
“…in chaotic, there is no
apparent relationship
between cause and effect,
requiring near-constant
coordination.”
- Ret. U.S. Army
General Stanley
McCrystal (2016)
agencies deployed emergency operations centers, incident management
teams, and continuity of operations plans. Governmental agencies have
never changed the business environment and methods so quickly. Leaders
turned to technology and support from IT departments to deploy as many
staff members as possible with cobbled-together equipment to work from
home. For staff who could not telework, office workspaces were
transformed with hand-washing stations, 6-foot taped intervals on the floor,
and shuttered conference rooms. These remarkable exercises took only
days to implement and complete, challenging directors’ decision-making
abilities.
Catching their breath, directors turned to the status of partners and
stakeholders, such as the courts. How was the pandemic impacting them?
What did that mean for child support services? Each state was
experiencing unfolding challenges to the delivery of services in the chaotic
environment. With profound needs from staff and customers at stake, this
was a time to lead. This was a time to show what leadership in public
service is all about.

Testing Strength and Agility
Leaders have leadership behavior choices during a crisis. Being a leader
means, at any time yet amplified by crisis, having to shift quickly among
several leadership styles, which is extremely difficult when information in a
chaotic environment changes at light speed. Managing crisis also means
remaining influential and being less averse to risk. Strategies and decisions
forged in the fire of a crisis can generate innovation, which inherently
requires risk, strong focus, and unity throughout an organization, and
throughout that organization’s entire community.
Before the pandemic, directors already felt relatively stressed—it comes
with the job. The COVID-19 pandemic presented IV-D directors with
challenges never before part of daily life in the child support community.
Directors have rapidly revised policies, created new business processes,
mitigated risk to virus exposure, suspended services, developed internal
and external communication plans, and sought technological solutions—all
while trying to ensure service delivery didn’t suffer. Some staff and their
family members experienced personal challenges including loss of income,
loss of childcare, illness, vulnerability, and even death. Directors have
needed to be strong for them. There were days when directors felt they just
didn’t have the strength and their own stress levels were bulging at the
seams. Emotional intelligence was in constant flex. Directors could only
hope they didn’t get sick themselves—and some have. Each director has
his or her own story to tell. How they managed all of this is where we find
strength and agility.
The incapacity to carry out
mission-essential functions is
a tragedy itself, pouring salt
on the wounds that families
are already suffering from.
With little or no data in some areas, states are
challenged to truly understand the pandemic’s
effects on collections, service delivery,
productivity, and funding sources. Antiquated
tools and technology in many states prevent
states from conducting certain program
functions, reporting performance accurately, or meeting federal and state
legal requirements. Some states have experienced reductions in staff or an
inability to operate in alternative locations. The incapacity to carry out
mission-essential functions is a tragedy itself, pouring salt on the wounds
that families are already suffering from.

As if the internal chaos wasn’t enough for directors, inflammatory stories
appeared in the media in which opponents of child support called for the
prohibition of key services, such as income withholding, which would only
jeopardize families. Meanwhile, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic
Security Act (CARES) Act created new challenges for directors who worked
hard to make the relief fair and effective for families, while waiting for
federal guidance that stalled in a new extended clearance process,
exacerbating the situation. Congressional activities led to questions and
positioning from governors and state legislators, to which directors needed
to respond and assist. For some directors, working with their governors or
legislators was a first-time experience, accompanied by spotlights, media
and added pressure. To add to the already-overflowing platter of
challenges, directors were facing significant budgetary concerns to support
the program when federal financial rates changed, which will unfavorably
affect some states. Directors also sought timely relief from federal legal
requirements, effective during a state’s emergency declaration. Federal
guidance was received at the end of May and directors continue to work
with federal partners to interpret and understand from which requirements
states can and cannot seek relief.
The pandemic then collided with a public uprising in response to events
that highlighted the vast inequities in race and class across the country.
While equity is not a new subject for the child support program, tragedy
brought opportunity to view service delivery methods, policy, and data
collection through an equitable lens.
Forging Ahead Together
Culture among child support directors is that of one community, united,
which began several years ago by a small number of directors who sought
out support from each other to share information and resolve issues. Since
then the IV-D directors, through the National Council of Child Support
Directors (NCCSD), have enjoyed strong camaraderie and a culture with
regular, open, honest communication—where solutions to challenges are
created, policy is developed, and growth and learning are fostered. Coming
together with NCCSD has generated innovation, abundant sharing, and a
little therapy.

The year 2020 has been, and continues to be, a time of considerable
pressure. More than ever, support from the entire child support community
has been needed, particularly from key partners. When the federal voice
became uncharacteristically and perplexingly moderated and delayed,
directors turned to each other for solutions. Symbiotic relationships with key
partners are paramount in government. Directors continue to collaborate
and endeavor to progress with their federal partner and focus on the road
ahead.
Knowing no one is alone in this crisis is a powerful realization, igniting
strength and a sense of greater control, as people all over the world are
fighting a single threat and, for the most part, trying to do it together.
Throughout the pandemic, directors have met frequently (virtually, of
course). With support from NCCSD, they keep each other informed of their
respective state’s service abilities and status of operations. Directors have
actively shared and sought solutions for numerous affected business
functions and processes. They have addressed system and policy changes
and quickly developed emergency contracts, internal and public
messaging, as well as resources for staff and for customers. Our child
support protagonists have discussed the need to recalibrate from this
pandemic, referring to it as a disruption and choosing to look forward. They
are combining their strengths and continuing to lead the program and its
mission.
Humanity is a natural foil for
inhumanity, and humanity is
what will ultimately keep us
Directors are grateful for each other’s open
doors and willingness to continue sharing and
supporting, making them all very successful
going when all else has leaders. The pandemic of 2020 has indeed
failed.
become that perfect foil for IV-D directors,
- Margaret Cho highlighting their extraordinary leadership skills
and abilities. This is a time to celebrate public
service and a chance to step up and flex a little leadership muscle.
_________________________________________
Karen Hebert has been the IV-D Director for the New Hampshire Department of Health
and Human Services, Bureau of Child Support Services since 2018. NH Child Support
Services has an agency membership with NCSEA. Karen has worked in the NH child
support program since 2006, overseeing policy, field operations, customer service, and
interagency collaboration. She is Chair of the National Council of Child Support

Directors (NCCSD) Mentoring Committee and a member of the NCCSD Audit
Committee. She represents NCCSD on a joint Public Relations Committee with NCSEA
and the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE). Karen has a Bachelor of
Science degree in Human Services from Springfield College and Master in Business
Administration with a Leadership concentration from Norwich University.
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Training: How We Became
Quick Change Artists
by Verna Donnelly, North Carolina Child
Support Services
Some of us may have wondered how Superman felt, constantly changing
from Clark Kent to Superman in an instant. When the coronavirus struck,
the North Carolina training team got a glimpse into Superman’s life. We
had to immediately think about how we were going to deliver training to all
100 counties in the state of North Carolina through avenues other than an
in-person class and do it quickly while still delivering quality service. We
had to re-tool and not stew over the fact that we had already published our
training schedule for January 2020 – June 2020, which called for a 2-day
training for each course, 2 trainers, an on-site location, and 20-25
participants with access to a computer and a secure internet connection.
Even though our training would not be as frequent, we still had to provide
training using the technology we had available, keep the components that
had already been developed for classroom training, offer a platform for
questions that may be asked
during the training, and develop
and deliver additional training
resources.
The team put their heads
together and began strategizing,
laying out the process to get
these items accomplished. We
took the training guides created for the classroom training and used them
to help configure virtual training classes. We reduced the classes to two, 2-
hour sessions each day, and decided to use the GoToTraining platform as
our delivery mechanism. We compartmentalized class exercises, cross
pollinating with technology to elicit group discussions and answers. To
make sure our frequency of training was not lost, we posed questions and
policy answers to case mangers weekly to check their knowledge and have

information readily available. This has kept our counties looking forward to
something new each week. We are continuously developing small training
modules (known as mini-training) from larger specialized training. They are
created in a series usually consisting of topics with related subtopics. Each
subtopic lasts approximately 15 minutes within the series. To make sure we
covered all bases, we developed a self-guided, interactive training which
allows the trainee to start and stop the training when necessary or to
choose an area to focus on within the training. Our training process is such
that we continue engaging with our counties.
trainees and in a variety of different ways.
When Clark Kent changes to
Superman, he never knows
what the outcome will be. We
felt that way when we started
down this virtual training path.
We have found these new
training processes work better
than our old way of training as
we are able to reach more
As we look to the future, we are excited to continue creating these new and
innovative ways to keep our counties trained and engaged.
_________________________________________
Verna Donnelly is the Assistant Chief of Program Operations for the State of North
Carolina Child Support Program, with overall responsibility for policy and training, the
central registry, State Parent Locate Services and customer support for the program.
Verna is a graduate of Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She has over 20
years of child support experience. Within those 20 years she has worked at the local
level of child support in Louisiana and North Carolina in various capacities and
contractually on the Automated Collection and Tracking System (ACTS) Project for the
State of North Carolina child support system.
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NCSEA is excited to introduce INSPIRE, a virtual event
designed to inspire child support professionals in
approaching their work, colleagues, clients, and customers;
to help them discover new and invigorating
approaches to their jobs.
NCSEA INSPIRE consists of plenary and workshop sessions, learning labs, NCSEA
Book Club, and Child Support Hackathon – a variety of formats and presentations. It’s
all FREE for NCSEA members and those receiving member benefits.
The cancellation of the NCSEA 2020 Leadership Symposium was certainly
disappointing. However, we recognize the importance of providing key training and
resources to our membership, as well as offering opportunities to connect and learn
from colleagues around the country during this unique time.
NCSEA INSPIRE meets those needs. It’s a virtual engagement event scheduled over
four weeks in October and requires a commitment of no more than two hours per day.
You can pick and
choose sessions that
interest you and fit
your schedule. We
recognize that
everyone won’t be able to
attend every session,
but each session will be
recorded and made
available to our members
on demand.
The NCSEA
INSPIRE planning
committee—formerly
the Leadership Symposium
Planning
Committee—is working
diligently to bring
informative presentations
to you, identifying
topics of particular
relevance and
interest. In addition, we will
utilize creative
formats, including learning
labs, for interactive and engaging sessions. There is a variety of programming to select
and participate in.
We will certainly miss seeing our friends and colleagues and the opportunity to network
and learn from each other in Anaheim this year. However, our hope is to offer the child
support community the opportunity to learn, engage, and be INSPIRED. Registration
for NCSEA INSPIRE will open in early September and is free to NCSEA members and
those receiving member benefits. Look for additional information about INSPIRE
coming via email and check the (new) NCSEA website for additional information.
Get ready to be INSPIRED – check out the NCSEA INSPIRE website today.

Work/Life Balance: The Never-
Ending Pursuit
Part 2 – Emotional and Mental
Wellbeing
by Mike Moreno, Human Capital Manager,
Deloitte, LLP
This article complements the NCSEA On Location Podcast,
Work/Life Balance Series – Part 2, released on August 20,
2020. In this podcast, Jennifer Coultas, Los Angeles County
Child Support; Mike Moreno, Deloitte Consulting; and Kim
Newsome Bridges, Conduent address how emotional and
mental wellbeing play a critical role for employees with
work/life balance issues. The podcast was recorded prior to
the onset of the coronavirus pandemic but remains relevant.
Finding work-life balance has never been more challenging than it is in our
current environment. We are all reeling from the daily impacts of the
COVID-19 pandemic, adjusting to a new sense of what normal life looks
like. Given the uncertainty and collective anxiety many of us are
experiencing in our new “reality,” we may find ourselves examining our
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors more closely. We may also find we are
worrying more, not sleeping as well, or have a looming sense of fear and
dread with a future that is unknown. This confluence of anxieties has a
direct impact on emotional-mental health and is compounded by prolonged
social limitations.
Additionally, we parents who have the privilege to work at home during this
unprecedented time may find ourselves with increased pressure to figure
out how to care for our children and still meet work obligations. Those
without children have other challenges, such as figuring out how to turn

work off, carve out personal time, and deal with potentially overwhelming
social isolation.
One positive outcome of this crisis is that people seem to be more willing to
talk openly about their mental health issues. Many of us struggle with
anxiety in normal circumstances, but the past several months have been
very difficult for everyone. The fact that we are all going through something,
to one degree or another, is helping us
realize that our challenges are not
something to be ashamed of—they
are experiences to be shared. In the
workplace, we should be allowed to be
open and honest about our own
mental health, thereby reinforcing that
it is “okay” to struggle and feel the way
we feel.
Many times, it is hard to self-identify mental health symptoms, as it can be
challenging to be aware of gradual changes within our own psyche until
those changes require more professional intervention. Therefore, be on
alert during these times and be proactive in minding your mental health
through self-examination, connecting with others, and utilizing educational
resources and professional services.
_________________________________
Mike Moreno joined Deloitte Consulting LLP in 2016 as a Human Capital Manager. He
brings over 10 years of experience in organization transformation activities including
designing and deploying child support payment portals, crafting stakeholder
communications, and providing insight into governmental policy. Prior to joining Deloitte,
Mike was the Chief Executive Officer of Civic Communications LLC, a communications
and management firm providing services with expertise in research, training, and
technical assistance through a network of professionals with expertise in policymaking,
branding, marketing, communication, and organizational change. Mike is an active
leader in the child support community and previously served on the Board of Directors
for the National Child Support Enforcement Association (NCSEA) and the Eastern
Regional Interstate Child Support Association (ERICSA). Mike earned both his Bachelor
of Music degree and Master of Business Administration degree (MBA) at Florida State
University.
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Live from the Child Support
Associations – It’s a Joint Virtual
Event!
“You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts,
acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When
we all help one another, everybody wins.” -Jim Stovall
Author Jim Stovall’s quote perfectly sums up the current collaboration
efforts among the professional development associations that support the
child support community. These efforts have led to an upcoming virtual
event, “The New Normal: Child Support,” a series of webinars that kicks off
in September during the WICSEC conference.
The child support community has always had strong professional
development organizations. The Eastern Regional Interstate Child Support
Association (ERICSA), National Child Support Enforcement Association
(NCSEA), National Council of Child Support Directors (NCCSD), National
Tribal Child Support Association (NTCSA), and the Western
Intergovernmental Child Support Engagement Council (WICSEC) provide
networking, training, and educational opportunities. These organizations
support the child support community in many ways: in-person conferences,
virtual training opportunities, and education for government leaders.
The collaboration among the associations has been one of the good things
to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the onset of the pandemic,
the organizations had to make quick decisions about their upcoming
training conferences. The association presidents began having regular
phone calls to exchange information and advice on how to negotiate with
hotels. Those conversations grew to include how the organizations were
going to move forward to help our community.
The associations recognize that the pandemic is the hot topic of
conversation for our community. All of our programs are facing budget
reductions, challenges with service delivery, teleworking employees, and
changes to the practice of law. The community has had to deal with all

these things while continuing to provide critical services. Families need
support right now more than ever.
The associations are thrilled to announce a joint virtual event, The New
Normal: Child Support, which is made up of three webinars:
The New Normal: Child Support –
Employees
Thursday,
September 17
8:30 am
PST
The New Normal: Child Support –
Legal
The New Normal: Child Support –
External Customers
Tuesday,
September 22
Tuesday,
September 29
10:00 am
PST
10:00 am
PST
These webinars will address a wide variety of pandemic-related topics and
dive into what has worked, what hasn’t, and what might stay.
We have lined up an outstanding panel of speakers for each webinar. The
panel for both the Employees and External Customers events includes:
• Carol Beecher, Director, Alaska Child Support Services
• Sandy Cloer, Division Director of Services, Eastern Band of
Cherokee Indians Tribal Child Support, TANF and Representative
Payee Programs
• Tanguler Gray, Director, Georgia Child Support Program
• Barbara Lacina, Director, Virginia Division of Child Support
Enforcement
• Melinda Self, Director, Contra Costa County (California) Department
of Child Support Services
The legal panel is equally distinguished:
• Marsha Harlan, Attorney and President of the National Tribal Child
Support Association
• Ethan McKinney, Child Support Director, Deputy Prosecuting
Attorney at St. Joseph County (Indiana) Office of the Prosecuting
Attorney
• Patrick Quinn, Administrator, Family Court, Allegheny County
(Pennsylvania) Court of Common Pleas

• Ruth Anne Thornton, IV-D Director, Texas Office of the Attorney
General
Registration for the New Normal: Child Support – Employees will be
handled through the registration process for the WICSEC conference. Visit
the WICSEC website at www.wicsec.org for more information. Registration
will open mid-August. Registration for the second and third events will be
forthcoming.
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