Jonathan F. Lehman, Child Support Director

OPERATING AUTHORITY AND PURPOSE

The Child Support Department (CSD) operates under the authority of sec. 59.53(5), Wis. Stats., that directs counties to contract with the State Department of Workforce Development (DWD) to administer a program of child support, medical liability support and paternity establishment.  The purpose of the program is to locate absent parents, establish paternity and establish, modify and enforce support obligations.  The Department is responsible for about 18,000 cases impacting over 57,000 county citizens.  The IV-D paternity and child and medical support services are available to each and every Racine County citizen who either applies and pays the statutory fee of $20 or who receives some form of public aid.  Racine County’s CSD strives to help families become independent and remain self-sufficient by ensuring that both parents support their children.

EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE MEASURES

The statistical measures that influence our portion of the Performance Based Revenue from the State of Wisconsin currently focuses on three areas.  The first is Court Order Establishment, which is the ratio of the number of IV-D cases with court orders to the total number of IV-D cases at a point in time, typically the end of the federal fiscal year .  The statewide goal for this measure is 80% and Racine County is currently averaging 89.7%.  The second is Paternity Establishment, the ratio or the number of paternity-related children present in the IV-D caseload as of 9/30/02 to the total number of paternity-related children present in the IV-D caseload anytime during the year that have paternity established.  The statewide goal for this measure is 90% and Racine County is currently averaging 100%. The third is Current Support Collections, which is the ratio of the number of cases with a current support order present in the IV-D caseload to the number of those cases with a collection during the period.  The statewide goal for this measure is 70% and our goal for this measure is .50% growth above our 2002 baseline or 63.07%.  We are currently averaging 62.63% in this area.   

The new statistical measure that will be added to our performance based revenue evaluation in 2004 is Collections on Arrears Debts.  While the “weighting” for this measure is relatively small (10% or all funds), it will be difficult to meet all statistical measures in 2004 given the fact that the state is going to contract with the counties to perform a 100% reconciliation of all accounts on the KIDS system that were previously registered as a Percentage-Expressed Order (PEO).  This project entails 3,419 Racine County cases and must be completed no later than September 30, 2004.

2004 GOALS AND BUDGET STRATEGIES