The beginning of the upcoming fiscal year – October 1, 2018 – marks the date of implementation of the Contract Performance Standards (CPS) provision contained in the current Cooperative Reimbursement Program (CRP) grant contracts for all friend of the court (FOC) and prosecuting attorney (PA) offices statewide.
Culminating a lengthy development process involving a cross-section of all partners involved with Michigan’s Title IV-D Program, the CPS introduce realistic performance benchmarks in both the establishment and enforcement functional areas of child support while demonstrating the effectiveness of the program. The CPS are not intended to be punitive; rather, they are designed to focus on the successes of the program. They provide evidence of achievements of the many dedicated child support professionals serving the public.
In October 2016, Michigan’s Office of Child Support (OCS) introduced CPS into the new five-year CRP Agreements in an effort to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Michigan IV-D program. Prior to that date, Michigan was one of only a few states without minimum contract performance standards for IV-D partners. The Program Leadership Group (PLG) authorized a Cooperative Reimbursement Program Measures Steering Committee (Committee) to ensure transparency and understanding, and to establish a comprehensive approach to CPS. The charter for the Committee authorized it to interpret the language of the CRP to ensure meaningful and accurate implementation of the CPS.
Types of CPS Measures
The CPS are categorized into two major areas for establishment (PA) and enforcement (FOC) services: (1) Michigan Child Support Enforcement System (MiCSES) Work Measures and (2) Training Measures.
1. MiCSES Work Measures
The CRP identifies seven case management requirements:- Initial actions regarding court action referral (CAR) processing.
- Non-custodial parent (NCP) locate.
- Federal service of process (SOP)[1].
- Court order establishment for family support and paternity cases.
- Court order review and modification.
- Medical support provisions in court orders.
- Timely enforcement for newly located NCPs with an enforceable condition.
So, why was the benchmark of 75 percent selected? Six of the MiCSES Work Measures are based on federal requirements for the completion of IV-D work, and those federal standards are set at 75 percent. The PLG, along with OCS and the Committee, do not expect any office to score 100 percent on the MiCSES Work Measures. For any of the measures, there are specific case conditions that may make the completion of the qualifying action(s) required to satisfy the measure inappropriate. These unique case conditions are considered part of the 25 percent flexibility of a caseload that may not meet the standard.
2. Training Measures
The CRP also requires staff to complete customer service and MiCSES related training. The contract specifies that 100 percent of the staff complete acceptable training every two fiscal years. For example, since FY 2019 will be the baseline year for training measures, all staff are expected to complete prescribed training by September 30, 2021 for the initial two-year timeframe beginning October 1, 2019 (FY 2020).- Customer Service Training. This is training related to staff’s direct interaction with the public and can include OCS-offered courses, locally offered, in person or online.
- MiCSES Training. This includes OCS-offered courses including introductory courses or subject specific courses. These courses may be instructor-led, training webinars, or webcasts.
Data Reports
Three reports have been specifically designed to assist counties in managing compliance with the CPS MiCSES Work Measures. These reports are accessed through Business Objects and provide helpful information for meeting performance standards.- PM-100: IV-D Child Support Contract Performance Standard Summary Report. This report displays the percentage and total count of the cases that passed or failed a standard.
- PM-101: IV-D Child Support Contract Performance Standard Data Trail Report. This report displays details for each case that passed or failed a standard.
- PM-102: IV-D Child Support Contract Performance Standard Improvement Report. This report displays a list of cases that can be currently worked to pass each standard. The cases have not reached their deadline.
The data is refreshed nightly for the PM-102 report. If a qualifying action is performed today, the case will not display on a PM-102 report generated tomorrow. It will display on the PM-101 the first day of the next month.
CPS measures should not be viewed as replacing, minimizing, or taking away any other measures used by the IV-D program for evaluation. The various methods of measuring program performance stand alone as a means of providing unique and valuable input about the way individual counties and the state perform and deliver services.
Baseline Year and First Year of Measurement
Members of the CPS Committee and respective counties participated in a soft launch for the purpose of testing and validating program report accuracy and case information in April 2018. After successfully completing this task, a hard launch commenced July 9, 2018 for the remainder of the state. Based on the soft and hard launch effort, ticket assessment addressing some anomalies, and review of all of the information, data reporting has been deemed reliable for purposes of establishing the baseline year for the CPS in FY 2018 (with the exception of the SOP measure as noted earlier). This will set FY 2018 as the baseline year for the CPS because the historical data reports will be able to be run against FY 2018 data. The OCS and the Committee expect the first cycle of the CPS evaluation process to occur in FY 2020. The evaluation cycle in FY 2020 will evaluate performance for the FY 2019 reporting period. This will make FY 2019 the first full fiscal year under the current five-year CRP for which counties will be evaluated.OCS, with participation from Committee representatives, will be presenting PA and FOC workshop sessions on Contract Performance Standards at the 2018 Michigan Family Support Council (MFSC) Conference in October. The conference will also include MiCSES Learning Lab sessions on the CPS, including training on using MS Excel to work with CPS reports. Attendees are encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity to learn more by attending these valuable sessions. Web-based training on the CPS is available through the state’s Learning Management System, and many other resources can be found on mi-support. Additionally, IV-D staff can provide questions, concerns, or recommendations – including report enhancement suggestions or changes – to the Help Desk at any time.
I would be remiss if I did not mention and thank all of the participating partners collaborating and working through this project. OCS, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS)-Data Warehouse, PA, and FOC staff and resources were all vital components in this significant effort that is now the reality of making sure the CPS are manageable, meaningful, fair, accurate, and attainable for all jurisdictions within the state. A good deal of gratitude is owed to all of the Committee members for their valuable time, energy and resources, specifically, Julie Vandenboom (OCS), Michael Grisinger (MDHHS), Pam Sala representing FOC offices, and Jennifer Granzow representing the PA offices.
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| Tom Watson |
[1] The SOP standard will not begin to be measured in FY 2019 as a full year of data is not available for this measure. Instead, the baseline year will begin at the start of FY 2019 with the first year of measurement effective FY 2020.
