Mike Jennings
(502) 564-6180

FRANKFORT, Ky. (March 1, 2004)—The automated child support enforcement systems used by the state of Kentucky and its largest county have met standards spelled out in the federal welfare reform act of 1996.

Sherri Z. Heller, commissioner of the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), will present certificates of approval to child support administrators of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office on Tuesday, March 2, at 2 p.m. The presentations will take place in the Public Service Commission’s hearing room at 211 Sower Blvd., Frankfort.

Kentucky is the only state approved by OCSE for an alternative system configuration, in which a statewide system interfaces with a county-based system.

"In today’s electronic world, where there is an increasing reliance on computers, this is a significant milestone for the Kentucky child support program," said Steve Veno, director of the cabinet’s Division of Child Support.

"Now that our statewide system is fully certified by the federal government, we will be able to focus our technological resources on innovative and automated methods of collecting child support."

Jefferson County’s computerized system for administering child support went online around 1988. The Kentucky Automated Support Enforcement System (KASES), which serves the rest of the state, dates from November 1990.

The county system is used by local county attorney’s staff in providing child support services to Jefferson county residents, who constitute about 24 percent of the statewide child support caseload. The county system provides nightly updates to KASES.

Both systems had to meet the same federal standards, "so we had to do almost twice the work to be certified," Veno said.

In addition to overhauling the federal welfare system, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 also set new standards for child support enforcement. Those standards include:

• creation of an automated system for tracking new hires and identifying those who owe past-due child support;
• a streamlined process of paternity establishment;
• computerized statewide systems for collecting and disbursing child support; and
• toughened measures for seizing wages and other assets of parents who are grossly delinquent in paying child support.

The federal Administration for Children and Families evaluated the state and county systems on a variety of efficiency measures, including case establishment and management, enforcement and maintenance of client privacy.

Kentucky received conditional federal certification in July 1998, and it met a federal deadline of October 2000 for notifying Heller’s office that it was ready for a full review. KASES and the Jefferson County system were approved for full certification last month.