AT-05-09, The Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) Annual Data Report: Form OCSE 157
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Administration for Children and Families US Department of Health and Human Services

ACTION TRANSMITTAL

AT-05-09

SUPERSEDES: OCSE-AT-01-09, OCSE-AT-99-15

ATTACHMENT:  Instructions for completing Form OCSE-157.

DATE: September 6, 2005

TO:  STATE AGENCIES ADMINISTERING CHILD SUPPPORT ENFORCEMENT PLANS UNDER TITLE IV-D OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT AND OTHER INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS

SUBJECT: The Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) Annual Data Report: Form OCSE 157

CONTENT: This Action Transmittal contains instructions for completing the revised OCSE-157 form for states to use to report program status and accomplishments under Title IV D of the Social Security Act (the Act). State agencies administering child support enforcement programs under Title IV D of the Act are required to submit the OCSE-157. The data collected on this form will be compiled and presented in the Child Support Enforcement’s preliminary reports and Annual Report to the Congress. These data will also be used to compute individual State incentive, penalty, and program performance measures.

This AT revises the Form OCSE-157 and instructions as they appeared in AT-01-09. The attached revised OCSE-157 has sixteen new data reporting requirements. States are required to report on the following new lines by October 30, 2006:

  • Line 2e - Arrears-Only IV-D Cases With Orders Established Open at the End of the Fiscal Year;

  • Line 5a - Children in IV-D Cases Open at the End of the Prior Federal Fiscal Year Who Were Born Out-of-Wedlock;

  • Line 8a - Children in the State Born Out-of-Wedlock During the Prior Year;

  • Line 21 - Cases Open at the End of the Fiscal Year in Which Medical Support is Ordered (revised to exclude arrears-only cases); and

  • Line 21a - Cases Open at the End of the Fiscal Year in Which Medical Support is Ordered and Provided.

The following lines may be phased-in. States must report these lines as soon as possible, but no later than October 30, 2009:

  • Line 1d - State-Tribal IV-D Cases Initiated in This State Open at the End of the Fiscal Year;

  • Line 1e - State-Tribal IV-D Cases Received From a Tribal IV-D Program Open at the End of the Fiscal Year;

  • Line 1f - International IV-D Cases Initiated in This State Open at the End of the Fiscal Year;

  • Line 1g - International IV-D Cases Received From Another Country Open at the End of Fiscal Year;

  • Line 2f - State-Tribal IV-D Cases Initiated in This State With Support Orders Established Open at the End of the Fiscal Year;

  • Line 2g - State-Tribal IV-D Cases With Support Orders Established Received From a Tribe Open at the End of the Fiscal Year;

  • Line 2h - International IV-D Cases With Support Orders Established Initiated in This State Open at the End of the Fiscal Year;

  • Line 2i - International IV-D Cases With Support Orders Established Received From Another Country Open at the End of the Fiscal Year;

  • Line 33 - Number of Children Determined Eligible for Medicaid in IV-D Cases Open at the End of the Fiscal Year (Optional);

  • Line 34 - Number of Children Determined Eligible for Medicaid in IV-D Cases Covered by Private Health Insurance;

  • Line 35 - Cases with Medical Coverage Received From any Source; and

  • Line 36 - Amount of Cash Medical Support Received That was Assigned to the State.

These additional changes and revisions were made to clarify the instructions.  The first three clarifications address data elements that are reported at the discretion of the states. The last five address elements that are required by FY 2006.

  • Adopted children and children born out-of-wedlock whose parents marry may be counted as having paternity established;

  • Children over age 18 may be counted in the paternity section except on Lines 8 through 10;

  • Children do not have to be born in the reporting state to be counted on Lines 8 through 10;

  • Future payments must be counted on Line 24, if they are included on Line 25;

  • When fees are deducted from a child support payment, states must report the gross amount on Line 25;

  • No other fees may be counted on Line 25;

  • Interest payments may not be counted on Line 25; and

  • The Administrative Enforcement section is deleted.

The Medicaid section was added to include data requested under the National Child Support Enforcement’s Strategic Plan for FY 2005-2009. New and revised definitions have been added along with these changes.      

All states are expected to submit accurate reports as of October 30th of each fiscal year. However, states may revise previously submitted reports by submitting new ones. Revised reports must be submitted within 92 days of the end of the fiscal year for which the report was due. Therefore, all final data reports must be received in OCSE by December 31st of each year.  Revised data will not be used to calculate State incentive and penalty measures and will not be included in the Child Support Enforcement Preliminary or Annual Reports for the year in question if the revised report is received after the deadline. Re-submission of corrected unreliable data for previous fiscal years must also meet the December 31st deadline.

Legislation requires that state-submitted data used to calculate incentive measures be reliable and complete. Data to calculate individual State incentive measures will be taken from several of the OCSE-157 line items.  These lines will be audited for completeness and reliability and include:  Lines 1 and 2 for the Support Orders measure, Lines 5 and 6 or 8 and 9 for the Paternity Establishment measure, Lines 24 and 25 for the Current Support measure, and Lines 28 and 29 for the Arrears Support measure. Refer to OCSE-AT-01-01; and sections, 409, 452(a) and (g), 458, and 469 of the Act for detailed information on incentive formulas and requirements.

In fiscal year 2004, OCSE and state partners developed two possible incentive measures addressing medical support. The medical suppport establishment measure and the medical support enforcement measure will be subject to data reliability audits. Lines to be audited for the new medical support measures include: (2e) Arrears-Only IV-D Cases With Orders Established Open at the End of the Fiscal Year; (21) Cases Open at the End of the Fiscal Year In Which Medical Support is Ordered, and; (21a) Cases Open at the End of the Fiscal Year In Which Medical Support is Ordered and Provided. 

States must have an audit trail available that consists of the case information used to compile the line items that will be used to calculate incentive and possible medical support measures.  If audit results determine that data needed to compute current incentive measures are incomplete or unreliable, the State will not be eligible for an incentive payment for measures reliant on these data and the amounts otherwise payable to the State under Title IV-A may be reduced by 1 to 5 percent.

RELATED MATERIAL:     DCL-99-114,  DCL-99-17,  DCL-04-47,   AT-01-01,    DCL-00-19,   AT-00-05,    DCL-03-37,   DCL-04-37

EFFECTIVE DATE: Agencies must collect information for the revised Form OCSE-157 beginning Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2006, October 1, 2005. The first report is due by October 30, 2006. States must report all the information requested on the OCSE-157 by that time with the exception of Lines 1d, 1e, 1f, 1g, 2f, 2g, 2h, 2i, 33, 34, 35, and 36. The reporting of these lines may be phased-in. States must begin collecting these data no later than FFY 2009, October 1, 2008, and submit this information on the OCSE-157 report due by October 30, 2009.

INQUIRIES:  ACF Regional Administrators

Margot Bean
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement