The award recognizes Virginia's child support program for having consistently and comprehensively exemplified the best in child support enforcement practices through an outstanding record of performance, and for providing effective services to its constituency.
Virginia's program serves more than 484,000 children, and DCSE collected a record $587 million in child support in state Fiscal Year 2006, a five-percent increase over the previous year. Virginia continues to be one of the most cost-effective states in the nation, collecting $6.52 in child support for every dollar expended on the program, according to a release from the state. In 2005, for the fifth consecutive year, Virginia received a $10.7 million incentive award for excellence in child support enforcement.
"The commonwealth's consistent and award-winning efforts to enforce our child support laws helps promote responsible parenthood," Kaine said. "I congratulate these professionals who work hard every day to strengthen families, and who serve nearly one-in-four of Virginia's children."
Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources Marilyn B. Tavenner and DCSE Director Nick Young will accept the award during NCSEA's 55th Annual Training Conference and Expo in Dallas, Texas, on August 2nd.
Innovation has defined child support enforcement in the Commonwealth:
- Virginia's DCSE was the first state child support agency to subpoena cell-phone providers to obtain address and phone numbers of delinquent non-custodial parents, and is in the process of pursuing similar cooperation from cable TV providers.
- Virginia also pioneered the statewide use of full-page local newspaper ads picturing unlocated, egregiously-delinquent noncustodial parents, with the support of the papers, local law enforcement agencies, other state agencies such as Department of Motor Vehicles, and the courts.
- In 1998, Virginia's DCSE initiated the Passport Denial Program, which makes it possible to revoke, refuse, restrict or limit a passport previously issued to an individual owing a child support debt greater than $5,000. Since its inception, more than 62,000 Virginians have been denied passports. The largest child support collection ever paid to retrieve a passport in Virginia was in 2003 when $186,968 was collected from a father living in Jordan.
- This year, Virginia implemented a DCSE centralized Customer Service Call Center, located in Martinsville, to provide enhanced services to child support customers.
- DCSE has enhanced its Web site to facilitate customer access to both general and case-specific information.
- DCSE is currently disbursing 58 percent of all child support payments electronically through direct deposit. Virginia also offers noncustodial parents and employers the opportunity to transmit payments electronically through the VA$4Kids Web site and interactive voice response system.
