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Closures of Unenforceable Cases: A Review of Child Support Agency Practice

In 2015, the Bureau of Child Support (BCS) issued Child Support Bulletin (CSB) 15-08R which outlined the policy for closing unenforceable cases under a new state law. The bulletin defines what constitutes an unenforceable case, when child support agencies (CSAs) are able to close these cases, and the process required for doing so. Understanding CSA practice for defining and handling unenforceable cases may be helpful to manage performance and workload (e.g., conserving limited resources for productive case, performance metrics) and to understand whether the criteria and practice are being used consistently across the state. As such, using both qualitative and quantitative data, this report considers statewide case closure before and after the issuance of CSB 15-08R as well as variation that may exist at the local level. It asks: (1) did CSB 15-08R resulted in a change in CSA practices, and (2) to what extent do CSAs currently use similar approaches and criteria to define these cases?

Categories

Child Support, Child Support Policy Research, Enforcement, WI Administrative Data Core

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