SETS Objectives

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) is responsible for program development and administrative support for the Child Support Enforcement Program under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act. ODJFS developed the automated Support Enforcement Tracking System (SETS) to effectively manage the Child Support Enforcement Program in order to meet the requirements mandated by the Family Support Act of 1988 (and other mandated or revised requirements implemented since 1987).

Ohio operates a county-administered, state-supervised social services system which is maintained and operated through 88 local Child Support Enforcement Agencies (CSEA). The main objective of SETS is to provide an online, central database with complete federally-mandated child support functionality distributed to each of its 88 CSEA offices.
SETS is designed to support front-line child support professionals in:

• Facilitating the collection of standard case information;
• Providing standard procedures for initiating and implementing case actions state-wide;
• Automatically processing data to facilitate:
• Case initiation and update;
• Location of absent parents;
• Establishment of paternity;
• Establishment and adjustment of support obligations;
• Monitoring delinquency and enforcement activity;
• Collection, allocation, and disbursement of support payments;
• Aging and tracking the status of cases;
• Reporting required data;
• Reducing bookkeeping tasks associated with the collection and payment process;
• Effectively generating default notices and triggering appropriate enforcement measures;
• Increasing inter-county access to data through a single statewide database; and,
• Eliminating the duplication of tasks.

SETS Design Philosophy

The SETS technical and functional design is patterned on the statewide, automated system that supports the Public Assistance Program in Ohio: the Client Registry Information System-Enhanced (CRIS-E). While the systems have been developed to support different programmatic objectives, the State believes that building both a common technical platform and a uniform "look and feel" across both systems achieves several important objectives:

1. Promotion of enhanced efficiency for the caseworker navigating both IV-A and IV-D functionality;
2. Satisfaction of Federal mandates for efficient electronic data exchange; and,
3. Standardization of technical support skills to facilitate development and ensure ease of long-term maintenance.

SETS Functional Overview

SETS is designed in three primary functional areas: Case Establishment and Case Management (CE/CM), Financial Management (FM), or Support Functions (SF).

The CE/CM and the FM functions are each supported by the common administrative and maintenance infrastructure labeled the Support Functions function. It is this SF function that provides the basic navigation, database structure, and formatting standards common with CRIS-E. For individual processes within a program, such as screen layout and color, naming conventions, data formats, and subsystems such as reference tables, security, alert generation, and system help keys, CRIS-E provided a direct code transfer. For other functional subsystems, such as caseload management, notices, and report generation, CRIS-E provided the fundamental design philosophies upon which SETS is based. The goal of the SETS SF subsystem is to provide SETS workers with a standard, familiar day-to-day working environment.

The CE/CM function provides caseworkers with the tools they need to capture data regarding a IV-D case, track significant case events, and notify appropriate individuals of important case events and dates through printed material and/or electronic media. The CE/CM functionality incorporates the following subsystems:

• Case Intake: allows the initiation of child support cases into SETS through both the application and Public Assistance referral processes;
• Inquiry: provides summary information on cases, individuals, and workers including current and historical data;
• Interstate: provides establishment and maintenance of interstate cases including automating the status request and response;
• Locate: gives workers the ability to initiate and track location efforts, including interfaces with outside state, federal and private agencies;
• Paternity Establishment: allows workers to initiate and track the paternity establishment process from intake to the establishment of parentage on a putative parent;
• Support Establishment: captures and maintains all data regarding court and/or administrative orders, including obligation breakdown information;
• Enforcement: allows initiation and tracking of activities performed to enforce the terms of a child support order; and,
• Case Tracking: provides an access mechanism utilized by the caseworker to update and view information regarding the case type (e.g., Public Assistance/Non Public Assistance), case mode (e.g., intake, enforcement) and current case status, including process, hearing and order information.

The Financial Management subsystem is designed to perform financial transaction processing; including the collection, distribution and disbursement of support obligations.

In detail, the FM function incorporates the following subsystems:

• Receipt/Tracking: allows the caseworker to post payments, create and maintain employer group models for posting large numbers of payments, and produce all accounting reports necessary to balance and generate the daily bank deposit slip;
• Allocations: accurately allocates and applies monies to subaccounts in an order as determined by Federal and State of Ohio policy allocation hierarchies;
• Distribution: automatically calculates and records Reimbursed and Un-reimbursed Public Assistance
• Financial Corrections: allows the financial workers and supervisors to correct payments, adjust subaccounts for an individual order, and establish and maintain recoupment accounts;
• Disbursements: disburses support payments to clients and third-party agencies, and provides a tracking mechanisms for all checks and/or electronic funds transfers (EFTs) disbursed through SETS;
• Reconciliation: assists counties in reconciling their depository accounts by tracking all daily deposits and disbursements processed in the system and provides a bank reconciliation function;
• Financial History: allows the caseworker to view both collections and disbursements for an individual case and order; and,
• Summary Accounting: provides detailed information regarding non-support related collections, including both IV-D and non IV-D poundage, absorbed/non-absorbed application fees, court costs and lab fees, interest on assigned arrears, and Medicaid collections.

SETS Terminology

The goal of this section is to give a high-level understanding of the basic data structures, processes, audit functions, standard outputs and user documentation of the SETS system, including how "case" and "participant" are defined, how the data elements are managed in the system, how the user navigates the system, and escriptions of system outputs like alerts, events, forms, and notices.

Case

The SETS database views a case as a family unit with a unique parent combination and their common child(ren). A basic example would be one Residential parent (CP), one absent parent (AP), and their common child(ren). Additionally, a "parent combination" can involve participants other than mothers and fathers, such as when both the mother and father of the child(ren) are absent parents with, for example, a grandmother or foster care household providing custody. In these instances, a separate and unique case number must exist in SETS for each parent combination and support order.

Each individual parent may be involved in multiple cases, whereas once paternity is established, each child will typically be active in only one case at a time. (Children living in a caretaker household are an exception, as each parent will be in a separate case.) This case structure is different than the IV-A CRIS-E case definition in which a household, rather than unique family combinations, defines a case. The distinction is highlighted by the fact that there can be multiple IV-D cases corresponding to one IV-A case.

Participant

A participant is a generic term for any individual involved in a SETS case. Participant types include:

APF - Absent Parent Father
APM - Absent Parent Mother
CPF - Residential Parent Father
CPM - Residential Parent Mother
NPP - Nonparticipating Person
PPF - Putative Father
PPM - Putative Mother
CHD - Child
CTA - Caretaker Agency
CTR - Caretaker Relative
SSP - Spousal Support Payor
SSR - Spousal Support Recipient

While there are a variety of participant types, there are only a limited number of valid participant type combinations that can establish a SETS case. For example, an APF, a CPM, and a CHD constitute a case. An NPP participant type code is reserved for "other" individuals in a case that are not part of the unique parent combination, but do provide any one of a number of other support functions. (An NPP example would be a relative providing insurance for the child.)

Order/Sub-Order/Subaccounts

An order is a term referring to the legal document specifying any support obligations. In SETS, an order is recorded by the specific obligations contained within it. These obligations include but are not limited to child, spousal and medical support, clothing allowances, and adjudicated arrearage. Some of these obligations are monetary (current child support) and some of these obligations are non-monetary (provision of medical support). All obligations are tracked for compliance. In order to track monetary obligations, SETS uses subaccounts to maintain financial records on each obligation. All monetary obligations have one or more related subaccounts which are used to track payments and calculate arrearage. For more information on subaccounts see Allocations.

Data Management

The following section describes core database structures and processes as well as case management and case inquiry activities in SETS.

Case Modes

An individual IV-D case in SETS progresses through five core functional areas: intake, locate, paternity establishment, support establishment, and enforcement/ongoing. These core functional areas are closely aligned with the life-cycle of a child support case. While a SETS case is active, it will reside in one of the five case mode types depending upon the event being processed. Case Mode analysis is discussed in greater detail in "Navigation" below.

Caseload

A caseload is a grouping of individual SETS cases organized along county-defined parameters. Caseworkers are assigned to caseloads and assume primary responsibility for the cases in the caseload. A caseworker may be assigned to multiple caseloads.

The SETS caseload structure is designed to be highly adaptable to the needs and structures of the county. A caseload can include cases of only one mode, cases of all modes, or any combination in between. The structure is designed in this manner to accommodate both generic and specialized county organizational structures.

A specialized county structures caseloads to incorporate cases of only a certain case mode. For example, in a county that specializes in functional areas, a caseload and corresponding caseworker may only have cases while they are assigned to the locate mode and processing locate events. Once the locate functions have been completed, the case may be reassigned to the caseload and caseworker specializing in, for example, the paternity establishment functionality.

Typically, a generic county assigns cases to caseloads and single caseworkers for the entire life-cycle of the case rather than transferring cases between caseloads as the case moves between case modes. In this situation, the caseworker is trained to conduct activities in all five case modes.

Caseload Management

The caseload management structure restricts update access to users with appropriate access privileges. SETS users from across the State, or workers in the same office with different caseloads, have the ability to view information in any caseload. However, the assigned caseworkers and their supervisors and administrators are the only SETS users who have both inquiry and update access to the individual cases within a caseload.

Caseload management structures are important in meeting Federal and State security and privacy guidelines. An individual case may be assigned to a confidential caseload, and thus closed to all SETS users except those who have access to the specific caseload in which the case resides. This function is especially important in situations of spousal and child abuse where maintaining anonymity is vital.

Caseload Assignment

The Caseload Assignment function assigns cases to an individual caseload as IV-D applications become SETS cases and as cases move between various case modes of intake, locate, paternity establishment, support establishment and enforcement/ongoing. Case assignment is performed by a subroutine called by the CE/CM and FM subsystems whenever the case analysis programs determine a change in the case mode is necessary. It is important to note that SETS case assignment is a two-stage determination process. The subroutine first analyzes the county caseload structure to ensure that the case mode is consistent with the case mode associated with the caseload, and then applies a county-chosen protocol to automatically assign cases to caseworker caseloads.

SETS employs three assignment scheduling protocols: round-robin, alphabetical, and manual. The round-robin case assignment algorithm assigns IV-D applications and SETS cases to a caseload from the pool of caseloads that have responsibility for a particular case mode. Alphabetical assignment allows the county to define the alphabetical breakdown of cases and then assigns cases according to the Residential parent's last name. Both processes automatically generate alerts to the caseworkers with primary responsibility for the new case. The manual assignment mode allows assignment for every case by a county transfer coordinator. This method is recommended only for small counties currently operating manually.

Financial Processing

SETS includes a comprehensive child support financial management system. As such, SETS utilizes daily, weekly, and calendar month-end processing. These batch processes allow SETS to maintain daily account balances throughout the monthly cycle while accurately reflecting arrearage calculations for each period.

Monthly Administration

Although an order may be created with a weekly or biweekly obligation, SETS converts all charging frequencies to a monthly basis. All obligations are assumed to cover the period from the first to the last day of a given month. A partial month's period is handled by pro-rating the amount due for that month to the actual number of days the order was in effect.

Daily Processing

The daily processing cycle handles new case generation, including case type determination; payment processing; and Public Assistance assignment and disbursement for non-AFDC cases.

Weekly Processing

Public Assistance (PA) collections are disbursed to ODJFS during the weekly processing. These weekly disbursements are made to the State of Ohio for all cases involving Public Assistance subaccounts.

Calendar Month-end Processing

On the last day of the month after all daily and weekly processing is completed, the calendar month-end batch (CME) processing begins. The CME handles PA termination and the processing of grant information from the IV-A/IV-E interface as well as cumulative monthly reporting. The CME reporting includes the ODHS 4289 Monthly Child Support Collections, or OCSE 34.

During the process of terminating a PA case, the arrears are calculated and the distribution determined before a new SETS case type can be determined for the terminating case. Terminating PA cases are then evaluated to determine the ratio of assigned arrears totals to un-reimbursed PA amount. New assigned and unassigned arrearage balances are effective on the first day of the next calendar month. Based on the arrearage balance, the CME determines the proper case type classification and allocation for outstanding arrearage subaccount balances.

Calendar month end also calculates arrearage, and charges for the next period. Prior to arrears calculation for all orders, CME evaluates the default and delinquency status of each order and subsequently writes to the Enforcement database those in default or delinquent. After arrears are calculated, arrearage subaccount balances are brought forward as the new month's beginning balance. At this point, monies held in future payment subaccounts are applied to the order as applicable. For active PA cases or those with Assigned Arrearages remaining from prior PA, distribution is determined, with the disregard passing through. Any funds found to be in excess of the calendar month's grant amount or un-reimbursed past PA are disbursed directly to the obligee.

Single Line Entry

SETS uses Single Line Entry (SLE) accounting to correct payments, and perform adjustments. SLE is a method of applying the cumulative effect to current balances to correct for a money event of a prior period. The goal is for today's balances to reflect the event as if the monies had been applied in the correct period, even if it was months ago.

Allocation Hierarchy

The Allocation function works behind the scenes to perform several tasks. One of the tasks includes the creation of an individual payment hierarchy for each order entered into SETS. The individual hierarchy consists of all the subaccounts that are specified in the order as well as all accumulated arrearage for an obligor. The function then allocates and applies payments received to the subaccounts in an order determined by the allocation hierarchy developed from the Federal and Ohio standards.

The SETS system does incorporate a hierarchy override feature, however overrides must be court-ordered and will apply only to the named case. Reports can be produced at both the state and county level on all overrides.

Audit Function

SETS incorporates comprehensive case action tracking. The Activity Audit Trail and Event Log are designed to track, save, and offer online inquiry pertaining to both system- and worker-generated event within the case.

Activity Audit Trail

The Activity Audit Trail subsystem is used to record all activities conducted on a case by a caseworker or ODJFS worker on SETS, requiring a database update. It is a comprehensive tracking mechanism for all online transactions. The inquiry screens for the caseworker audit trail contain data from the last 30 days. The case audit trail inquiry screens hold data for the last 30 activities processed on the case.

Event Log/Running Record Comments

The event log provides a "bird's eye view" of the significant system- and worker-generated events in a case. The log consists of system-generated statements describing online and batch events such as the generation of a form or the closing of a case.

The log also contains worker-generated statements in the form of Running Record Comments (RRC). By using the PF2 key, the SETS user can enter free-form comments to further explain or add detail to the information captured on the screen. There is no system limitation to the number of RRCs that can be entered.

Outputs

In terms of this overview, SETS outputs are events within a case that actively produce some form of traceable response from the system. These outputs can take the form of written notices, forms, and bills produced for the client. Outputs may also be internal to SETS, with programs writing to databases and prompting system messages to the caseworker, supervisor, and administrators.

Alerts

To keep the caseworker informed on all aspects of a case status, the system generates alerts online when an action is required or an action has been taken. When a worker signs on the system, there will be a message indicator displayed notifying the worker that an alert exists for a case, or for several cases, in their caseload. In this manner, the morning alerts list, accessible through MNAM, the System Alerts Menu screen, serves as a daily task prioritization and reminder for caseworkers.

Alerts are designed to support federal and state guidelines and time frames in processing a IV-D cases by repeating caseworker notifications until the requirement is satisfied. There are four alert levels: low, medium, high, and critical. Critical alerts have the highest priority. Each caseworker can clear the alerts screen at their discretion, but the alert will be re-generated to the worker until the condition for that alert is satisfied. Any alert may be passed up to the supervisor level when a specified number of alert generation cycles have elapsed and the condition still exists. The time frame for each alert generation cycle and for when an alert is escalated will vary depending upon the nature of the alert. For example, an alert for a reporting deadline may re-generate every day for ten days leading up to the deadline with escalation occurring five days before the deadline, while others may be sent once with no repeats.

Notices

Notices are formal child support documents sent to Job and Family Services clients or other government agencies. Because notices are standard throughout the State, and often federally mandated, they do not require county-specific signatures or any special customization to meet county guidelines. In SETS, notices are created with central designs and case data from the county level, and are printed at and mailed from the central state office.

Forms

The primary distinction between notices and forms is that forms require customization and are processed, printed, and mailed at the county level. Forms are usually designed for the particular guidelines of a county, requested by the caseworker in a client setting, and/or require a signature or some other action from a county representative.

Mail Messages

SETS provides CSEA workers the ability to send and receive messages within the SETS system on a statewide basis. The Send Mail Messages screen allows the worker to send mail message up to 900 characters in length. Workers will be prompted at sign-on to the presence of unread mail messages. Workers may also elect to send a future-dated message to themselves in order to remind themselves of a significant date, event, or task.

Reports

Reports in SETS are automatically generated, communicating activity and statistics for both the CE/CM and Financial Management subsystems.