Marin Child Support Office Earns High Statewide Marks

The Marin County Department of Child Support Services made a strong showing in an annual state-wide survey of local child support agencies, the county announced this week.

The California Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) recognized the state’s top performing local child support agencies for 2011 at its Statewide Directors Meeting in January.

“I have the honor to lead an exceptional group of dedicated employees,” said Keith Pepper, Director of Marin County’s Department of Child Support Services. “Despite the challenges in the last few years of reduced state funding and a smaller staff, we continue to improve our ability to effectively serve the children and families of Marin.”

The Marin County DCSS, which is funded by state and federal funds, establishes paternity, establishes child support and medical support orders, and modifies and enforces those support orders. According to Pepper, the Marin DCSS provides support services in 3,000 cases to 3,730 children, although not all are in Marin County as 392 of the 3,000 are interstate or international. "That means either the absent parent is in another state/country and we are trying to collect, or the child is in another state/country and the paying parent is in Marin County," said Pepper.

Marin County received two first-place awards, based upon their caseload size, for top overall performance and for most improved performance for a “very small county” on five federal performance measures in FFY 2011. A  third award received by the local agency was for achieving the rank of #2 statewide in overall performance, regardless of caseload size.

Five counties were honored for top overall performance, based on their caseload size for outstanding performance in all federal performance measures. Marin placed first in the “very small county” category, with neighboring Sonoma County placing first in the “medium” category. Other winners included San Luis Obispo (small), Ventura (large) and San Diego (very large) counties.

Marin also won as the most improved in overall performance, again by caseload size. This is despite the decrease in both budget and staff over the past 10 years, as Pepper pointed out. "In FY 2001/2002 our budget was $5,084,162 and we had 46 staff. For FY 2011/2012 our budget is $3,775,095 and we have a staff of 24."

Pepper also made it a point to note, "We are a zero county cost department, as our funding is provided 66% by the federal government and 34% by the state."

Cumulatively, Marin’s performance ranked them second statewide among local child support agencies. Only San Luis Obispo ranked higher this year. Marin was #8 in the statewide ranking for 2010.

The California Department of Child Support Services and the 51 Local Child Support Agencies operate the largest child support system in the nation with approximately 1.4 million cases. In 2011, California’s child support program collected and distributed more than $2.2 billion.

“The awardees make California proud,” said DCSS Interim Director Kathleen Hrepich. “These counties showed exceptional fortitude in meeting or exceeding their performance goals. Ultimately, it is California’s families and children who benefit from these outstanding efforts.”