April 2024 CSQ

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percent or more staffing cuts. OCSS also experienced significant funding cuts. My staff and I anxiously monitored new hire data. The program was not really back on its feet until 2012. Coming into office, I wanted to establish the vision, consensus, and policy framework for a family-centered program. My predecessors had laid the groundwork through policy guidance, grant projects, and initiatives like PAID. Texas was pioneering an impressive family-centered program model, and several other states and counties had implemented grant-funded initiatives. The problem was that these grant initiatives often were not seen as part of the “real” child support program, and were not sustained when the grant ended. I wanted to integrate family-centered policies and practices into the program. But with the fiscal crisis, few people were in the mood to hear about an upcoming shift in federal priorities. I remember one cab ride to a conference in 2010. My cabdriver told me that he could not make enough money driving cab during the recession to pay his child support. He wanted to go back to school to get an HVAC certificate. He said he regularly saw his children, and his former wife supported his plan. However, the county attorney had threatened him with jail if he quit. I told his story at the conference. The story was not wellreceived. Have a Plan B. I spent the recession years trying to describe the families I knew and the type of approaches that would work. I also focused on changing the language we used. To draw the picture, I borrowed familycentered principles and language from the child welfare field. I sketched out the “bubble chart” for a presentation slide. Much to my surprise, it became our logo. We began drafting the 2016 Flexibility, Efficiency, and Modernization rule early in the first term. As the program restabilized after the recession, federal, state, county, and tribal child support agencies engaged in extensive discussions about the program’s future. We stepped up federal research to deepen the evidentiary basis, including CSPED, Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC), and Parenting Time Opportunities for Children (PTOC). We modernized our
communications strategy and conducted extensive outreach to courts and other stakeholders. Of course, we also had other priorities. In addition to the 2016 rule, OCSS adopted tribal systems, data-sharing, and intergovernmental rules. We facilitated ratification of the Hague treaty, modernized the FPLS, and implemented the model tribal system. The number of tribal programs doubled between 2008 and 2016. I am proud of the work states, tribes, and my own team at OCSS accomplished during that time—and the time since. I am gratified to see the child support program continue to grapple with social change and make progress toward a more equitable program. Everything has its season. I’ve always seen myself as a translator. After leaving OCSS, I’ve continued to write and consult with foundations, advocacy groups, and others to build capacity to support families. I am grateful for a career that has been so personally meaningful to me. As a girl, I never expected to have a career at all. I was raised in a time as full of social change and uncertainty as now. My way out was through parenthood, school, and work. My lived experiences gave me a specific kind of insight into the child support program. I encourage you to create meaning from your own journey, and let that meaning impact your work. Vicki Turetsky, Esq. served as OCSS commissioner between 2009 and 2017.
Page 2 and 3: Table of Contents April 2024 Execut
Page 4 and 5: innovative solutions. I attended se
Page 7 and 8: Balancing Act: The Shifting Focus o
Page 9 and 10: Rightfully, the child support progr
Page 11 and 12: Moving the Program Forward: Final R
Page 13 and 14: to protect and enhance Tribal lands
Page 15 and 16: now has “an important tool to hel
Page 17 and 18: of the Tax Reduction Act of 1975. O
Page 19 and 20: Income of both parents: $15,000 Par
Page 21 and 22: From Customer to Commissioner by Vi
Page 23 and 24: Employment Demonstration (CSPED). I
Page 25 and 26: support. Better-off fathers, on the
Page 27: ACF meet with stakeholders to reexa
Page 31 and 32: Creation of the Child Support Reent
Page 33 and 34: incarcerated parent with a copy of
Page 35 and 36: NCSEA 2024 Policy Forum Wrap-up:
Page 37 and 38: employment on the various programs
Page 39 and 40: Carla West Connie Chesnik Corrinne

April 2024 CSQ

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