April-May 2021
Customer Service
John Meyne is a Support Recovery Officer for the Cedar Rapids Child Support Recovery Unit. Recently, John contacted the payor on the case as part of CSRU’s Projecting Positivity Promotes Positivity & Cultural Change (Px4C2) project. In doing so, John was tasked with making a pro-active contact with the payor to inquire about the potential barriers that were contributing to the payor’s recent lapse in remitting payments. John was also charged with providing the payor with potential resources to overcome those barriers. At the end of the call the payor thanked John for the call and for reminding him of his obligation. The payor remitted an online payment of one month’s worth of support, his first payment in three months.
 
John’s work with the payor was especially noteworthy given the payor’s history of expressing animosity towards CSRU, including remitting a $200 payment in nickels a couple of years ago.
New Hires
  • Donelle McBroom, Burlington (4/5)
  • Rhiannon Patterson, Fort Dodge (5/3)
  • Rochelle Rodd, Des Moines (5/3)
Staff Anniversaries

5 Years:
  • Liz Specketer, Spencer
15 Years:
  • Terry Fritz, CSC
  • Kathleen Wadle, Central Office
  • Diane Wilson, Waterloo
20 Years:
  • Mary Smedley, EPICS
  • Robert Walters, EPICS
  • Karen Wiegman, EPICS
  • Dana DeTemmerman, Waterloo
  • Kathleen Foss, EPICS
  • Michelle Jerome, EPICS
  • Lana Leuenberger, Waterloo
  • Pamela Schmidt, EPICS
  • Julie Mixdorf, EPICS
  • Susan Jacoby, EPICS
  • Kimberly Sheetz-Cook, EPICS
  • Blaine Cormaney, EPICS
  • Sandra (Sam) Christensen, Waterloo
  • Bridget Brown, EPICS
  • Andrea Bell, EPICS
  • Sauya Ammar, EPICS
  • Lenore (Nora) Shannon, EPICS
25 Years:
  • Kevin Kaufman, Davenport
Teen Dating Violence Awareness program evaluated
Teens in America are facing a staggering amount of dating violence. A report from 2018 found that 41% of teens under 18 reported experiencing at least one type of intimate partner violence. The needs highlighted by the alarming statistics surrounding teen dating violence are what Parenting: It’s A Life (PIAL) works to address through its Teen Dating Violence Awareness (TDVA) program.
Staff Highlight: Larry Ritze
Larry Ritze joined CSRU in August of 2000 as an Establishment Case Manager and has been in that position ever since. He has worked on developing Prison Outreach, specifically in-person visits at Mt. Pleasant CF, for the past five years. 
Policy Corner: Legislative Update

The Iowa Legislature adjourned its 2021 session late May 19, nearly three weeks after the session was supposed to end.

The HHS budget bill passed both the House and Senate late May 17. CSRU is fully funded in the final version of the bill. An earlier version included portions of the Public Assistance Oversight bill, such as requirements for IM to verify employment and financial records as a condition of eligibility, including information maintained by CSRU; however, those requirements were not included in the final version passed.

Alive:
HF 802 Diversity training requirements: passed House and Senate and will likely be signed by the governor with an effective date of 7/1/2021.

Dead:
HF 416: Emancipation/duration changes
HF 823: Adds violation of a protective or non-contact order as a basis for modification of a CS/CA/MS order
HF 554: Addresses vacation of certain TPR orders
HF 202: Addresses changes to joint custody and joint physical care
HF 403: Changes the definition of “child” to include a “pre-born” child
SF 093: Proposes collection from Veteran’s Disability benefits
SF 220: Changes to the Hawk-I purchase program
SF 389 (Public Assistance Oversight): requires SNAP participants to cooperate with CSRU, requires IM to verify employment and financial records as a condition of eligibility, including information maintained by CSRU, and other provisions
SF 515: Reinstatement of parental rights to parents with a TPR order
SF 525: CINA TPR changes

Bills we were watching that didn’t pass this session:
HF199: Replaces the term “visitation” with “parenting time”
HF 825: Addresses temporary support provisions in DA and protective orders (As written it would have no impact on our work.)
HF 774: Redacts the use of SSNs to 4 digits in 272D for license sanctions for government debts
HF 854: Delinquency fees for untimely rulemaking
Training
Musings about Online Learning from the LMS Guy
by Marc Shoemaker
I have been in the education field for more than 20 years (22 if you count 2020 as the 2+ years that it was). I have seen and done quite a bit in this area (teacher, corporate trainer, curriculum designer, technical writer, training video “Hey, you look worse in person” guy, learning management system administrator, etc.) during that time, including all the day-to-day tasks we do for our various roles in education and training.
Outreach
VPA Program Offers More Spanish Material
Over the past few months, the Voluntary Paternity Affidavit (VPA) program has made substantial efforts to improve accessibility for Spanish speaking individuals. DHS translation services have been translating VPA materials, and VPA Outreach Coordinator Amy Peters has worked with the Bureau of Health Statistics (BHS) and colleagues from CWRTP to develop Spanish versions.