November/December 2023

Customer Service

The Ankeny office had a customer come in who spoke an Asian language and was having a difficult time communicating with CSS workers. The customer was trying to sell a home, and this was their third time visiting an office.

Fiona Eichner (right), Clerk Specialist, speaks Burmese, and although it was not the customer’s native dialect, the languages were similar enough for them to communicate. With the help of Sandy Kamp (left), Case Manager, Fiona translated what documents the customer needed and how CSS could best assist them. Sandy took the extra step of calling the closing agent herself to find out exactly what they needed to ensure the customer did not need to come back again.

Both workers took extra time to provide the best customer service possible and exemplified several HHS Guiding Principles: Integrity, Equity, and Communication. Thank you both for the excellent work!

New Hires:

Katrina Klokkevold, Davenport
Shannon Gronemann, Decorah
Melissa Roupe, Sioux City
Ramona Valdivia-Cruz, Mason City
Tomas Thayer, Spencer
Tonya Cwach, Spencer
Katie O'Connor, Des Moines
Betsy Cartwright-Lovejoy, Des Moines
Ana Miranda Bahena, Des Moines
Louis Henriguez, Des Moines
Hassan Davis, Des Moines
Lori Berry, Indianola

ISU Insights: VPA rejection reports

The Voluntary Paternity Affidavit (VPA) Outreach program uses data to determine what types of resource materials to create and to conduct targeted outreach with hospitals. Each month the Bureau of Health Statistics provides a VPA rejection data file to CSS. The data file includes reasons for rejection, notary information and hospital. CSS shares this data file with ISU which allows our graduate research assistant, Alison White, to analyze the data and generate monthly reports. It's important to note, the hospital is not included in many cases within the data file, which makes it difficult to know which hospitals would benefit from additional training and resources. The ISU team hopes this improves in future monthly data files. To view examples of the monthly reports click on the buttons below.

Oct 2023 Rejection Report

VPA rejections - Year at a Glance

Training:

Leading a Successful Virtual Meeting

by Holly Wengert, ISU Instructional Designer

Virtual meetings became the norm in 2020 and seem to be one of the things that may never go away. I would like to say we are getting better at them and have learned some lessons in the last couple of years. Unfortunately, there are also some not-so-great things we’ve carried over from face-to-face meetings too. The following is by no means an exhaustive list, merely some observations and, hopefully, some helpful ideas!

Staff Highlight:

Shellie Klommhaus has been supervisor of the Creston CSS since January 5, 2015. She has supervised all child support processes. In 2018, the Des Moines region moved all case set-up (CSU) to the Creston office, and Shellie did a tremendous amount of work setting up the CSU unit for success. In addition to CSU, Shellie is the lead supervisor in the Des Moines region, and has been involved in...

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Staff Anniversaries:

5 Years:

Elizabeth Olson, Davenport
Tylaiah Saulsberry, Pleasant Hill

10 Years:

Jessica Merical, Pleasant Hill
Angela Richardson, Ankeny

15 Years:

Tracy Halverson, Decorah
Naycia Dotzler, Decorah
Amber Mauer, Cedar Rapids

20 Years:

Sarah Burnstedt, Ottumwa

30 Years:

Michelle Schwartzhoff, Decorah

Policy Corner:

The State of Iowa Offset Program is now administered by Iowa Department of Revenue (IDR) as of November 13, 2023. The new procedures, system and contract changes were completed. The trainings on the new procedures and system were held on November 21^st and 28^th. The training material will be put on the Child Support Services (CSS) SharePoint. Now we will monitor the new procedures to ensure everything works smoothly.

The State Offset Refresher training will be updated in LooMiS with the new procedures. The training will be sent out to CSS field staff in January.

Outreach:

The Des Moines region recently was contacted by the Veterans Administration Community Employment Coordinator, located at the VA Central Iowa Health Care System in Des Moines.

Several years ago, the Des Moines region did a presentation for VA staff who...

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https://hhs.iowa.gov/child-support