State to clean up social services departments, make child support system more responsive [The Frederick News-Post, Md.]

Dec. 29--Child support collection tactics in Maryland are changing as government officials prepare to clean up social services departments statewide.

The Maryland Department of Human Resources recently announced the appointment of Joseph J. DiPrimio as the new executive director of the Child Support Enforcement Administration.

The DiPrimio appointment is part of a comprehensive effort to make the state a national leader in child support collection, according to a news release from the state.

"There is no reason that in Maryland, the state with the highest per capita income of any state, we cannot lead the nation in collecting the support that is due to our children," Ted Dallas, secretary of the Department of Human Resources, said in a statement. "My goal is to make Maryland one of the top 10 states in terms of child support collections within the next 18 months."

The Child Support Enforcement Administration operates the state's child support program and provides services to both noncustodial and custodial parents, which include the establishment of paternity and child support orders, the collection of support payments and the distribution of such funds.

New strategies for collections include establishing a Child Support Advisory Committee made up of parents, child advocates, and public- and private-sector stakeholders to help implement improvements and make Maryland's child support system more responsive.

In 2010, 26.8 percent of custodial parents had never contacted a child support enforcement office, state department of social services, or other welfare or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families office for child support-related activities, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Marici Kassakatis struggled to get full child support payments in one Maryland county and got relief in Frederick County through alternative mediation.

"I had filed for child support in court because I didn't think mediation would work," said Kassakatis, a mother of two.

There are now more than 238,000 child support cases in the state, according to records from the Maryland Department of Human Resources. Of those cases, 64.7 percent of parents are paying a part of total support owed.

Kassakatis' story represents a percentage of Maryland parents coming to an agreement about child support payments. She and her husband have split up after three years of marriage.

Kassakatis' husband agreed to pay for health insurance and child care for their 2-year-old daughter, Jasmine. The pair created a parenting plan at the Community Mediation and Conflict Resolution Center in Frederick County.

"We cried a lot, we laughed. ... It was hard, but we didn't realize we could agree on almost everything until mediation," she said.

Alternative mediation is working for the couple as they adjust to raising their daughter in different houses. Mediators helped the couple create a legally binding agreement, agency officials said.

It took about six weeks for the couple to work out a 50-50 custody agreement, which includes a visitation and holiday schedule for their daughter. Child support payments represent only one part of the parenting plan mediators helped the Kassakatis family create, but the agency receives calls all the time from couples looking for parenting help through mediation.

About 100 parents were helped this year through the agency, according to CALM director Linda Hardman, who said the economic recession is part of the reason the agency received more requests this year.

In Frederick County, more than 5,500 cases were reported this year. Ahead of both statewide and national averages, more than 71 percent of parents in Frederick County received at least partial child support payments this year.

Kassakatis said child support payments for her older daughter, from a previous relationship, are not as much as they could be, but she has given up on the court system in Prince George's County.

"I don't receive much," Kassakatis said, while noting that her daughter still has a good relationship with her father.

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