(Washington, DC) The Attorney General for the District of Columbia, Linda Singer announced today that Office of the Attorney General, Child Support Services Division (CSSD) has been awarded the National Child Support Enforcement Association's "Most Improved Program" and "Best Manager" Awards. The award recognizes the significant progress made by the District government, particularly in identifying fathers and securing new child support orders. Herb Jeter, Fiscal Operations Section Chief, received the award for "Best Manager" based upon his excellence and hard work for over twenty years at CSSD.

CSSD worked with DC Superior Court to establish more new child support orders and increased the number of referrals to the Court by 47% in 2006. The District has made steady progress in increasing child support collections by using enforcement tools more effectively. The increase in arrears collections is attributed to its 2005 Amnesty program (over a two-week period), driver's license revocations, passport denials and new wage withholding approaches.

CSSD has used many innovative approaches to improve its services, including providing the most generous policy for the treatment of child support for families on Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). Under the policy, TANF families are allowed to keep the first $150 of current support paid every month with no reduction in their TANF grant, which means that non-custodial parents know that their payments will help their children, not repay the government. In the first six months of the policy, $1.2 million dollars was passed through to families. As another incentive, the District, also, passed an earned tax credit law to allow credits toward DC taxes for child support paid. The District was awarded in 2006, a federal child support demonstration grant to proactively assist incarcerated parents in modifying their child support orders. Those parents are able to return to their families without the added burden of child support obligations that they cannot pay and that might strip them of the incentive to obtain legitimate employment.