Oyate News - Positive News You Can Use!

Child Support Enforcement – Diana Canku, Program Manager

Function/Mission Statement: Establish, modify, and enforce child support orders, collect/disburse

payments, locate absent parents, and establish paternity through genetic testing.

Data for the Month:

Kimberly Craven, Attorney is getting a contract drawn up for Gina Rugierre for the Child Support judge. I will need a copy of it to send to the funding agency as soon as it is executed. I heard Gina may be resigning and am wondering how that is going to affect our department. Is there any further information on this?

Kimberly Craven drafted a contract for legal services with Shaun Eastman regarding a child support case. It took so long that we just handled it on our own without an attorney. I drafted proposed changes to Chapter 21 regarding process service during a pandemic. I sent the proposed changes to the Executives, Council members, the attorney and the Chief Judge. I am waiting for a response. I have not received a response from anyone on this issue.

We are currently planning to hold a retreat to work on small changes needed to our policies. We hope to hold this away from the Administration building so we can work through the document uninterrupted.

We are currently planning to have the retreat in either April or May. We have travel funds available to pay for the retreat. Paternity testing is being conducted by appointment only. We continue to conduct paternity testing throughout this state of emergency. The staff wear a face mask, face shield, and rubber gloves when collecting samples from clients. Our department will need a copy of the new indirect cost rate proposal once that is approved. I am required to submit the new rate to the funding agency as soon as it is received by the tribe. Court hearings were held on February 16 & 17, 2021.

Monthly calls are scheduled with our federal officials and other region 8 directors throughout this state of emergency. I was asked to assist with drafting policies for the new Quarantine & Isolation Facility. Tammy Decoteau presented a rough draft. I reformatted the policy, made additions and revisions, and sent it back to everyone involved. There are still some questions that I have with the policy that will need to be

addressed to finalize the document. I am unsure when another meeting will be scheduled with the group to discuss these issues.

I attended a web-ex training on dealing with difficult situations with OCSE on February 11, 2021.

The collections are through February 24, 2021. There were 421 receipts.

Case Data:

Total Caseload: 1,486

Caseworker: Case Load: February

Jessica 290

Delight 203

Travis 220

Martha 206

Felix 263

Megan 304

Melinda

Caseworker: Cases Docketed:February

Jessica 24

Delight 13

Travis 11

Martha 12

Felix 20

Megan 18

Melinda (dismissals only) 0

Cases Staffed: February

Local 2

Interstate 6

New cases: 8

Cases Closed: February

Closed cases FY21: 21