State of Maryland

A Child Support Specialist Trainee is the entry level of child support work.  Employees in this classification learn to investigate and analyze child support cases and initiate appropriate actions to establish, maintain or enforce support payments for dependent children in accordance with applicable federal and State laws, rules and regulations.  Employees in this classification learn to perform duties related to establishing paternity and child support orders, negotiating agreements for child support payments and health insurance coverage and maintaining and enforcing the collection of current and past due amounts.  Employees in this classification do not supervise other positions.

Employees in this classification receive close supervision from a Child Support Specialist Supervisor or other designated administrator.

Positions in this classification are evaluated by using the classification job evaluation methodology. The use of this method involves comparing the assigned duties and responsibilities of a position to the job criteria found in the Nature of Work and Examples of Work sections of the class specification.

The Child Support Specialist Trainee, Child Support Specialist I and Child Support Specialist II are differentiated on the basis of the degree of supervisory control exercised by the supervisor over these employees.  The Child Support Specialist Trainee learns to perform duties under close supervision. The Child Support Specialist I performs duties under close supervision at times and under general supervision at other times depending on the complexity of the specific duty being performed.  The Child Support Specialist II performs the full range of duties and responsibilities under general supervision.

Learns to obtain, verify and analyze information from custodial and non-custodial parents, employers, financial institutions, private and governmental resources, health insurance carriers and others and use that information to locate non-custodial parents, establish paternity, verify income and assets and determine the ability of non-custodial parents to pay child support and provide health insurance;

Learns to negotiate voluntary agreements for payment of child support and liquidation of arrears with custodial and non-custodial parents in accordance with State regulations and guidelines;

Learns to initiate and prepare a variety of documents for administrative or court hearings, such as support payment modifications, wage withholdings, earnings assignments, interstate transmittals, subpoenas, bench warrants and show cause orders in order to collect current or past due child support payments;

Learns to identify circumstances that contribute to a problem in collecting child support or providing health insurance coverage, determine which private and governmental services and programs, such as mediation services, employment and job counseling services, visitation access program or young fathers’ program address the problem and refer parents to those services and programs;

Learns to monitor the receipt of child support payments and review case records and payment activities to determine the need for and type of enforcement activities warranted;

Learns to investigate and resolve disputes resulting from license suspensions, tax intercepts and other remedies used to enforce and collect child support;

Learns to initiate and negotiate establishment and enforcement of new or existing child support orders in out-of-state cases;

Learns to prepare and present testimony for judicial and administrative hearings related to child support enforcement and collection;

Learns to prepare and review case records to ensure the validity of information to be presented in court by the legal services attorney;

Learns to maintain and update case records by using automated systems and case folder documents;

Learns to respond to inquiries from custodial and non-custodial parents, employers, courts, public officials, attorneys, other State agencies and out-of-state agencies in order to resolve issues related to child support cases;

Learns to coordinate genetic testing arrangements with certified medical facilities;

Learns to serve as liaison between Child Support Enforcement Administration and other State agencies, local agencies, the State’s Attorney’s Office and the courts;

Learns to place appropriate markers on case records in cases in which family violence or abuse has occurred, monitor the case to ensure that custodial and non-custodial parents, other caretakers and children are protected and refer abused caretakers and dependent children to family shelters or other protective services;

May learn to assist at orientation sessions for new applicants or for non-custodial parents by presenting information about child support program services and related services that may be helpful;

May learn to represent the State as complainant in order to obtain or enforce court orders for support;

Performs other related duties.

Knowledge of basic mathematics sufficient to calculate child support payments and assess payment records;

Ability to learn federal and State laws, regulations, and policies pertaining to establishing, maintaining and enforcing child support payments;

Ability to learn the procedures used to identify and locate non-custodial parents, both in-state and out-of-state, and to establish responsibility for child support payments;

Ability to learn which State and local agencies and community organizations and facilities provide services to custodial parents or other caretakers, non-custodial parents and dependent children;

Ability to learn to calculate child support payments using State guidelines;

Ability to learn to compare payment history to initial and subsequent support orders;

Ability to learn to investigate, verify and analyze financial information of custodial and non-custodial parents;

Ability to learn to analyze regulatory, programmatic and fiscal information and apply it to specific child support cases;

Ability to learn to identify barriers to the collection of child support payments and to initiate appropriate administrative or legal remedies;

Ability to learn to elicit information from individuals who may be hostile, uncooperative or confused;

Ability to learn to recognize situations, such as the presence of family violence, in which alternative collection procedures should be used;

Ability to learn to use good judgment and resourcefulness in recognizing problematic situations and negotiating solutions;

Ability to learn to maintain confidentiality of child support case material and related information;

Ability to learn to testify in court concerning child support cases;

Ability to learn to prepare administrative and court enforcement documents;

Ability to learn to use computer systems to maintain child support case records and access informational resources;

Ability to learn to communicate effectively in child support matters with custodial and non-custodial parents, family members, judges, attorneys, court personnel, employers, financial institutions, health insurance carriers and any other parties who have an interest in child support matters.

Education:   Graduation from an accredited high school or possession of a high school equivalency certificate.

Experience: Six months of public contact experience involving negotiating, interviewing, explaining information, gathering and compiling data, performing analysis of data, writing correspondence and completing mathematical or legal tasks.

                                                                OR

Six months of general office, retail, food service, construction trades or similar experience including data entry, record filing and maintenance, multi-line phone use, general computer skills and email software.  General clerical, data processing, technical or administrative experience is defined as work performing a variety of duties which are clear-cut and typically found in office settings such as filing, copying, inputting data, general computer skills and directing telephone calls.

                                                                 OR

Six months of U.S Armed Forces military experience.

Class specifications are broad descriptions covering groups of positions used by various State departments and agencies.  Position descriptions maintained by the using department or agency specifically address the essential functions of each position.

This is a Skilled Service classification in the State Personnel Management System.  All positions in this classification are Skilled Service positions.  Some positions in Skilled Service classifications may be designated Special Appointment in accordance with the State Personnel and Pensions Article, Section 6-405, Annotated Code of Maryland.

This classification is assigned to Bargaining Unit F, Social and Human Service Professionals classes.  As provided by State Personnel and Pensions Article, Section 3-102, special appointment, temporary, contractual, supervisory, managerial and confidential employees are excluded from collective bargaining.  Additionally, certain executive branch agencies are exempt from collective bargaining and all positions in those agencies are excluded from collective bargaining.

Employees in this classification are eligible to receive overtime compensation.  An employee who works more than the normal workweek is entitled to be compensated for that overtime as provided by State Personnel and Pensions Article, Section 8-305.

This classification is one level in a Non-Competitive Promotion (NCP) series.  NCP promotions are promotions by which employees may advance in grade and class level from trainee to full performance levels in a classification series.  In order to be non-competitively promoted to the next level in a NCP series an employee must: 1) perform the main purpose of the class as defined in the Nature of Work section of the class specification; 2)  receive the type of supervision defined in the class specification, and 3)  meet the minimum qualifications of the classification.