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.

Class Descriptions 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 job functions of each position.

Class Descriptions provide information about the Nature of Work, Examples of Work, General Requirements and Acknowledgements.  The Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities; Minimum Education and Experience Requirements; Special Requirements; and recruitment and testing procedures are set by the using agency.

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 not assigned to a bargaining unit, as indicated by the designation of S (Supervisor), M (Manager), T (Agency Head), U (Board or Commission Member), W (Student), X (Used by Agency or Excluded by Executive Order), or Z (Confidential).  As provided by State Personnel and Pensions Article, Section 3-102, special appointment, temporary, contractual, supervisory, managerial and confidential employees are excluded 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 the 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 level 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 by 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.