Child Support Enforcement INTAKE/CASE ASSIGNMENT

CASE ASSIGNMENT TO PROCESSING UNIT

GENERAL INFORMATION

This topic contains information on the following subjects:

1. An overview of case assignment to a processing unit;

2. The processing units that automatically receive case assignments;

3. Judicial units and workers.



CASE PROCESSING UNIT OVERVIEW

ACTS uses organizational units known as "Processing Units" to assign cases to workers. These units reflect the organizational structure that is commonly found in local CSE offices. A local CSE office does not have to create an actual organizational unit to match the processing units that are used by ACTS, but each local office must have workers assigned to all of the local processing units. (Judicial Units are an exception.)

Any caseworker can be given an ACTS Processing Unit's responsibilities without being assigned to a local office's organizational unit with the same name. Caseworkers can be also assigned to more than one processing unit within a county/local office.

Interstate CSE case assignments are made at the processing unit level and can be used within one or more units. For example, a county can choose to have their Paternity and Establishment Units specialized for Interstate case assignments, but not their Enforcement Units.

When a case changes processing units, ACTS notifies the responsible caseworker.



PROCESSING UNITS AUTOMATICALLY RECEIVING CASE ASSIGNMENTS

ACTS assigns a case to one of five (5) local office processing units based upon the processing status of the case. Caseworkers can assign a case to one of these processing units or to one of three (3) Judicial Processing Units. The processing units are:

• Initiate
• Location
• Administrative Paternity
• Administrative Establishment
• Administrative Enforcement
• Non-IV-D

JUDICIAL UNITS AND WORKERS

ACTS never automatically assigns a case to a Judicial Unit or worker. A case can be referred to one of three Judicial Units by using ACTS to override the Administrative Processing Unit that was assigned by ACTS. The Judicial units are:

• Judicial Paternity
• Judicial Establishment
• Judicial Enforcement

Local offices with specialized workers who handle all court actions would assign their cases to a Judicial Unit. Caseworkers in counties that use Judicial Processing Units assign cases to these units, based on the processing status of each case. ACTS does not restrict the assignments in any way.

If an office does not use Judicial Units, the case remains assigned to the appropriate Administrative Unit throughout the Paternity, Establishment, or Enforcement process.

If a CSE case has been assigned to a Central CSE Office worker, ACTS does not automatically reassign it to a local office processing unit. The Central CSE Office worker has to make the reassignment through ACTS.