CMOD report CS370M01 helps CSS staff review court ordered paternity establishment cases that may be reporting incorrectly. It allows staff to make any necessary corrections or adjustments prior to the annual federal Office of Child Support Services (OCSS) Data Reliability Audit (DRA). As CSS federal incentive funding is tied to the DRA, it is important CSS meet the performance standards set by the OCSS.
Programming is in place to analyze information regarding how a case came into the system, the history and progression of the AP Legal Status, the Out-Of-Wedlock (OOW) indicator and the legal type (LGL TYP) field on the OSIS obligation (OBL) screen. Therefore, it is important to understand coding of paternity and establishment cases.
AP Legal Status
The AP legal status is the legal relationship of the NCP to the child(ren) on the case.
AP Legal Status Codes and the Legal Relationship of NCP to child(ren):
- A – Support Order Established
- B – Divorced With No Support
- H – Paternity Established (Adjudicated) With No Support Order
- I – Married/Separated or Femail NCP With No Support Order
- M – Paternity Not Established
- N – Paternity Disproved
- P – Paternity Acknowledged (AOP on file)
The analyzer is gathering data on the AP legal status, how the case was originally coded at initiation and how it progressed when an order was obtained. In other words, did the case show a progression from a non-paternity status to a paternity status and was that progression the appropriate or correct progression.
Legal Status Sequences and OSIS Outcomes Chart
| Original Legal Status | Current Legal Status (first time legal status changed) |
Paternity Establishment Credit |
|---|---|---|
| M | A | Yes |
| M | H | Yes |
| M | P | Yes |
| P | Always P | Yes |
| P | A | No: Credit received when P originally recorded |
| A | Always A | Yes: Only if child born OOW |
| A | A | No: Credit may have been given when A originally recorded |
| I | A | No |
| B | A | No |
| H | Always H | Yes |
| H | A | No: Credit was given when H originally recorded |
Obligation Legal Type Status: D, P, & S
On the obligation screen is the LGL TYP field. There are three status options to indicate how the order was obtained.
Status D is used if the order is a divorce decree.
Status P is used when the order is a paternity establishment order. These generally indicate genetic testing was completed to establish paternity.
Status S indicates “other support”. These cases are often reflective of a female NCP or indicate the CP and NCP are married but separated. In other words, paternity did not need to be established but a child support order was obtained.
Out-of-Wedlock (OOW) Indicator
The OOW indicator indicates yes (Y) the child was born out of wedlock (mother and father were not married to each other) or no (N) the child was not born out of wedlock (mother and father were married to each other) when the child was born.
Reviewing Cases
The OBL LGL TYP, the AP legal status and the OOW should have corresponding coding. The AP legal status should progress appropriately from a paternity to non-paternity status, the OOW indicator should correspond to the AP legal status.
Some examples of correctly coded information are as follows:
- AP legal status M (paternity not established) to A (court ordered paternity and support)
OOW = Y (child born out of wedlock)
OBL LGL TYP is P (paternity) - AP legal status P (paternity acknowledged – AOP) to A (court ordered support)
OOW = Y (child born out of wedlock)
OBL LGL TYP is S (other support) - AP legal status I (female NCP) to A (court ordered support)
OOW = Y (child born out of wedlock)
OBL LGL TYP is S (other support) - AP legal status I (married/separated) to A (court ordered support)
OOW = N (child not born out of wedlock)
OBL LGL TYP is D (divorce)
Some examples of incorrectly coded information are as follows:
- AP legal status M (paternity not established) to A (court ordered paternity and support)
OOW = N (child not born out of wedlock)
OBL LGL TYP is P (paternity) - AP legal status I (female NCP) to H (court ordered paternity)
OOW = Y (child born out of wedlock)
OBL LGL TYP is P (paternity) - AP legal status I (married/separated) to A (court ordered support)
OOW = Y (child born out of wedlock)
OBL LGL TYP is D (divorce)
It is important to note that paternity cannot be established on a female NCP. Nor would paternity be established for an NCP when a legal presumption of paternity exists due to the NCP being married to the mother of the child.
In the above examples, the AP legal status progression, the OOW indicator or the OBL LGL TYP would need to be updated or corrected in relation to one or more of these fields.