Child Support Specialist Trainee

Child Support Specialist Trainee

This Statewide recruitment has been opened to establish a list of eligible candidates to be used to fill current and future vacancies occurring in our Local Departments of Social Services throughout the State. Please indicate the counties in which you are willing to accept employment on your application.

The main purpose of the job is 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.

Examples of work include obtaining, verifying and analyzing information from custodial and non-custodial parents, employers, financial institutions, private and governmental resources, health insurance carriers and others 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; negotiating voluntary agreements for payment of child support and liquidation of arrears with custodial and non-custodial parents in accordance with State regulations and guidelines; initiating and preparing a variety of documents for administrative or court hearings to collect current or past due child support payments; identifying circumstances that contribute to a problem in collecting child support or providing health insurance coverage, determining which private and governmental services and programs address the problem and referring parents to those services and programs; monitoring the receipt of child support payments and reviewing case records and payment activities to determine the need for and type of enforcement activities warranted; investigating and resolving disputes resulting from license suspensions, tax intercepts and other remedies used to enforce and collect child support; initiating and negotiating establishment and enforcement of new or existing child support orders in out-of-state cases; preparing and presenting testimony for judicial and administrative hearings related to child support enforcement and collection; preparing and reviewing case records to ensure the validity of information to be presented in court by the legal services attorney; maintaining and updating case records by using automated systems and case folder documents; responding 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; coordinating genetic testing arrangements with certified medical facilities; serving as liaison between Child Support Enforcement Administration and other State agencies, local agencies, the States Attorneys Office and the courts; placing appropriate markers on case records in cases in which family violence or abuse has occurred, monitoring the case to ensure that custodial and non-custodial parents, other caretakers and children are protected and referring abused caretakers and dependent children to family shelters or other protective services; assisting 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; representing the State as complainant in order to obtain or enforce court orders for support; and performing other related duties.

Minimum qualifications include graduation from an accredited high school or possession of a high school equivalency certificate, 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, or six months of U.S Armed Forces military experience.

Employees in this classification may be assigned duties which require the operation of a motor vehicle. Employees assigned such duties will be required to possess a motor vehicle operators license valid in the State of Maryland.

The selection process will consist of a rating of your education, training, and experience as presented on your application and as they relate to the requirements of the position.