Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — The privatized system in Kansas for handling child support payments to 140,000 children suffers from Byzantine complexity perplexing to employees and the public, a laissez-faire approach to enforcement of support orders, and a computer network that should be a candidate for the scrap heap but isn’t because of high replacement costs.
The child support program overseen by the Kansas Department for Children and Families and operated by a collection of private contractors hired by the state was placed under the microscope of Midwest Evaluation and Research, an Emporia consulting firm. The independent evaluator was hired by DCF to review accountability and effectiveness of the privatized system in the context of Kansas’ performance on key metrics and with knowledge of persistent complaints about IT and communication shortcomings.