Oregon child support program seeks staff and IT funding to modernize services and expand front-line casework

Kate Cooper Richardson, administrator of the Division of Child Support, told the Public Safety subcommittee that the program serves 127,459 families in Oregon and manages financial accounting that distributes roughly $299 million a year for Oregon families. She asked lawmakers to consider a multi-option "Family First Services" staffing package to rebuild front-line casework capacity and to continue IT support for Origin, the new child support system.

Program scale and functions: Cooper Richardson emphasized that child support is a large, federally supervised program (Title IV-D) that handles paternity, establishment and modification of orders, income withholding (about 72% of payments), financial accounting and long-term case management; orders can remain enforceable for decades. She said the program processes thousands of modifications annually and that most child support actions are administrative, not judicial.

Staffing and POP options: The Division presented three staffing options — critical, priority and optimal — and recommended pursuing the optimal package to restore capacity lost over the past decade. Cooper Richardson said the division previously had nearly 600 state employees and now has about 538, leaving fewer tenured staff and higher workload. The optimal option focuses on adding front-line case managers and other non‑managerial positions to meet modern service demands and to improve engagement with parents.

IT and Origin system needs: The division reported successful completion of a multi‑biennial IT replacement project and federal certification for Origin but said ongoing maintenance, refactoring and specialized IT support remain necessary. The division continues to rely on contracted IT professionals for gaps and asked for position authority to bring more capabilities in-house.

Context and funding: Cooper Richardson noted that House Bill 4140 (2024) converted certain one-time grants into the division's service-level budget and that federal matching rates give the state significant leverage: each general fund dollar is matched by two federal dollars for child support operations.

Ending: The administrator framed the proposal as an investment in a program that reaches more children than most state programs and as a way to preserve recent IT gains while restoring human-capacity to better serve families.