Cost effectivness for the IV-D child support program is a comparison of the dollars collected by the child support program as compared to the child support program expenditures.  

The data show ORS' cost effectiveness for the IV-D Child Support program while the target data reflects the national average.

This is a federal measure calculated annually on September 30th.

Cost effectiveness of the IV-D program is a comparison of the dollars collected compared to the dollars expended to operate the child support program.  Ideally, collections would increase while expenses would decrease; however, there is a nationwide trend where child support cases and collections are trending downward. 

In addition, expenses are increasing due to an increase in personnel services costs and technology costs as ORS modernizes it's information system. 

Modernization started in FFY 2020 when the ORS information system was moved off of the mainframe.  The ORS database was moved into the cloud in FFY 2024 and additional modernization efforts began in FFY 2025, continuing to increase expenses while collections are declining. 

This modernization effort will be underway for a number of years, so it is feasible the cost effectiveness number may continue to decline until it stabilizes. It should be noted, however, that a lower cost effectiveness number does not mean the program is not performing successfully.  Rather, it is an indication, given modernization efforts, that dollars are being invested into the program and the infrastructure to ensure the program will benefit from technologies such as data analytics and the ability to easily recover data and resume operations in the event disaster recovery is required.