Child Support Specialist

Child Support Specialist

This position helps safeguard family financial stability by ensuring that parents who live apart receive assistance in obtaining child support. Services available to families include locating parents, establishing paternity, establishing and modifying support obligations, and monitoring and enforcing court-ordered child support obligations. Depending on the work function assigned, a Child Support Specialist might perform some or all the duties as assigned.

The Child Support Specialist works with parents to ensure the financial stability of families receiving or paying court-ordered child support. They provide services to families by enforcing court orders for basic support, medical support, and childcare support through a variety of case management tasks and tools, including monitoring cases for court order compliance, reconciling financial accounts, utilizing administrative and legal remedies to induce payments and working with parents when their financial circumstances change. The Child Support Specialist works closely with the Dakota County Attorney's Office in initiating appropriate legal actions and preparing legal documents to support paternity and enforcement actions.

This career is ideal for someone who enjoys performing a mix of administrative, program and legal tasks, using multiple computer programs and software, synthesizing and analyzing complex information, applying discretion in approaches to case management, and having a high degree of public contact (in person, virtually, by phone and in writing). Child Support Specialists work with individuals that may be experiencing crisis, trauma, poverty, homelessness, unemployment, domestic violence, incarceration, mental illness, chemical dependency, and other challenging circumstances. This position requires attention to detail, strong conflict resolution abilities, and interpersonal skills to work with parents holistically, using person-centered approaches to reduce barriers, solve problems and meet outcomes.