HANCOCK COUNTY — Prosecutor Brent Eaton noted it’s a rare thing in life when any individual or group is able to fulfill all of their responsibilities and duties with a 100% efficiency rating, yet that is what has happened with the Hancock County Child Support Division in his office.
The team of workers within the prosecutor’s office is responsible for collecting child support and holding those who don’t comply responsible. They exceeded federal compliance standards in every category of the 2022 Self-Assessment Report, an evaluation conducted by the state for the child support divisions in Indiana.
In each of the eight categories, the team in Hancock County received a 100% rating.
“Their score was perfect,” Eaton said. “Having something that shows that you are at 100% is really fantastic. This program is a great resource for the people of Hancock County, and we want more people to know that part of our office is here for them.”
Susan Sherwood is the Director of the local team and praised the Hancock County Child Support Division who she noted in the fiscal year 2022 collected a total of $3,942,298 in child support for county children.
“The Hancock County Child Support staff are very diligent in their efforts to establish and enforce the child support orders for the children in our county,” Sherwood said. “We work very hard with all the tools the state allows our office to use in ensuring compliance on our child support cases.”
Federal regulations require that Indiana meet a minimum compliance of 75% for establishment, enforcement, disbursement, medical support, review and adjustment, expedited process (six months) and 90% for case closure and expedited process.
“I really don’t think that aspect of the prosecutor’s office and those ladies who do the job ever really get the praise they deserve for the way they do their jobs,” Eaton said. “This is an important part of our office function to see that we do that job well because it affects hundreds of families around our county.”
The division of the prosecutor’s office is responsible for enforcing decisions by the county courts. Eaton says he hopes more families will take advantage of the resources his office offers because that department is most efficient in accomplishing court orders and work goals.
“We’re in business because we want to help,” Eaton said.
Eaton noted since their offices moved from the old prosecutor’s building to the former Community Corrections facility, the group has been placed, for now, into a smaller room as they wait for renovations to be finished. That, Eaton said, has placed several workers nearly on top of one another, making their jobs a little tougher.
“The space they are in right now is a difficult working condition because our people don’t have enough space to conduct private conversations, and right now they’re cramped in a space that just isn’t big enough and it does create problems,” Eaton said. “We know the commissioners are going to help us and approve and then rework of some spaces in our offices and it’s going to be better, but we need that to happen sooner rather than later.”
The review period the group was assessed on was Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, 2022. The review was conducted from October 2022 to January 2023.
