1. a. The director may request from state, county and local agencies, information and assistance deemed necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter. State, county and local agencies, officers and employees shall co-operate with the unit in locating absent parents of children on whose behalf public assistance is being provided and shall on request supply the department with available information relative to the location, income and property holdings of the absent parent and the custodial parent, notwithstanding any provisions of law making this information confidential. The cooperation and information required by this subsection shall also be provided to the department when it is requested by the unit on behalf of persons who have applied for support enforcement services.
b. Parents of a child on whose behalf support enforcement services are provided shall provide information regarding income, resources, financial circumstances, and property holdings to the department for the purpose of establishment, modification, or enforcement of a support obligation. The department may provide the information to parents of a child as needed to implement the requirements of section 598.21, subsection 4, notwithstanding any provisions of law making this information confidential.
2. Notwithstanding other statutory pro- visions to the contrary, including but not limited to chapters 22 and 217, as the chapters relate to confidentiality of records maintained by the department, the payment records of the collection services center maintained under section 252B.13A are public records only as follows:
a. Payment records of the collection services center which are maintained pursuant to chapter 598 are public records and may be released upon request.
b. Except as otherwise provided in subsection 1, the department shall not release details related to payment records or provide alternative formats for release of the information, with the following additional exceptions:
(1) The unit or collection services center may provide additional detail or present the information in an alternative format to an individual or to the individual's legal repreentative if the individual owes or is owed a support obliga- tion, to an agency assigned the obligation as the result of receipt by a party of public assistance, to an agency charged with enforcing child support pursuant to Title IV-D of the federal Social Security Act, or to the court.
(2) For support orders entered in Iowa which are being enforced by the unit, the unit may compile and make available for publication a listing of cases in which no payment has been credited to an accrued or accruing support obligation during a previous three-month period. Each case on the list shall be identified only by the name of the support obligor, the address, if known, of the support obligor, unless the information pertaining to the address of the support obligor is protected through confidentiality requirements established by law and has not otherwise been verified with the unit, the support obligor's court order docket or case number, the county in which the obligor's support order is filed, the collection services center case numbers, and the range within which the balance of the support obligor's delinquency is established. The department shall determine dates for the release of information, the specific format of the information released, and the three-month period used as a basis for identifying cases. The department may not release the information more than twice annually. In compiling the listing of cases, no prior public notice to the obligor is required, but the unit may send notice annually by mail to the current known address of any individual owing a support obligation which is being enforced by the unit. The notice shall inform the individual of the provisions of this subparagraph. Actions taken pursuant to this subparagraph are not subject to review under chapter 17A, and the lack of receipt of a notice does not prevent the unit from proceeding in implementing this subparagraph.
(3) The provisions of subparagraph (2) may be applied to support obligations entered in another state, at the request of an initiating state if the initiating state has demonstrated that the provisions of subparagraph (2) are not in conflict with the laws of the state where the support obligation is entered and the unit is enforcing the support obligation. For the purposes of this subparagraph, "initiating state" means any child support enforcement agency operating under the provisions of Title IV-D of the federal Social Security Act.
c. The attorney general may utilize information of the unit to secure, modify, or enforce a support obligation of an individual, unless otherwise prohibited by federal law.
d. This subsection shall not permit or require the release of information contained in the case records of the unit, except to the extent provided in this section.
3. Except as otherwise provided in subsection 1, paragraph "b", and in subsection 2, information recorded by the department pursuant to this section shall be available only to the unit, attorneys prosecuting a case in which the unit may participate according to sections 252B.5 and 252B.6, courts having jurisdiction in support or abandonment proceedings, and agencies in other states charged with support collection and paternity determination responsibilities as determined by the rules of the department and the provisions of Title IV of the federal Social Security Act. However, information relating to the location of an absent parent shall be made available, pursuant to federal regulations, to a resident parent, legal guardian, attorney, or agent of a child who is not receiving assistance under Title IV-A of the federal Social Security Act. Unless otherwise prohibited by federal statute or regulation, the child support recovery unit shall release information relating to an absent parent to another unit of the department pursuant to a written request for the information approved by the director.
[C77, 79, 81, § 252B.9]
89 Acts, ch 283, §31; 90 Acts, ch 1034, § 1; 91 Acts, ch 177, §1; 93 Acts, ch 79, §31, 32, 57; 94 Acts, ch 1171, §16
Referred to in § 252B.5, 252B.7A, 252B.10, 252H.6, 421.17, 422.20, 422.72, 514H.7, 598.26
Iowa General Assembly
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