I am extremely honored to have been selected as the 22nd President of the Domestic Relations Association of Pennsylvania.  The organization is over 40 years old and it’s no coincidence that Pennsylvania has achieved unprecedented, and nationally recognized, levels of performance in the area of child support.  The strong partnerships and leadership that exists within the Pennsylvania Courts, the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, the Bureau of Child Support Enforcement, the Penn State Child Support Training Institute, and the Domestic Relations Sections has proven to be very beneficial for the children who depend upon court ordered child support as a reliable financial resource.

I feel DRAP is the critical link in these partnerships and is what sets Pennsylvania apart from other States.  No matter the size of the County, from Class 1 Philadelphia to our 6 Class 8 Counties, you find the same hardworking, dedicated, professionals with a common goal.  Being the best we can be at establishing and collecting child support.  Just take a look at any one of the 11 volumes of best practices and you can see all the effort Statewide aimed at becoming  better each year.

When reflecting on the successes of Pennsylvania and it’s partnerships, there is no greater measure than the success of the cities of champions and the two largest jurisdictions in the state, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.   Both have exceeded  federal performance standards in the collection of court ordered support payments and payments on the existing case arrears.  To my knowledge no other urban jurisdiction of their size nationwide has celebrated these achievements.

The economic stresses felt by families across the Commonwealth have made these relationships even more important.  We continue to strive to assist affected families by getting involved as early as possible in a case before the situation becomes insurmountable.  Too often the stresses of the payment of child support manifests beyond the financial arena and into the very delicate issue of the parent child relationship.  

As President of this vital organization my goal is to continue the path set by the previous 21 President’s over the past 40 years and continue to energize the 3,000 plus child support professionals statewide to streamline services and implement tools provided to us by the state and the courts to reduce the amount of uncollected child support in the state, and continue to collect support at a record setting pace.

I’m very excited about what the future holds for the organization and about working with our partners to reach new levels of excellence.

Gary Kline, President
Domestic Relations Association of Pennsylvania
October 2010