Child support. Just the mention of the topic elicits strong opinions about parental responsibility and the role of government in family matters. For many, the child support system represents a “one size fits all” program, much like many publicly-funded programs, that rarely takes the actual needs or wants of the family into consideration. Some argue that child support payments are excessive, fail to reflect the ebb and flow of income and are unduly punitive in nature. Others believe child support ensures that both parents contribute financially to their child’s upbringing, prioritizes the child’s needs and helps ensure that they have access to resources for essentials like food, clothing, education and health care.

The child support system is integral to the Kresge Human Services Program strategy. Human Services has supported various efforts to strengthen the child support system at multiple levels. A key effort was a partnership with Ascend at the Aspen Institute on a yearlong Fatherhood Learning and Action Community that yielded several recommendations aimed at strengthening the child support system. This included a focus on the disproportionate impact on noncustodial fathers of color who have often been marginalized and stigmatized in traditional child support practices. Human Services also partnered with the state of Louisiana’s Department of Child and Family Services to identify opportunities for improvement in their child support practices including a focus on inequities in the process. Another example was a partnership with Michigan Friend of the Court that supported their efforts to explore the integration of a 2Gen approach in their administration of child support services.

Though opinions vary based on personal experience and urban legend, the child support system continues to be an important and effective mechanism. In fiscal year 2023, the child support program collected $29.6 billion, with 97% of the monies collected going to families – as opposed to reimbursement of public assistance. The program serves 1 in 5 children in the United States, according to Office of Child Support Services (OCSS) data.

Many issues with the child support system stem from the genesis of the program. The primary goal of the Office of Child Support Services (previously the Office of Child Support Enforcement), established in 1975 under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act, was to collect child support and recover “welfare” costs paid by public assistance. Traditionally, child support enforcement and related services have been punitive and adversarial in nature, often failing to consider the family as a unit and undervaluing the role and needs of the non-custodial parent, who is most often, the father. The term “dead-beat dad” is as deleterious as “welfare queen” – both terms conveying dangerous false narratives that still resonate for some. Additionally, the system does not account for the actual relationship between people, how families really work and behave, and how it actually takes a village to support children. Simply put, child support is a multifaceted proposition that involves legal, emotional, familial and dynamic considerations that the system has not traditionally addressed.

However, it is important to note that both the primary goal and methods of child support services have changed significantly since 1975. Similarly, the needs of families have changed, with the percentage of children who need child support services increasing, and the ability of noncustodial parents to pay child support decreasing, particularly with stagnant wages and insecure employment.

Today, the child support program is moving toward focusing on family-centered child support services that improve the long-term financial and emotional support of children. There have been efforts throughout the federal and state levels to accommodate changes in income, assist in parenting time disputes, avoid carceral enforcement efforts and utilize alternate dispute resolution.

Over the last several years, federal demonstration pilots examined the impact of different program models designed to increase the earnings of noncustodial parents and improve the well-being of their children. Unsurprisingly, findings of the pilots have shown that noncustodial parents with irregular employment are particularly unable to pay the full amount of their child support order. Unpublished data available to OCSS show that 78% of the $114 billion in child support arrears that was owed in fiscal year 2022 was owed by parents who had annual reported incomes below $20,000, which is consistent with earlier published research that examined child support debt in nine states and found a similar result. Owing large amounts of child support often pushes parents with low earnings further away from the formal labor market. It can discourage parents from working in jobs that are subject to child support income withholding and can actually reduce their child support payments.

Signal of Progress

The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children & Families (ACF) and Office of Child Support Services have issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to allow for federal financing of employment and training services for eligible noncustodial parents in the child support program. Prior to this rule, the issue of how child support would be paid only went so far as the court order, namely, how much is to be paid and when. Employment support services were available only in limited pilot programs, in certain geographic regions and through temporary grants. According to OCSS, this regulation meets the Biden Administration’s priority to provide economic relief and recovery to families by positively impacting parents in the child support program who have difficulty paying due to unstable or sporadic employment.

This proposed rule represents an important step toward systems and policy changes to better support families as a whole, in alignment with the efforts of the Kresge Human Services program in adhering to a person-centered, two-generation approach developed by Ascend at the Aspen Institute. The two-generation strategy is grounded in multigenerational family social and economic success, which includes building family well-being by working with children and the adults in their lives together.

The proposed rule will permit states, at their discretion, to use Federal Financial Participation (FFP) to provide job training and specified employment support services to non-custodial parents.

Share your Comments

Ascend at the Aspen Institute has issued detailed information about the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and how to submit comments to the federal agencies. Consideration will be given to written comments on this NPRM through July 30, 2024. This is an important opportunity to be heard as comments can influence the final rule that is enacted, can contribute to better policy outcomes, and ensure that regulations are fair, effective and well-informed.

Ascend has also created a resource in conjunction with Good+Foundation that provides an overview of the evidence for effective employment programs in creating child support policies that center child and family well-being.

We are excited about supporting our partners at Ascend at the Aspen Institute and fellow funder Good+Foundation in efforts to engage others in this call to action. If your organization partners with families participating in the child support system, please take this opportunity to add your recommendations. Please also share with family and friends who may be touched by the child support system. Strengthening the child support system is important in our collective effort to center racial equity and racial justice to advance multigenerational family social and economic success.

The Human Services Program would like to get your feedback: Did you find this article and information useful? Please let us know here. We plan to use the response to help measure engagement, support and relevance of the effort.