Child Support Enforcement and the Function of Family Courts
This week, the New York Times published a story about how the child support enforcement systems and policies in U.S. court create a cycle of non-payment by middle and low income parents: Skip Child Support. Go to Jail. Lose Job. Repeat.
Unpaid child support became a big concern in the 1980s and ’90s as public hostility grew toward the archetypal “deadbeat dad” who lived comfortably while his children suffered. Child support collections were so spotty that in the late 1990s, new enforcement tools such as automatic paycheck deductions were used. As a result, child support collections increased significantly, and some parents rely heavily on aggressive enforcement by the authorities.
But experts said problems could arise when such tactics were used against people who had little money, and the vast majority of unpaid child support is owed by the very poor. A 2007 Urban Institute study of child support debt in nine large states found that 70 percent of the arrears were owed by people who reported less than $10,000 a year in income. They were expected to pay, on average, 83 percent of their income in child support — a percentage that declined precipitously in higher income brackets.
The Obama administration is trying to change some of these policies, proposing to rewrite enforcement rules to require that child support orders be based on actual income and consider the “subsistence needs” of the noncustodial parent, to bar states from allowing child support debt to accrue while parents are incarcerated and to finance more job placement services for them.
“While every parent has a responsibility to support their kids to the best of their ability, the tools developed in the 1990s are designed for people who have money,” said Vicki Turetsky, the commissioner of the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement. “Jail is appropriate for someone who is actively hiding assets, not appropriate for someone who couldn’t pay the order in the first place.”
Chicago Appleseed is working with a task force formed by Domestic Relations Presiding Judge Grace Dickler to launch a pilot courtroom, aimed at addressing inefficiencies and inequities in Cook County’s two-tiered domestic relations court. The pilot courtroom is an innovative hybrid court, based off a community courts model, a triage courts model, and court-based legal services model. One intent of the new process is to connect families with non-judicial services that will help resolve conflicts and facilitate stability in the family, regardless of how custody is shared between parents. Among these services are connections to job support services.
Additionally, the new process will focus on engaging parents in the settlement of their cases and connecting parents with resources to help them advocate for themselves because compliance with court orders improves when parents are engaged in the process and feel that they were listened to and respected by the court. Children benefit not simply from increased support payments but also from healthy relationships with both parents.
Successful programs of this sort are expanding in New York state and Cook County’s Domestic Relations Courts have the opportunity to be at the forefront of similar reforms. We hope they will have the support of practitioners and parents alike.