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The Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program was enacted in 1975 as a federal-state program (established in Title IV-D of the Social Security Act). It was originally referred to as the Child Support Enforcement program and was recently renamed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as the Child Support Services (CSS) program. The primary purpose of this program was to reduce public expenditures for recipients of cash assistance by obtaining ongoing support from noncustodial parents that could be used to reimburse the state and federal governments for part of that assistance. (This purpose often is referred to as public assistance cost-recovery.) Relatedly, the program also sought to strengthen families by securing financial support for children from their noncustodial parents on a consistent and continuing basis to enable some of those families to remain off public assistance. Over the years, CSSCSE has evolved into a multifaceted program. While public assistance cost-recovery still remains an important function of the program, its other aspects include service delivery and promotion of self-sufficiency and parental responsibility. The CSSCSE program has different rules for assistance families (e.g., those receiving cash benefits under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program; TANF) and non-assistance families.
The CSSCSE program provides seven major services on behalf of children: (1) parent location, (2) paternity establishment, (3) establishment of child support orders, (4) review and modification of child support orders, (5) collection of child support payments, (6) distribution of child support payments, and (7) establishment and enforcement of medical support.
The CSSCSE program has a vast array of enforcement methods at its disposal. Most child support payments are collected from noncustodial parents through income withholding. Other methods of enforcement include intercepting federal and state income tax refunds; intercepting unemployment compensation; filing liens against property; sending insurance settlement information to CSSCSE agencies; intercepting lottery winnings, judgments, or settlements; seizing debtor parent assets held by public or private retirement funds and financial institutions; withholding, suspending, or restricting driver's licenses, professional or occupational licenses, and recreational or sporting licenses; and denying, revoking, or restricting passports.
The CSSCSE program is funded via a number of sources. The program is a federal-state matching grant program under which states must spend money in order to receive federal funding. For every dollar a state spends on CSSCSE expenditures, it generally is reimbursed 66 cents from the federal government. This reimbursement requirement is "open ended," in that there is no upper limit or ceiling on the federal government's match of those expenditures. In addition to matching funds, states receive CSSCSE incentive payments from the federal government. States also collect child support on behalf of families receiving TANF assistance to reimburse themselves (and the federal government) for the cost of that assistance to the families. Fees and costs recovered also help finance the CSSCSE program.
In FY2023FY2024, the CSSCSE program paid to families $25.78 billion in child support and served nearly 12.1more than 11.6 million child support cases. The program collected 65.03% of current child support obligations for which it has responsibility (18.9% if payments on past-due child support are taken into account), and collected payments for 60.64% of its caseload. In FY2023FY2024, total CSSCSE expenditures amounted to $6.46 billion. On average, in FY2023 the CSSFY2024 the CSE program collected $4.3724 in child support payments for each $1 spent on the program.
In recent years, CSSdecades, CSE programs have been increasingly concerned with the issues of noncustodial parents' access to and engagement with their children. The $10 million per year CSSCSE Access and Visitation Grants Program, issues related to parenting time agreements, and the $75 million per year Responsible Fatherhood Program (administered elsewhere within HHS) are described in the final section of the report.
In general, child support is the cash payment that noncustodial parents are obligated to pay for the financial support of their children. These payments enable parents who do not live with their children to fulfill their financial responsibility to them by contributing to childrearing costs. Child support orders generally are established when parents divorce or separate, or when the custodial parent applies for certain public benefits.
The Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program was enacted in 1975 as a federal-state program (established in Title IV-D of the Social Security Act).1 It was originally referred to as the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program and was recently renamed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to be the Child Support Services (CSS) program.2 The primary purpose of this program was to reduce public expenditures for recipients of cash assistance by obtaining ongoing support from noncustodial parents that could be used to reimburse the state and federal governments for part of that assistance. (This purpose often is referred to as public assistance cost-recovery.) Relatedly, the program also sought to strengthen families by securing financial support for children from their noncustodial parents on a consistent and continuing basis to enable some of those families to remain off public assistance.32 Over the years, CSSCSE has evolved into a multifaceted program.43 While public assistance cost-recovery still remains an important function of the program, its other aspects include service delivery and promotion of self-sufficiency and parental responsibility. The CSSCSE program has different rules for assistance families (e.g., those receiving cash benefits under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program [TANF]) and non-assistance families (e.g., those not receiving TANF cash assistance).
The CSE.
The CSS program is administered by the Office of Child Support Services (OCSSEnforcement (OCSE) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). (Prior to June 5, 2023, this office was named the Office of Child Support Enforcement [OCSE]. In cases where this report refers to actions taken or documents published under OCSS's former name, it refers to OCSE.5)4 The program receives mandatory funding each fiscal year in the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, operate CSSCSE programs and are entitled to federal matching funds. In addition, 6063 tribes operate their own CSSCSE programs pursuant to Section 456(f) of the Social Security Act.65 The CSSCSE program is estimated to handle the majority of all child support cases;76 the remaining cases are handled by private attorneys, collection agencies, or through mutual agreements between the parents.
Under federal law, families receiving cash benefits through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (Title IV-A of the Social Security Act) or Medicaid coverage (Title XIX of the Social Security Act)—and, at state option, families receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) assistance—are required to cooperate with the CSSCSE program as a condition of receiving benefits.87 These assistance families are not charged for CSSCSE services. Collections on behalf of families receiving cash TANF benefits are used, in part, to reimburse state and federal governments for the TANF payments made to the family. Other families must apply for CSSCSE services, and states must charge all non-assistance families an annual user fee that cannot exceed $35.98 Child support collected by CSSCSE agencies on behalf of non-TANF families goes to the family, usually through the state disbursement unit.
Child support payments distributed by CSSCSE agencies increased from $1 billion in FY1978 to $26.7 billion in FY2023.10FY2024.9 (The CSSCSE program also distributed an additional $2.98 billion in child support for non-Title IV-D cases.) Over the same period, the number of children whose paternity was established or acknowledged each year increased from 111,000 to 1.275274 million. The program collected payments for 60.4% of its caseload, and 65.3% of current support owed. When taking account of past-due child support (i.e., "arrearages") as well as current support, the program collected 18.9% of total child support obligations for which it has responsibility.10 In FY2024, total CSE million. The program collected 18.9% of child support obligations for which it has responsibility if payments on past-due child support (i.e., "arrearages") are taken into account (otherwise, 65.0%)11 and collected payments for 60.6% of its caseload. In FY2023, total CSS expenditures (federal and state) amounted to $6.46 billion. On average, in FY2023 the CSSFY2024 the CSE program collected $4.3724 in child support payments for each $1 spent on the program.
Table 1, below, provides FY2023FY2024 data on the CSSCSE program, including total collections and expenditures, caseload numbers, and the number of paternities and child support orders established. The balance of this report describes each of the major program elements of the CSSCSE program. It also includes a discussion of CSSCSE Access and Visitation Grants, issues related to parenting time agreements, and the Responsible Fatherhood Program (administered elsewhere within HHS).
|
Total |
Total, |
|
Total |
Total, $26. |
|
Payments to families |
Total, $25. |
|
Federal share of TANF reimbursement |
$ |
|
State share of TANF reimbursement |
$ |
|
Total |
$6. |
|
Incentive payments to states (estimated) |
Data not available for |
|
Paternities established and acknowledged |
1, |
|
Cases for which support orders were established |
|
|
Cases for which collections were made |
Total, 7, |
Source: Table prepared by the Congressional Research Service, based on data from theHHS, Office of Child Support Services (HHS), FY2023, FY2024 Preliminary Data Report, https://www.acf.hhsacf.gov/css/policy-guidance/fy-20232024-preliminary-data-report-and-tables.
Notes: Numbers may not add to totals due to rounding. "TANF" amounts include both TANF families (Title IV-A of the Social Security Act) and collections on behalf of children receiving foster care support pursuant to Title IV-E of the Social Security Act.
The CSSCSE program provides seven major services on behalf of children: (1) parent location, (2) paternity establishment, (3) establishment of child support orders, (4) review and modification of child support orders, (5) collection of child support payments, (6) distribution of child support payments, and (7) establishment and enforcement of medical support.
If a state's CSSCSE program cannot locate the noncustodial parent with the information provided by the custodial parent, it must try to locate the noncustodial parent through the State Parent Locator Service (SPLS). The SPLS in each state is an assembly of systems that includes the State Child Support Case Registry and the State Directory of New Hires. The automated State Child Support Case Registry, as required by federal law, contains records of each case in which CSSCSE services are being provided and all new or modified child support orders. The registry includes information on the case, the child or children in the case, and both parents, as listed in Table 2.
|
Case Information |
Information on the Child(ren) |
Information on Both Parents |
|
|
|
Source: HHS, OCSE, Policy Responses Regarding the State Case Registry and the Federal Case Registry, AT-98-08, March 5, 1998, https://www.acf.hhs.gov/css/policy-guidance/policy-responses-regarding-state-case-registry-and-federal-case-registry.
Each state also has an automated State Directory of New Hires that includes information from employers, including federal, state, and local governments and labor organizations. For each newly hired employee, this directory is to include the name, address, and Social Security number of the employee, and the employer's name, address, and tax identification number. This information generally is supplied to the directory within 20 days after the employee is hired.
The SPLS also may use other information sources, such as telephone directories, motor vehicle registries, tax files, and employment and unemployment records.
In addition to the resources discussed above, a state can request the assistance of the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS).1211 The FPLS is an assembly of systems, including the state systems discussed above, operated by the OCSSOCSE. It can be used for any of the following purposes:
The FPLS assists federal and state agencies in identifying overpayments and fraud, and assessing benefits. Its component systems can access data from the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and State Employment Security Agencies. The FPLS also can search its federal case registry of child support orders and the national directory of new hires (NDNH), which is a federal directory consisting of information from federal agencies and all of the state directories.1413
Automation is critical to the operation and success of the CSSCSE program so that records in the various parent location systems can be cross-checked to aid in the location of noncustodial parents.1514 Federal law requires that a designated state agency (directly or by contract) conduct automated comparisons of the Social Security numbers reported by employers to the state directory of new hires and those associated with CSSCSE cases that appear in the State Child Support Case Registry. It also requires the HHS Secretary to conduct similar comparisons of the federal directories.1615
Legally identifying the father is a prerequisite for obtaining a child support order. For any children born into a marriage, the husband is generally deemed to be the father; therefore, in divorce cases, paternity generally does not need to be affirmatively established. In nonmarital birth cases, however, paternity must be established prior to when a child support order is obtained. (With regard to same-sex parents, states are permitted by Title IV-D of the Social Security Act to adopt gender-neutral processes for establishing parentage. However, the procedures that are specified in Title IV-D related to genetic testing would generally not be applicable in such cases.1817)
Federal law requires states to have procedures that permit the establishment of paternity for all children under the age of 18.1918 TANF applicants and recipients are legally required to cooperate in establishing paternity or obtaining support payments, and may be penalized for noncooperation. If it is determined that an individual is not cooperating and that individual does not qualify for any good cause or other exception, the state must reduce the family's TANF cash assistance benefit by at least 25%, and may eliminate it entirely. Additional federal requirements associated with paternity establishment include the following:
20For contested paternity cases, federal law further requires that all parties submit to genetic testing.22
A child support order is a legal document that obligates a noncustodial parent to provide financial support for their children, and stipulates the amount of the obligation and how it is to be paid. It is usually established at the time of divorce or when an unmarried couple dissolves their relationship. It also may be established when cooperation is required as a condition of receiving public assistance.2322
The child support order is established administratively by a state/county CSSCSE agency, or judicially or through the state courts. Federal law requires states to use their state-established guidelines in establishing child support orders.2423 These guidelines are a set of rules and tables that are used to determine the amount of the child support order. Child support guidelines are designed to protect the best interests of the child or children in question by trying to ensure that they continue to benefit from the financial resources of both parents in situations in which the parents go their separate ways. They are also intended to make the calculation of child support fair, objective, consistent, and predictable (which in many instances can have the added benefit of reducing conflict and tension between the parents).
States decide child support amounts based on the noncustodial parent's income or based on both parents' incomes. Other factors that may be considered include the age of child, whether a stepparent is in the home, whether the child is disabled, and the number of siblings. States currently useAs of 2020, states used one of three basic types of guidelines to determine child support award amounts (i.e., the child support order):25
The circumstances of both the noncustodial parent and custodial family can change with time. As these changes occur, child support obligations can become inadequate or inequitable. Effective review and modification of child support orders are important steps in ensuring that noncustodial parents continue to comply with realistic orders based on an actual ability to pay them.26
Federal law requires that states review and, if appropriate, adjust child support orders for TANF family cases at least once every three years.2726 For non-TANF family cases, such a review is not required to be automatic but either one of the parents can request it every three years. If a request for review and modification is made prior to when that three-year cycle has been completed, the requesting party must demonstrate that there was a substantial change in circumstances. Child support adjustments and modifications must be in accordance with a state's child support guidelines.
CSSCSE programs usually rely on one of the parents to request a modification of the child support order. It is usually important for parents facing job loss, incarceration, or other substantial changes in circumstances to seek a modification to their order quickly so that they do not fall behind in their payments and thereby have to contend with past-due child support payments. Pursuant to federal law, the court cannot retroactively reduce the arrearages that a noncustodial parent owes.28
The CSSCSE program has a vast array of enforcement methods at its disposal to help ensure that child support payments are made on time and in the full amount that is owed. Most payments are collected from noncustodial parents through income withholding.2928 In FY2023FY2024, 70.37% of collections were obtained through income withholding.3029 Other methods of enforcement include3130
Past-due child support may accumulate if the noncustodial parent is unable or unwilling to pay the child support that is owed. In addition to collecting child support arrearages through the enforcement methods above, all jurisdictions have civil or criminal contempt-of-court procedures and criminal nonsupport laws. Federal criminal penalties also may be imposed in certain cases.
Federal law requires states to enact and implement the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA), and expand full faith and credit procedures for child support orders issued by other states.3231
Federal law also provides for international enforcement of child support.3332 The Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (P.L. 113-183) contained provisions designed to improve child support collections in cases where the custodial parent lives in one country and the noncustodial parent lives in another country.3433 Specifically, this act included implementing legislation for The Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance (the Convention).35 (Fifty-two other countries have also ratified the Convention.36) The enactment of the law34 (The Convention is in force between the United States and European Union member countries, plus 23 additional countries.35) The enactment of P.L. 113-18 also ensured that the United States continued to be compliant with any multilateral child support enforcement treaties and, as part of this, required states to update their UIFSA law to incorporate verbatim any amendments adopted as of September 30, 2008, by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. Additionally, the act facilitated greater access to the FPLS by foreign countries and tribal governments as part of improving child support collections. The act also amended federal law so that the federal income tax refund offset program would be available for use by a state to handle CSSCSE requests from foreign reciprocating countries and foreign treaty countries.37
|
|
The CSSCSE program is funded with both state and federal dollars. There are five funding streams associated with the CSSCSE program.
First, states spend their own money to operate a CSSCSE program; the level of funding allocated by the state and/or localities determines the amount of resources available to CSSCSE agencies.
Second, the federal government reimburses each state 66% of all allowable expenditures on CSSCSE activities, referred to as federal financial participation or federal matching funds.3837 The federal government's reimbursement is open-ended in that it pays its percentage of allowable state and local government expenditures with no upper limit or ceiling. For the purposes of the federal budget process, this funding is considered to be mandatory spending, and is appropriated each fiscal year in the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.
Third, states collect child support on behalf of families receiving TANF assistance to reimburse themselves (and the federal government) for the cost of TANF cash payments to the family. (See the "Distribution of Support" section, below.)
Fourth, the federal government provides states with an incentive payment to encourage them to operate effective programs.3938 Federal law requires states to reinvest CSSCSE incentive payments back into the CSSCSE program or related activities.40
Fifth, fees and costs recovered may help finance the CSSCSE program. Families receiving TANF benefits or Medicaid coverage, as well as families required by their state SNAP program to cooperate with the CSSCSE agency, automatically qualify for CSSCSE services free of charge.4140 The CSSCSE agency must charge all other families a fee when they apply for CSSCSE services, not to exceed $25. CS cases that have never received TANF benefits also are charged an annual user fee, not to exceed $35, when child support enforcement efforts on their behalf are successful (i.e., at least $550 annually is collected on their behalf).4241 The CSSCSE agency may charge these fees to the custodial or noncustodial parent, pay the fee out of state funds (or, in the case of the annual user fee, deduct it from child support paid to the family).4342 In addition, fees may be charged in other circumstances, including for performing genetic tests (for purposes of paternity establishment) on any individual who is not a recipient of TANF assistance or Medicaid. Finally, a state may at its option recover administrative costs in excess of the fees, either from the custodial parent or the noncustodial parent. Fees and administrative costs recovered must be subtracted from the state's total administrative costs before calculating the federal reimbursement amount (i.e., 66% federal financial participation).
To make the processing of child support payments more efficient and economical, all states are required to have a centralized automated State Collection and Disbursement Unit (SDU) to which child support payments are paid and from which they are distributed.4443 SDUs assist the income withholding process by providing employers with a single location in each state to send the withheld child support payments. In addition to collecting and promptly distributing money to custodial parents or other states, SDUs
The SDU must use automated procedures, electronic processes, and computer-driven technology to the maximum extent that is feasible, efficient, and economical.
The SDU must be operated directly by the state CSSCSE agency, by two or more state CSSCSE agencies under a regional cooperative agreement, or by a contractor responsible directly to the state CSSCSE agency. Alternatively, instead of a single state system, a SDU may be established by linking local disbursement units through an automated information network. In such cases, the Secretary of HHS must first agree that the system will not cost more, take more time to establish, or take more time to operate, than a single state system. Like single state systems, linked systems must give employers only one location for submitting withheld income.
Federal law generally requires employers to remit to the SDU income withheld within seven business days after the employee's payday. Then, the SDU is required to send child support payments to custodial parents within two business days of when they are received.45
When child support is owed to a current or former TANF family, distribution rules determine whether the family or the state retains any support that is collected. These distribution rules are important when a payment is not enough to cover the current support, or if any arrearages are due for those claims.
To reimburse the states and federal government for the cost of TANF cash benefits, TANF families are required by federal law to assign their child support rights to the state. While the family receives TANF, the states and federal government generally retain any current support and any assigned arrearages collected up to the cumulative amount of TANF benefits paid to the family.4645 While states may opt to pass through (i.e., pay) to the family some or all of the state share of the child support (thereby forgoing its share of those collections), they generally still must pay the federal government its share of child support collected on behalf of TANF families.
To help states pay for the cost of their CSSCSE pass-through policies, federal law waives the federal government's share of child support collections that are passed through by states, up to $100 per month for one child or up to $200 per month for two or more children. (The state also must disregard the passed-through payments as income for the purposes of determining TANF eligibility in order for the federal government to waive its share.4746) Based on May 2023 data, 26 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have a CSSCSE pass-through and disregard policy; 24 states, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands do not.48
States must distribute to former TANF families the following child support collections before the state and the federal government are reimbursed:
"Medical child support" is defined as the legal provision of payment of medical, dental, prescription, and other health care expenses for children living apart from one of their parents.5049 It can include provisions for health care coverage (including payment of costs of premiums, co-payments, and deductibles) as well as cash payments for a child's medical expenses. By connecting children to coverage—through either of their parents' employers, Medicaid, State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Health Insurance Exchanges, or other options—the CSSCSE program can try to ensure that children will have continuous, stable access to health care as they grow up, and that the resources of both parents are being used most effectively for the child. The establishment and enforcement of medical support is also intended to promote fairness in allocating childrearing costs between the parents and, when employer-sponsored health care is obtained, it saves federal and state dollars.51
Federal law requires every Title IV-D child support order to include a provision for health care coverage.5251 It requires that medical support for a child be provided by either or both parents and that it must be enforced. It authorizes the state CSSCSE agency to enforce medical support against a custodial or noncustodial parent whenever health care coverage is available to that parent at "reasonable cost."5352 It also stipulates that medical support may include health care coverage (including payment of costs of premiums, co-payments, and deductibles) and payment of medical expenses for a child. States generally seek medical child support as sequenced below:
When the noncustodial parent is ordered to pay cash medical support, generally it is included in the cash child support order and a single notice of income withholding is sent to the employer to withhold from the parent's paycheck. If the parent is ordered to provide insurance through the employer, the employer is required to enroll the child in health insurance coverage and withhold the necessary premium payments from the parent's income.5453 The employer is required to send any amount withheld directly to the health care plan. In addition, employers must promptly notify the CSSCSE agency whenever the employment of the noncustodial parent (and, at state option, the custodial parent) is terminated.55
A noncustodial parent's right to visit with one's children is commonly referred to as visitation or child access (and more recently as voluntary parenting time agreements). State domestic relations or family laws almost universally treat child support and visitation as completely separate issues. Historically, the federal government also has agreed that visitation and child support should be legally separate issues, and that only child support should be under the purview of the CSSCSE program. Both federal and state policymakers have maintained that denial of visitation rights should not be considered a reason for stopping child support payments.5655 However, in recognition of the negative long-term consequences for children associated with the absence of their noncustodial parent, as well as evidence that contact between the child and noncustodial parent can make it more likely that child support responsibilities will be met,5756 federal and state policymakers have increasingly promoted efforts that address child support and access and visitation in the same forum.
To promote visitation and better relations between custodial and noncustodial parents, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-193) providedprovides mandatory spending in the amount of $10 million each fiscal year from the federal CSSCSE budget account for grants to states for access and visitation programs.58 Eligible activities include but are not limited to mediation, counseling, education, development of parenting plans, visitation enforcement, and development of guidelines for visitation and alternative custody arrangements.
In 2019, OCSE (now, OCSS) reported the results of their multiyear pilot program, Parenting Time Opportunities for Children (PTOC). The purpose of PTOC was to evaluate the extent to which CSSCSE agencies could implement integrated processes for the establishment of child support orders and parenting time agreements. The study also examined the feasibility of sufficient family violence safeguards, and whether the establishment of parenting time would result in greater parental involvement or child support payments. According to the agency, "evaluators of the project sites confirmed that parents appreciate the opportunity to address parenting time and feel that it increases the fairness of child support. Furthermore, PTOC appears to help some parents with improved relationships, more time with their children, and some small increases in child support compliance."59
CSSCSE administrative costs related to parenting time arrangements are not considered to be eligible expenditures for federal reimbursement. However, there has been recent congressional interest in these arrangements and the feasibility of implementing them on a more widespread basis using existing funding sources. The Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (P.L. 113-183) included a Sense of the Congress statement specifying that
The federal government has also sought to engage noncustodial parents in the lives of their children through what are known as responsible fatherhood programs.60 Based on the premise that committed, involved, and responsible fathers are important in the lives of their children, these programs seek to promote the financial and personal responsibility of noncustodial parents for their children, and increase the participation of fathers in their children's lives. Some responsible fatherhood programs help noncustodial parents strengthen their parenting skills. Other programs try to discourage young menyouth from becoming fathersparents until they are married and ready for the responsibility.
The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-171) included a provision that provided mandatory funding for a Healthy Marriage Promotion and Responsible Fatherhood grants program (in Title IV-A of the Social Security Act). For FY2006-FY2010, that program was provided up to $50 million per year for competitive responsible fatherhood grants. For FY2011, funding for those fatherhood grants was increased to $75 million.61 Between FY2011 and FY2018, $75 million in mandatory funding for this program each year was provided through provisions in appropriations acts. Since FY2019, funding for this program was provided through a series of temporary extensions, the most recent of which was Division A (§1912101) of H.R. 1968 (the Full Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025, enacted March 155371 (the Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026, enacted November 12, 2025), which extended TANF funding through September 30, 2025January 30, 2026.
Most responsible fatherhood programs include parenting education; training in responsible decisionmaking, conflict resolution, and coping with stress; mediation services for both parents; problem-solving skills; peer support; and job-training opportunities.62 Grantees include states, territories, Indian tribes and tribal organizations, and public and nonprofit community groups (including religious organizations).
Carmen Solomon-Fears, retired CRS Specialist in Social Policy, authored earlier versions of this report. Sylvia Bryan, CRS Research Assistant, assisted with the most recent report update.
| 1. |
The | |||||
| 2. | See S. Rept. 93-1356, pp. 42-55. See, for example, HHS, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), "The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, August 31, 1996, https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/personal-responsibility-work-opportunity-reconciliation-act-1996. | |||||
| 3. |
See S. Rept. 93-1356, pp. 42-55. |
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| 4. |
See, for example, HHS, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), "The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, August 31, 1996, https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/personal-responsibility-work-opportunity-reconciliation-act-1996. |
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See footnote 2. Similarly, for citations, this report uses the name of the entity and program listed on the cited publication. |
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Elaine Sorensen, Arthur Pashi, and Melody Morales, Characteristics of Families Served by the Child Support (IV-D) Program: 2016 Census Survey Results, Office of Child Support Enforcement, November 2018, p. 3, https://acf.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ocse/iv_d_characteristics_2016_census_results.pdf. |
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In addition, families who are required by the state Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to cooperate with the |
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Roughly half of states have opted to require that the custodial parent cooperate with the |
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Unless otherwise noted, all |
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Developed in cooperation with the states, employers, federal agencies, and the judiciary, the FPLS includes the following: • The National Directory of New Hires (NDNH): a central repository of employment, unemployment insurance, and wage data from State Directories of New Hires, State Workforce Agencies, and federal agencies. • The Federal Case Registry (FCR): a national database that contains information on individuals in child support cases and child support orders. • The Federal Offset Program (FOP): a program that collects past-due child support payments from the tax refunds of parents who have been ordered to pay child support. • The Federal Administrative Offset Program (FAOP): a program that intercepts certain federal payments in order to collect past-due child support. • The Passport Denial Program (PDP): a program that works with the Secretary of State in denying passports of any person that has been certified as owing a child support debt greater than $2,500. • The Multistate Financial Institution Data Match (MSFIDM): a program that allows child support agencies a means of locating financial assets of individuals owing child support. For additional information on the FPLS, see https://www.acf.hhs.gov/css/training-technical-assistance/overview-federal-parent-locator-service. |
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PRWORA (P.L. 104-193) permits both custodial and certain noncustodial parents to obtain information from the FPLS. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (P.L. 105-33), however, prohibits FPLS information from being disclosed to noncustodial parents in cases where there is evidence of domestic violence or child abuse, and the local court determines that disclosure may result in harm to the custodial parent or child. |
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Within three business days after receipt of new hire information from the employer, the state directory of new hires (SDNH) is required to furnish the information to the |
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The Child Support Performance and Incentive Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-200) imposes financial penalties on states that failed to meet the law's automated data systems requirements by a certain deadline. The HHS Secretary is required to reduce the amount the state would otherwise have received in federal |
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When a match occurs, the |
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On September 26, 2023, OCSS issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would have replaced the term "paternity" with "parentage," and replaced the terms "mother" and "father" with the term "parentage," throughout 45 C.F.R. Chapter III. It also proposed additional changes to clarify that "full faith and credit requirements apply to paternity determinations, however, States and Tribes would have been permitted, at their option, to recognize same-sex parentage establishment determined in accordance with the laws and procedures of another State or Tribe." (Federal Register Vol. 88, No. 185, pp. 65928-65937, September 26, 2023). The requirements in Title IV-D of the Social Security Act with regard to "paternity establishment" would have been unchanged. This NPRM was withdrawn on January 15, 2025 (Federal Register Vol. 90, No. 9, pp. 3752-3753). |
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For further information, see Federal Register Vol. 88, No. 185, p. 65931, September 26, 2023, which quotes from HHS, OCSE, "Same-Sex Parents and Child Support Program Requirements," PIQ-22-02, March 29, 2022. |
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Section 466(a)(5) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. §666(a)(5)). The DRA (P.L. 109-171) reduced the 90% federal financial participation rate for laboratory costs associated with paternity establishment to 66% as of October 1, 2006. |
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Section 466(a)(5)(D) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. §666(a)(5)(D)) stipulates that when parents are unmarried, the "father" shall be included in the birth record only if both parents have signed a voluntary acknowledgement of paternity, or a court or administrative agency has issued an adjudication of paternity. |
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Sections 452(g) and 466 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. §652(g) and §666)). |
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Federal law requires states to have procedures that create a rebuttable or, at the option of the state, conclusive presumption of paternity upon genetic testing results indicating a threshold probability that the alleged father is the actual father of the child (Section 466(a)(5)(G) of the Social Security Act) (42 U.S.C. §666(a)(5)(G)). |
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Families required to cooperate with the |
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See the Family Support Act of 1988 (P.L. 100-485). |
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The District of Columbia uses a hybrid model that starts as a percentage of income model and is then reduced by a formula based on the custodial parent's income. Information was not available for Puerto Rico. See National Conference of State Legislatures, Child Support Guideline Models |
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See Office of Child Support Enforcement, Providing Expedited Review and Modification Assistance, Child Support Fact Sheet Series, no. 2, https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ocse/providing_expedited_review_and_modification.pdf. |
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Section 466(a)(10) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. §666(a)(10)). |
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Section 466(a)(9) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. §666(a)(9)). |
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There are three exceptions to the immediate income withholding rule: (1) if one of the parties demonstrates, and the court (or administrative process) finds that there is good cause not to require immediate withholding, (2) if both parties agree in writing to an alternative arrangement, or (3) at the HHS Secretary's discretion, if a state can demonstrate that the rule will not increase the effectiveness or efficiency of the state's |
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This includes collections received from IV-D and non-IV-D child support cases processed through the State Disbursement Unit. |
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An overview of state methods to enforce past-due child support is at |
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Section 466(f) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. §666(f)). |
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The United States has reciprocal agreements with certain countries to process cases and enforce child support orders. These countries include those that have joined the Hague Child Support Convention, and countries and Canadian provinces/territories that have bilateral agreements with the U.S. government and are not parties to the Hague Convention. |
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For more information on P.L. 113-183, see CRS Report R43757, Child Welfare and Child Support: The Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (P.L. 113-183). |
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The Convention was adopted at the Hague Conference on Private International Law on November 23, 2007. On August 30, 2016, President Obama signed the instrument of ratification for the Convention. |
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See OCSE, "International," August 20, 2025, https://acf.gov/css/partners/international; Status Table, Convention of 23 November 2007 on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance, https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/status-table/?cid=131. |
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For additional information on international enforcement of child support, see CRS Report R43779, Child Support Enforcement and the Hague Convention on Recovery of International Child Support. |
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In contrast to the federal financial participation of 66% for |
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The |
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The DRA (P.L. 109-171), effective October 1, 2007, prohibited federal financial participation from including a 66% reimbursement of state expenditure of federal child support incentive payments. However, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-5) required HHS to temporarily provide federal matching funds at the 66% rate (in FY2009 and FY2010) on incentive payments that states reinvest back into the IV-D program. Currently, |
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The DRA (P.L. 109-171). |
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In addition, the state cannot charge a fee to a custodial parent or noncustodial parent who is cooperating with the |
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For more information on the |
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Sections 454(27) and 454B of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. §654(27) and §654B). |
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Sections 454B(c)(1) and 466(4)(6)(A(i) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. §654B(c)(1) and §666(4)(6)(A(i)). |
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The DRA (P.L. 109-171), effective October 1, 2009, or at state option, October 1, 2008, provides that the assignment only covers child support that accrues while the family receives TANF. |
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See Section 457 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. §657) for the applicable child support distribution procedures for pass-through and disregard. |
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National Conference of State Legislatures, Child Support Pass-Through and Disregard Policies for Public Assistance Recipients, May 30, 2023, https://www.ncsl.org/human-services/child-support-pass-through-and-disregard-policies-for-public-assistance-recipients. |
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The DRA (P.L. 109-171) gave states the option of distributing to former TANF families the full amount of child support collected on their behalf (i.e., both current support and all child support arrearages—including arrearages collected through the federal income tax refund offset program). This provision took effect on October 1, 2009, or October 1, 2008, at state option. |
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For additional information on medical child support, see CRS Report R43020, Medical Child Support: Background and Current Policy. |
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Health care coverage of children and medical child support are not synonymous. A child could be covered by a custodial parent's health insurance plan and the child support order may not contain any provision for medical support. Conversely, a child may be receiving cash medical support but not be insured. |
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The regulations implementing this provision recognize that state |
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45 C.F.R. §303.31(a)(3) provides that "cash medical support or the cost of health insurance is considered reasonable in cost if the cost to the parent responsible for providing medical support does not exceed five percent of their gross income or, at State option, a reasonable alternative income-based numeric standard." For state-specific definitions of reasonable cost, see https://ocsp.acf.hhs.gov/irg/irgpdf.pdf?geoType=OGP&groupCode=EMP&addrType=NMS&addrClassType=EMP. |
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This requirement is effectuated through the National Medical Support Notice. (See OMB 0970-0222 and 1210-0113, National Medical Support Notice Forms & Instructions, January 19, 2023, https://www.acf.hhs.gov/css/form/national-medical-support-notice-forms-instructions.) |
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State |
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See HHS, OCSE, Child Support and Parenting Time: Improving Coordination to Benefit Children, July 2013, https://acf.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ocse/13_child_support_and_parenting_time_final.pdf. |
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See HHS, OCSE, Noncustodial Parents: Summaries of Research, Grants and Practices, July 2009, https://acf.gov/archive/css/policy-guidance/noncustodial-parents-summaries-research-grants-and-practices.
|
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| 58. |
Even before PRWORA (P.L. 104-193), the Family Support Act of 1988 (P.L. 100-485) authorized a limited number of grants to states for demonstration projects to develop, improve, or expand activities designed to increase compliance with child access provisions of court orders. |
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| 59. |
HHS, OCSE, Parenting Time Opportunities for Children Research Brief, August 2019, p. 1, https://acf.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ocse/ptoc_research_brief.pdf. |
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| 60. |
Although programs that seek to help fathers initiate or maintain contact with their children and become emotionally involved in their children's lives are usually referred to as "fatherhood" programs, the programs are generally gender neutral. Their underlying goal is participation of the noncustodial parent in the lives of their children. |
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| 61. |
See the Claims Resolution Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-291). |
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| 62. |
For more information on responsible fatherhood programs, see CRS Report RL31025, Fatherhood Initiatives: Connecting Fathers to Their Children. |