S. 503, the Parents Act of 2021

INSIGHTi
S. 503, the Parents Act of 2021
September 8, 2021
The PARENTS Act of 2021 (S. 503) passed the Senate by a voice vote on July 27, 2021. This proposal
would al ow Child Support Enforcement (CSE) incentive funds to be spent by CSE programs on certain
parenting time-related activities without the need for an exemption from the Office of Child Support
Enforcement (OCSE) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This Insight provides
background on the CSE program, parenting time, and S. 503-proposed changes.
CSE Program Overview
The CSE program was enacted in 1975 as a federal-state program in Title IV-D of the Social Security Act
(SSA). Al 50 states, the District of Columbia (DC), Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and 61 tribal
nations operate IV-D CSE programs. The program provides services on behalf of children that include
parent location, the initial establishment and review and modification of child support orders, the
collection and distribution of child support payments, and the establishment and enforcement of medical
support. The majority of al child support cases are estimated to be handled by the CSE program; the
remaining cases are handled by private attorneys, by collection agencies, or through mutual agreements
between the parents.
The bulk of IV-D CSE program funding is from federal matching funds, which provide a partial
reimbursement for every dollar a state, territorial, or tribal IV-D program spends on eligible CSE
expenditures. Another major source of IV-D funding is incentive funds paid to the state, DC, and
territorial programs (henceforth, with regard to incentive funds, “state programs”). SSA Section 458(f)
requires state programs to reinvest incentive funds by expending them on activities also eligible for
federal matching funds. It also al ows states to request an OCSE exemption to al ow incentive funds to be
spent on approved activities that that are not eligible for federal matching funds but “may contribute to
improving the effectiveness or efficacy” of that program.
Parenting Time
A noncustodial parent’s right to see their children is commonly referred to as visitation or child access.
Parenting time agreements are one way of effectuating this right by providing the time that the child wil
spend with each parent, usual y by deciding issues such the regular schedule, vacations, and holidays. In
the case of parents who were previously married to each other, parenting time typical y is decided as part
of divorce proceedings. For parents who were never married to each other, parenting time may be
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resolved informal y or through legal proceedings. There is no requirement that child access be legal y
determined prior to a court or administrative body ordering child support, although most states account
for the time a child wil reside with each parent in their calculation of the support order. Less than 30% of
al noncustodial parents are reported to have legal y binding parenting time (visitation) agreements.
General y, jurisdictions may take any of several different approaches to determining parenting time. A
jurisdiction that uses standard parenting time presumptions would have in effect a default legal
framework providing a parenting time schedule in the absence of an alternative plan agreed to by the
parents or decided by the court. Self-help resources may be provided to parents on court websites or other
avenues to al ow them to independently develop a plan that can be subsequently approved by the court.
Mediation and facilitation may be offered to parents to help them customize the approach they wil take.
There is general agreement that family violence issues must be adequately screened and accounted for
prior to a parenting time order being adopted.
Historical y, federal law has usual y treated child support and child access as separate issues. IV-D federal
matching funds are unavailable to reimburse costs to assist with parenting time orders, and the use of
incentive funds requires that an exemption be sought by a state program and granted by OCSE.
Recognizing the negative long-term consequences for children associated with parental absence, as wel
as evidence that contact between a child and the noncustodial parent can make it more likely that child
support responsibilities wil be met, policymakers have increasingly promoted efforts to address the
connection between child support and child access. For instance, the CSE Access and Visitation Grants
(SSA §469B) provide $10 mil ion each fiscal year for activities such as mediation, counseling, education,
development of parenting plans, and visitation enforcement. P.L. 113-183 (§303) included a Sense of the
Congress that (1) establishing parenting time arrangements when obtaining child support orders is an
important goal that should be accompanied by strong family violence safeguards, and (2) states should
use existing funding sources to support the establishment of parenting time arrangements, including child
support incentive funds, Access and Visitation Grants, and Healthy Marriage Promotion and Responsible
Fatherhood Grants.
In recent years, several states have evaluated the feasibility and effectiveness of CSE agencies’
involvement with visitation and parenting time. Additional y, an OCSE multistate pilot program,
Parenting Time Opportunities for Children (PTOC), evaluated how CSE agencies could integrate
processes for establishing child support orders and parenting time agreements with sufficient family
violence safeguards, and the effects of those agreements on family relationships and child support.
According to the 2019 OCSE research brief on PTOC, “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 smal increases in child support compliance.”
S. 503 Proposed Changes
S. 503 would al ow state IV-D programs to expend their incentive funds on certain parenting time-related
activities without the need to apply for and receive an OCSE exemption. Specifical y, these funds could
be used to “develop, implement, and evaluate procedures” for establishing a parenting time agreement
concurrently with an initial or modified child support order or medical support order. Al owable uses of
these funds would include procedures to carry out parenting time agreements made prior to the
establishment or modification of support orders. Incentive funds would only be available (without an
exemption) for agreements not contested by either parent.

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Author Information

Jessica Tollestrup

Specialist in Social Policy




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