By Yana Singhal
SACRAMENTO, CA – Truth and Justice in Child Support this past week praised a decision by California Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) to administratively eliminate uncollectible child support debt because of a family’s time in foster care and stop enforcing these child support orders owed to the state.
“This will bring relief to low-income parents impacted by the foster care program by lifting the burden of debt and allowing them to focus on reuniting with their children. We are grateful to DCSS for taking administrative action to reduce uncollectible child support debt that is owed to the state and stop enforcing existing child support cases that were referred from the foster care program,” said TJCS.
TJCS said California will no longer collect child support from approximately 62,000 parents for recoupment of their children’s time in foster care and eliminate approximately $500 million of uncollectible foster care debt.
TJCS said Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 1686 last year that put a restriction of the “referral of foster care cases for child support recoupment after January 1, 2023.”
However, TJCS noted it did not include any current and previous child support cases.
TJCS explained that “requiring parents to pay the state for their children’s time in foster care is harmful to families. Research shows child support delays a family’s reunification by extending a child’s time in foster care by an additional six months, on average.
“The level of effort by the state to collect this child support isn’t cost-effective either. For every dollar spent by child support agencies on these cases, only 41 cents is collected….state resources could be used instead to provide services and support to parents as they focus on reunification.”
In order to help address these changes, California Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) put out two policy letters: CSSP Letter 23-02 (Foster Care Arrears) and CSSI Letter 23-11 (Foster Care Referrals Received Prior to January 1, 2023).
Letter 23-02, said TJCS, states how local child support agencies should “examine all cases with foster care debt and determine if the arrears are uncollectible.” The department “defines arrears as uncollectible if the current annual income of the parent is under $100,000 or 400 percent of the federal poverty level, whichever is greater. If the arrears are determined uncollectible, the local agencies are instructed to “remove all state-owed foster care arrears, fees, and costs from the participant’s accounts.”
Letter 23-11, adds TJCS, helps look at the monthly support for “foster care cases that were referred to child support before January 1, 2023,” noting, “Local child support agencies are instructed to immediately stop charging child support on the foster care account as of December 31, 2022, if the parent’s income is below $100,000 or 400 percent of the federal poverty level.”
