April 2024 CSQ

Balancing Act: The Shifting Focus
of Child Support Services
by Meg Haynes, Child Support Consultant
I recently stepped back from full-time employment after almost 40 years
with the child support program. NCSEA asked this “old timer” to talk about
how the program has evolved. So, bear with me as I muse about progress,
adjustments, and opportunities ahead.
When I entered child support as a prosecutor in 1984, people often winked
and laughed about “getting away” with not paying support. State laws
governing support dramatically varied. The Child Support Enforcement
Amendments of 1984 had just passed. For the first time all states had to
enforce support orders by income withholding, but it was arrearage based.
States had to develop child support guidelines, but they were advisory.
Numerous states established paternity in public assistance cases through
criminal bastardy proceedings. And DNA testing did not exist. There were
often jury trials where you held up Little Johnny before jurors and hoped he
had Big Johnny’s ears!
Filing interstate cases under the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of
Support Act (URESA), the predecessor of the Uniform Interstate Family
Support Act (UIFSA), was like sending them into a black hole. A district
attorney in North Carolina hired me to establish a URESA unit because the
North Carolina Court of Appeals i had found his office negligent: the
prosecutor had handed the trial court judge a URESA case file and then left
the courtroom! Clerks of court would return files to the initiating state
because the petitioner had used the wrong-sized paper based on local
court rules. In 1988 Congress established the U.S. Commission on
Interstate Child Support to identify needed improvements. The Commission
had a profound impact on both the culture and laws shaping child support.