Resources
Child Support Resource Library
Welcome to the YoungWilliams Child Support Resource Library. Search by keywords or use the filters to select categories of interest to you. Currently, our Library consists of academic and government research articles and reports from around the country, federal opinions, and case law from states in which our full service child support projects are located.
State of Tennessee ex rel. Groesse v. Sumner (Tennessee 2019)
For a contempt finding in a child support case, the parent must willfully not pay the support despite having the ability to pay. The father appealed a finding of contempt against him. The grounds on appeal included: whether the court applied the proper evidentiary standard, the appropriateness of a de novo rehearing, whether the presentation of evidence during the de novo rehearing violated his due process rights, and whether the trial court appropriately found he had the ability to pay the order. The appellate court affirmed the trial court’s decision. As an overall matter, the appellate court found the evidence supported the trial court’s finding of willful nonpayment and that the father had the ability to pay. The appellate court recognized that the father had other obligations, but it found that he also had resources to pay and gave his child support low priority. The appellate court also found no merit in the father’s arguments regarding the de novo rehearing.
Williams v. Williams (Mississippi 2019)
The Court may impute income to a parent for child support purposes when the parent’s reported income is clearly inadequate to support his or her lifestyle. In this case, the parents filed for divorce in 2013. The parents had three children, but only one was still a minor. With regards to child support, the mother alleged her adjusted monthly income was $1,101.87. Testimony showed that mother had paid off $15,000 in property debt, bought a new home, and purchased a boat and airplane. The Chancellor imputed additional income to her and awarded support to the father of $1,000 per month. The mother appealed. The Supreme Court found no abuse of discretion. The Court found additional reasons to support the support award, including that mother had not paid any support during the parent’s separation.
Demonstrated Results: Successful Collaborations That Improve Outcomes in Prisoner Reentry and Child Support
This article, written by MDRC staff, was originally published in the December 2018 Policy & Practice Magazine, the Magazine of the American Public Human Services Association. This article discusses interagency collaborations between corrections, labor, and child support designed to facilitate prisoner-reentry and reduce recidivism.
The Child Support Performance and Incentive Act at 20: Examining Trends in State Performance
Twenty years have passed since Congress enacted P.L. 105-200, the Child Support Performance and Incentive Act (CSPIA), dramatically restructuring the child support performance incentive system. Prior to its passage in 1998, there was growing concern that the incentive system lacked an effective impetus for improving state progress toward achieving the program’s goals since all states received a minimum incentive payment based solely on its child support collections. With the 20th anniversary of CSPIA’s passage, there is renewed attention on the performance-based incentive system and its role in improving program performance. This brief builds on previous work examining national trends in child support performance, and concludes with a discussion of next steps for future analysis.
Child Support Cooperation Requirements in Child Care Subsidy Programs and SNAP: Key Policy Considerations
This brief, part of the EMPOWERED Study conducted on behalf of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, presents findings from a formative examination of the use of child support cooperation requirements among child care subsidy programs and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This brief provides context for important policy discussions on the use of child support cooperation requirements by summarizing findings from an exploratory examination of the current landscape of optional cooperation requirements. Based on a scan and targeted interviews in eight states, the brief offers a national snapshot of the current status of states’ adoption of cooperation requirements for child care subsidy and SNAP recipients, an overview of the process used to implement the requirement and key points in the process that states have flexibility to shape policy, and highlights areas ripe for future research. The brief was prepared under contract #HHSP233201500035I / HHSP23337027T.
Characteristics of Families Served by the Child Support (IV-D) Program: 2016 U.S. Census Survey Results
This report uses the latest data available from the U.S. Census Bureau to describe custodial families served by the IV-D program, a federally mandated program that promotes parental responsibility and family self-sufficiency by providing families with child support services.
Servatius v. Ryals (North Carolina 2018)
Evidence must support a contempt finding, and the order must then contain the specific findings. The mother filed a motion for order to show cause, alleging that the father had failed to pay support. The court issued the order and ordered the father to appear. After hearing, the trial court declined to hold father in contempt, finding neither party had provided evidence regarding the amount of support father had paid and the total amount owed. The mother appealed. The appellate court found it couldn’t review the trial court’s decision and remanded the case for further findings. It found the order was missing findings and that the record on appeal was incomplete.
Gyger v. Clement (North Carolina 2018)
When registering an order sent from a foreign reciprocating country, notice of a pending hearing is properly sent to the agency that initiated the action. Switzerland requested that North Carolina register a support order. The trial court didn’t register the order. It found that the notice provided to the father of the initial hearing didn’t satisfy North Carolina law. The mother filed a Rule 60(b) motion to set aside the order denying registration. She argued several grounds, including that she wasn’t given proper notice of the registration hearing pursuant to the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure. Notice was sent to the Swiss child support authority, not to her last known address. The trial court denied the motion, and the mother appealed. The appellate court found that federal and state policy and procedure supported sending hearing notices to the agency that initiated the registration action and not the individual party.
Hubbard v. Ratliff (Mississippi 2018)
A child who enters the military is considered emancipated and child support stops. In this case, the mother filed a contempt action that alleged the father failed to pay support and to comply with other provisions of the divorce decree. The father counter-petitioned and asserted that the child had emancipated in the spring of 2016. At the time of filing, the child was 18 and ready to graduate from high school. In November 2016, she entered the military. In the order, the chancery court found that the child emancipated as of August 2016 and entered a judgment against the mother for the support collected after the emancipation date. The mother appealed. The appellate court found that the Court didn’t have sufficient evidence to stop support in August 2016, but that pursuant to statute, support stopped when the child entered the military in November 2016. The appellate court found no fault with granting the father credit for the payments made after the emancipation date, reasoning that mother knew support should stop, yet she continued to collect. The appellate court refigured the judgment amount based on the new emancipation date.
Participation in Responsible Fatherhood Programs in the PACT Evaluation: Associations with Father and Program Characteristics
This brief presents new findings on the factors that are associated with fathers’ participation in responsible fatherhood (RF) programs. It is based on data collected for the implementation study of RF programs, which documents how the programs were designed and operated and identifies challenges and promising practices. It uses data from the Parents and Children Together (PACT) evaluation to describe the characteristics of fathers enrolled in PACT and the associations between the fathers’ characteristics and their program participation. Fathers with a child support order were more likely to attend a core workshop. They also participated in a greater percentage of workshop hours than fathers without a child support order. Each RF program established relationships with their local child support office to assist fathers with navigating the child support system—which may have boosted participation among fathers in need of these services.
