Research & Case Law

This fact sheet is part of the Centering Child Well-Being in Child Support Policy series from the Ascend at the Aspen Institute and Good+Foundation. A key indicator of whether parents will comply with a child support order is their perception of the fairness of the process. This policy brief describes practices that improve the fairness of the child support process based on the procedural justice principles of respect, voice, neutrality, understanding, and helpfulness.

This fact sheet is part of the Centering Child Well-Being in Child Support Policy series from the Ascend at the Aspen Institute and Good+Foundation. Research shows children have better outcomes when they are raised by both of their parents. This fact sheet encourages the use of family-centered strategies when working with families, which will increase the likelihood that non-custodial parents will be employed and pay support.

This fact sheet is part of the Centering Child Well-Being in Child Support Policy series from the Ascend at the Aspen Institute and Good+Foundation. This fact sheet describes policies in several states which reduce state-owed child support debt. Almost all states have policies in place to reduce state-owed arrears. These policies promote increased employment, higher child support payments, better performance for programs, and are essential to family well-being.  These policies make sense when compared to the cost of trying to collect this debt.

A parent can’t contract away a child’s right to support. The mother filed to find the father in contempt for failure to pay support. The father had stopped paying support when the parents youngest child turned 18. The father argued that a provision in the divorce decree ended support when the youngest child turned 18 or emancipated. The chancery court gave the father credit for some expenses he had paid on behalf of the child but entered a judgment against father for support up to the child’s 21st birthday. The father appealed.