Parents Tell of Frustrations With Child Support System

Frustrated parents told a federal panel in Los Angeles on Wednesday that child support laws vary so much from state to state that they often spend years fighting the system to obtain court-ordered payments.

The hearing before the U.S. Commission on Interstate Child Support took testimony largely from mothers who have been thwarted in efforts to collect money for their children.

“My case has been totally lost in the system. Somewhere, somehow, someone dropped the ball and no one will put an end to the nonsense,” said Deborah DeMarco of Santee, Calif., in a prepared statement. “Legal costs make it impossible for the custodial parent to fight the red tape and madness that accompanies these cases.”

Tecia Adamson of Mesa, Ariz., expressed similar feelings.

“It has been frustrating to say the least to work with a system that appears to be largely dysfunctional and unsuccessful even in the simplest of situations,” she said in written remarks. “The fact that we as a society have tolerated men who abandon their children is a sad commentary of the value we place on families made up of women and children in our society.”

Congress set up the commission as part of the Family Support Act of 1988 to recommend how to better enforce child support laws across state lines.

The commission is in Los Angeles to take testimony from parents hurt by non-payment of court-ordered support and to hear from officials who handle support cases. People connected with the system in Arizona, Washington, Oregon and Nevada presented written testimony to the panel.

Commission representatives estimate that of the $11 billion ordered for child support at any given time, only two-thirds goes to the children.

“It’s reasonable to believe the problem is getting worse,” said commission spokesman Philip Shandler. “There’s an increase in single parent household. . . . There’s an increase in mobility.”

The U.S. House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources issued a report last week giving no state in the nation a grade better than C for child support enforcement, Shandler said. California received a D.

One commission member, Michael Barber of Sacramento, a past chair of the American Bar Assn.’s Family Law Section, said one solution would be to assign some custody matters to the federal court.

He said, “The most significant problem is that people have to duplicate effort,” whenever they cross a state line.

Some of those who testified offered their own suggestions.

“My recommendation to this panel is to revamp the whole child support system and run it like a business,” said Michelle Darmody of Morongo Valley, Calif.

The hearing at the Airport Hyatt Hotel, which continues through Friday, is the only one scheduled for the West.

The commission plans other hearings in Atlanta and Chicago.