Gains in Child-Support Arena

The dramatic increase in the amount of child support funds collected from “deadbeat parents” in Orange County is welcome news. But there is still much room for improvement in making adults live up to their moral and legal obligations to their children.

In the past year, the family support division of the district attorney’s office has added 80 positions, pushing the division’s personnel past the 500 mark. Child support collections passed $90 million for the first time, a big jump from the $57 million collected only two years earlier.

The Board of Supervisors deserves credit for authorizing the staffing increases and the district attorney’s office deserves credit for using the extra personnel effectively. It is unfair for a parent not to support a child after a marriage ends. In many cases, low incomes force mothers onto the welfare rolls. At a time of welfare reform, with Orange County drawing up rules to get people off welfare and into jobs, extra money from child support can make a major difference in a mother’s life.

The family support division has been hampered in its efforts by the abysmal failure of the state and federal governments to implement the long-promised computerized statewide system to track who owes how much money to whom in child support. Orange County delayed improvements in its own computer operations while awaiting the state system. Finally the division decided to wait no longer and to start enhancing its own system, a smart move.

Last year, a coalition of advocacy groups for children said Orange County ranked 45th among the state’s 58 counties in collecting child support. But the family support division did receive good marks for starting to turn the program around. The county ranked high in efficiency of collections, spending $1 to collect $3. However, in only 19% of the 91,000 cases in the county in which a court has ordered payments are the payments actually being made.

Supervisor Jim Silva has proposed opening payroll records of the county’s employees, retirees and contractors to prosecutors looking for those owing child support. County lawyers are trying to implement such a program. Supervisor Todd Spitzer also has pushed for better collections.

The family support division is moving in the right direction. Increased success can improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of women and children by collecting debts long overdue.