ACYF Information Memo: Promoting Child Support Services for Head Start Families

Dear Colleague:

The 1998 reauthorization of the Head Start Act added promoting child support services to the functions of Head Start agencies. The legislation directs Head Start staff to "inform custodial parents in single-parent families…about the availability of child support services for purposes of establishing paternity and acquiring child support; and refer eligible parents to the child support offices of State and local governments." [Sec. 642 (b) (11) (A) (B)]

This newly legislated function is not unfamiliar to Head Start Program staff. Two years earlier the Head Start Bureau and the Office of Child Support Enforcement announced a joint initiative to promote child support services for Head Start single-parent families. We invited Head Start Programs and Child Support Offices to collaborate in a three-step initiative to:

Inform Head Start families about child support services,
Refer eligible families to a local Child Support Office,
Establish referral arrangements with the Child Support Office

Since then, Head Start Programs and Child Support offices have been collaborating with each other in increasing numbers around the country. Examples of these collaborations include:

Workshops on child support services at Head Start conferences,
Cross program staff training,
Child support information and assistance made available on site to interested parents,
Head Start and Child Support programs have formalized their collaborations through memoranda of understanding in a number of States and localities.

As a result of these collaborations, many Head Start single-parents and their children now enjoy the benefits of child support services.

The attached Information Memorandum on Child Support Services has been developed to assist Head Start staff to carry out their increased responsibility. Federal, State and local Child Support staff welcome partnerships with Head Start staff. May our joint efforts result everywhere in more Head Start custodial parents receiving much-needed financial and medical support from non-custodial parents and in more Head Start children enjoying emotional support and love from both their fathers and mothers.

Sincerely,

David Gray Ross
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement

Helen H. Taylor
Associate Commissioner
Head Start Bureau

Attachment (Not available online)