ICYMI: ACF Encourages Title IV-E Agencies to Update Procedures to Reduce Financial Burden on Families with Children in Foster Care

The Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF) Children’s Bureau (CB) and Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) are encouraging child welfare agencies to remove financial barriers detrimental to family reunification.

In a recently issued joint letter to ACF colleagues, CB Associate Commissioner Aysha E. Schomburg and OCSE Commissioner Tanguler Gray, encouraged child welfare agencies to implement changes to their policies which automatically refer parents to child support agencies when a child enters foster care. Realizing the challenges associated with these changes, due to existing programs and data systems, both pledged support of their respective offices to help with the transitions for affected child welfare agencies.

Many parents of children in foster care are currently required to pay child support to the state to offset costs. Pursuing child support from these parents with children in foster care, many of which are already experiencing economic insecurity, can negatively impact their ability to achieve economic stability. This jeopardizes the prospect of family reunification and extends the time their child spends in foster care.

“Our goal is to support safely unified families, and removing financial barriers is one way to do that,” said ACF Assistant Secretary January Contreras. “Creating further parental economic instability, by seeking child support from them, is inefficient and detrimental to families who are working hard to reunify with their children. This landmark change puts families first.”

Currently OCSE relies on the IV-E agency to refer cases as appropriate. ACF wants to ensure that only cases that have been thoroughly reviewed and will not disrupt the reunification process are referred to the state IV-D agency for the establishment of paternity or a support order. This approach allows the IV-D agency to continue their current practices of processing appropriate cases and will result in both state agencies being less intrusive in the lives of the families ACF serves.

In addition to impacting economically vulnerable families, analysis has proven that securing assignment of the rights to child support is not cost effective. The cost of administering child support for children in title IV-E foster care agencies is often more than the actual yield from collection efforts.

In keeping with its overall mission, ACF is committed to seeking equitable outcomes for the children, youth, and families it serves. For more information on this and other ACF innovative efforts to support parents and to remove barriers to reunifying families as quickly and safely as possible, visit our webpage: www.acf.hhs.gov.

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