Establishing Parenting Time in Child Support Cases: New Opportunities and Challenges

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12147
• Author: Jessica Pearson
• Published date: 01 April 2015
• Date: 01 April 2015

ESTABLISHING PARENTING TIME IN CHILD SUPPORT CASES:

NEW OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES*

Jessica Pearson

Despite dramatic increases in collections, child support frequently fails to be the linchpin to family self-sufficiency that it could

be, and many researchers, advocates and policymakers haveconcluded that future progress in collections will require making

the child support system more fair and responsive to its growing poor, never-married caseload. High on the list of suggested

reforms is paying more attention to involving poor fathers in the livesof their children. Since the inception of the child support

program in 1975, parenting time and child support have been legally distinct issues and activities pertaining to parenting time

have not qualified for the 66 percent of funding that the federal government providesto fund the child suppor t program.As a

result, few child support programs address parenting time when they establish or enforce child support orders. Public Law

113–183 (2014) includes a provision to encourage the establishment of safe parenting time arrangements in new child support

orders, although the activity is voluntary and no new funding is provided.This article describes the treatment of parenting time

in the child support program and the approaches that some states and local jurisdictions have adopted to develop and

incorporate parenting time responsibilities with family violence safeguards in new child support orders. This includes the use

of standard parenting time schedules, self-help resources, mediation or facilitation with a neutral third party,and comprehensive

programs that attempt to address multiple barriers.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

• Parenting time and child support are legally distinct issues and courts typically order child support for parents of

children born out-of-wedlock without simultaneously ordering parenting time arrangements.

• Research shows that addressing parenting time improves parent-child contact and child support payments and that

positive paternal engagement improves child outcomes.

• A few state and local child support agencies address parenting time using standard parenting time schedules, self-help

resources for parents, mediation or facilitation with a neutral third-party; and comprehensive programs that address

multiple barriers.

• Developing a safe, structured approach to parenting time for the child support population will require coordination

among courts, domestic violence programs and child support agencies, and allowing these activities to qualify for

federal matching funds.

Keywords: Parenting Time;Co-parenting;Unmarried Parents;Access and Visitation;Child Support;and Public Policy

INTRODUCTION

President Obama included a provision in his 2012–2015 budget proposals that would have

updated the statutory purposes of the Child Support Program (authorized through Title IV-D of the

Social Security Act) to include activities to help parents develop parenting time orders, allocated

$448 million over 10 years for this activity, and required all states, effective FY 2020, to establish

access and visitation responsibilities in all initial child support orders with full integration of

“domestic violence and abuse victimization approaches” (U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services, 2014). However, in September 2014, a less agg ressive version of this proposal was

enacted by Congress (Section 303 of H.R. 4980) and signed by President Obama. The Sense of the

Congress provision treats the incorporation of parenting time with strong family violence safe-

guards in new child support orders as an “important goal,” but keeps it a voluntary activity with no

new funding (Pub. L. 113–183).

Correspondence: jspearson@centerforpolicyresearch.org

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 53 No. 2, April 2015 246–257

© 2015 Association of Familyand Conciliation Cour ts