Promoting Child Support Services for Head Start Families

ACYF Administration on Children, Youth and Families	U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Administration for Children and Families
	1. Log No. ACYF-HS-IM-99-16	2. Issuance Date: 09/27/99
	3. Originating Office: Head Start Bureau
	4. Key Word: Promoting Child Support Services for Head Start Families

INFORMATION MEMORANDUM [See Attachment at the bottom]

TO: All Head Start Grantees and Delegate Agencies

SUBJECT: Promoting Child Support Services for Head Start Families

INFORMATION:

CHILD SUPPORT SERVICES

Section 642(b)(11)(A)(B) of the Head Start Act, as amended October 27, 1998, directs Head Start staff to "inform custodial parents in single parent families... about the availability of Child Support Services for the purposes of establishing paternity and acquiring child support and refer eligible parents to Child Support offices of State and local governments."
Child support services establish the legal paternity of a child and establish and enforce child support orders under which non-custodial parents contribute to the financial support of their children.

IMPORTANCE TO HEAD START FAMILIES

Child support services can be a significant resource for Head Start single parent families on their journey to economic self-sufficiency. A low-income family needs many resources to make it financially-a paid job being the most basic and necessary resource. Many Head Start parents have a job or are engaged in job-preparation activities leading to paid employment. Other resources that can supplement the family paycheck to stretch its buying power include:

Earned Income Tax Credit
Medicaid
Food Stamps
Subsidized Child Care
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance
Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

CHILD SUPPORT: A UNIQUE RESOURCE

Child support is an additional and unique resource for single-parent families. Child support payments continue until the child becomes a legal adult. These payments can even increase over the years to keep pace with a growing child's needs and the non-custodial parent's rising income levels. Also, support orders can require medical coverage of a child under the non-custodial parent's health plan; this could be especially critical as a single-parent family loses its Medicaid or CHIP eligibility. Not least of all, fathers who contribute to the financial support of their children frequently give them emotional support and love as well.

THE CHILD SUPPORT PROGRAM

The Child Support Program exists to assist any parent to establish the legal paternity of a child, where necessary, and to establish and enforce a child support order under which the non-custodial parent must contribute to the child's financial support. It is a program which--like Head Start--puts children first by affirming that every child needs and deserves financial and emotional support from both parents. Sate and local Child Support Agencies administer the Program. Any single-parent family with an absent, or non-custodial parent, can ask a Child Support Agency for assistance in establishing legal paternity and/or a child support order without regard to the family's income level.

LEGAL PATERNITY

To establish legal paternity is to give the child of unmarried parents a legal father. Parents who were married to each other when the child was born do not have to establish legal paternity. By taking steps to establish legal paternity, a mother gives her child a right to the same benefits as children of married parents. Establishing legal paternity gives a child access to the following benefits:

A sense of identity: A child can have the father's name on his/her birth certificate. A child then has a sense of full identity by knowing the father and his family. A child has a right to know both mother and father and, wherever possible, to be loved and nurtured by both.
Access to father's medical history can help prevent or treat diseases and health conditions passed from father to child.
Financial support by father including regular cash payments and health insurance benefits.
If father dies, child could qualify for death benefits, including social security benefits, veteran's benefits, life insurance, pension and inheritance rights. Unless legal paternity has been established, a child may not be able to claim these benefits from his or her father.
Acknowledging legal paternity and making child support payments often leads a father to want a personal relationship with his son or daughter. The enrichment this bonding can offer a growing child is priceless.

HOW TO PROMOTE CHILD SUPPORT SERVICES

The substantial benefits child support offers low-income families led Congress in 1998 to direct all Head Start Programs to inform single-parent families about child support services and refer eligible families to a Child Support office. Head Start staff are expected to be knowledgeable of the special benefits these services offer Head Start single-parent families and be committed to helping them understand and use child support services. The following suggestions may assist Head Start staff in carrying out this expanded program function.
Contact the local Child Support Office. Establishing ongoing collaboration between your Head Start Program and the local Child Support Office will facilitate carrying out this function. Child Support staff could be invited to meet with all the Head Start staff to give them an orientation to child support services and answer questions. In turn, Head Start staff could give Child Support staff an orientation to Head Start.

Inform custodial parents about child support services. Head Start staff could invite Child Support staff to speak at scheduled parent meetings about child support services and answer questions. They could also provide parents with descriptive materials on child support. Head Start staff should contact all their custodial parents beforehand to make sure they are aware of the session(s) on child support services and invite them to attend.

Refer eligible parents for services. Custodial parents who wish to apply for child support services should be assisted by Head Start staff to meet with Child Support staff. Head Start staff should help them to contact the local Child Support office. Better yet, a Head Start program could make arrangements for interested parents to meet with Child Support staff at the Head Start site. Head Start staff could arrange for Child Support staff to be available on site at regularly scheduled times to counsel parents individually and confidentially on their specific child support problems and concerns.

CHILD SUPPORT CONTACTS

Head Start staff may contact the State Child Support Office for assistance, if needed, in identifying the appropriate local Child Support Office to contact, and to obtain brochures/pamphlets for distribution to Head Start single parent families. A list of the State Child Support Offices is appended to this Information Memorandum. Head Start Program staff may also call on the Federal Regional Office for assistance by contacting their assigned Federal Head Start Representative. Regional Head Start staff are working closely with regional Child Support staff in an effort to assist each Head Start Program in the region to develop a partnership with a local Child Support Office. They welcome your calls for their assistance.

/S/Helen Taylor
Associate Commissioner

cc:
Regional Administrators, ACF, Regions I-X
American Indian and Migrant Program Branches
State Child Support Directors

Attachment:
State Child Support Office Directory