By ChrisAnna Mink
CalMatters
IN SUMMARY
A California lawmaker wants to bring more families into the state’s formal child support system, a move that advocates say could reduce child poverty..
His plan is moving forward in the Legislature, but even supporters have questions about how it could affect family dynamics.
California child support bill would require most families to enroll in a state program, raising questions about poverty reduction, costs, and family stability.
Despite a seemingly unimpeachable goal — ensuring adequate child support to keep kids out of poverty — a bill making its way through the state Assembly has left legislators and advocates divided.
The measure, from Elk Grove Democratic Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen, would compel separated families to enroll in a state program empowered to guarantee wages for child support.
Currently, custodial parents must “opt in” to enroll in the California Department of Child Support Services. They often do not take that step, sometimes because they have made their own arrangements.
Under Nguyen’s bill, families would have to opt out of the program. She said the goal of the bill is to ensure that children get the money they need.
“It’s the child that suffers. If you’re a single-income parent…and struggling to make ends meet, then the extra piece of income comes in. I think it reduces child poverty,” Nguyen said.
The measure addresses what groups close to the child support system say is a pressing issue: When parents split up, child support arrangements can fall to the wayside. That leaves the problem to the court system and puts children at risk for poverty.
At a March hearing, the bill had support from the California Child Support Association and the Department of Child Support Services from Sacramento, Solano and San Joaquin Counties.
“Right now, just in Sacramento County, my department is sending $11 million every month home to families putting food on the table and shoes on children’s feet. It’s an incredible anti-poverty program,” Dallin Frederickson, the director of Sacramento County’s Department of Child Support Services, told lawmakers at a March hearing, according to the CalMatters Digital Democracy database.
“Unfortunately, the child support program in California is underutilized,” he said.
But critics say that entering all families into the child support services system could actually undermine the stability of separated families by disrupting the bonds that remain, as when parents have come to their own financial agreements.
Even a Democratic lawmaker who voted for the bill at the hearing raised questions about how it could affect families who make their own child support arrangements.
“I’ve seen what happens when families get separated and crumble and fall to pieces,” Assemblyman Isaac Bryan, a Los Angeles Democrat, said at the hearing. “And I’m just concerned that any ways that we further deteriorate a strong relationship between parents, we’re harming the best interests of the child.”
A first-in-the-nation proposal
Among California’s 2 million children in single-parent households, 1 in 4 live in poverty. That rate is four times higher than among children living with married parents. Women head 80% of single-parent households, which are more likely to live in poverty than single-father households.
Statewide, there are slightly more than 1 million court orders for child support payments, with total payments owed reaching $2.6 billion in 2024.
If Nguyen’s Assembly Bill 1643 passes, it’s unclear how many additional families would be enrolled into the state collection program, but it could be thousands, based upon the annual number of court orders.
“There’s a bit of unknown. This could be a really fundamental change in a big state. (So), should they do a pilot study in one county?,” said Rebecca Miller, senior attorney for Western Center for Law and Poverty.
Custodial parents of any income level can choose to enroll into child support services, however, enrollment is mandatory for parents who receive public assistance under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act of 1975.
No state currently mandates child support services enrollment for families not receiving public assistance, as stipulated in Nguyen’s bill.
“It could violate federal advocate law because it forces people into the system,” said Rebecca Gonzalez, policy for Western Center for Law and Poverty.
Another concern is cost to taxpayers, although Nguyen said that the bill won’t add costs.
However, because it requires that all child support payments go through the State Disbursement Unit, the measure could increase administrative costs for local agencies, triggering state-mandated reimbursement costs, according to a legislative committee analysis.
“I don’t see why they think it’s cost-free,” Gonzalez said.
