The bill will make it easy for parents to enroll in child support services by deeming new child support orders from the family court as applications for child support services, while also providing a convenient way for parents to opt-out of child support services if they do not want to receive services.

California Family Code Section 4014 already requires parents to either enroll in child support services or register their case with the state case registry within 10 days of the court order. Compliance with this section has been low. The proposed bill will improve compliance with this existing requirement. This will improve enrollment rates and improve child support collections.

The bill does not require any taxpayer funding, and in fact, child support saves costs in other government programs. Many parents receiving child support do not need other types of public assistance resulting in millions of dollars of savings for other programs such as CalWORKs, CalFresh (SNAP), Medi-Cal, SSI, or housing assistance.

The child support program in California is currently underutilized and has the capacity to help more parents.

Despite years of outreach, many parents are unaware of the child support program. A recent survey of California parents indicated many parents were unaware of the child support program’s benefits, did not understand that almost all child support services are free, or erroneously believed they were not eligible for enrollment.

Of note, the child support program is well received by parents utilizing the program. 84% of parents (both parents paying support and parents receiving support say the child support program is important, 79% said the program is helpful, and 70% said they would recommend the program to other parents.

The rate of child poverty in California is 18%, well above the national average of 13%. Only Louisiana, Florida, and the District of Columbia have higher child poverty rates than California. The rate of child poverty in the state has gone up significantly in the last few years.

Numerous studies show that child support payments significantly reduce child poverty. The federal Office of Management and Budget found the child support program to be very effective and gave the child support program the highest rating ever received for any agency.

In addition to financial benefits, child support has positive benefits on the cognitive and educational outcomes of children. A dollar of child support has greater effect on how well a child does in school than a dollar from any other source of income. Increases in child support are associated with higher grades and fewer school problems.

Nationally, there is one child support services case for every six children. In California, there is one child support services case for every nine children.

Since half of America’s children will spend part of their childhood in a single-parent home, there are potentially four million children in California who could benefit from child support services and currently there are about one million children receiving services.