Child Support

INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana is launching a new registry to aid in tracking down deadbeat parents, Call 6 Investigator Kara Kenney has learned.

The Department of Child Services is partnering with local prosecutors, sheriffs, clerks and courts to start a child support registry modeled after a similar system used for protective orders.

Hoosier parents are currently more than $2.3 billion in arrears in child support.

Currently, police often spend hours of their time looking for the deadbeat parents, frequently to no avail.

Cynthia Longest, DCS deputy director of child support, said the registry will give police more tools to find parents who aren't paying their child support.

"There's been no mechanism for a law enforcement officer who might pull somebody over or might be processing someone in jail to easily know that child support warrant has been issued," said Longest.

When a law enforcement officer encounters someone, such as during a traffic stop, that officer can now find out if that person has a child support-related court order or warrant in civil court.

"A law enforcement official, if they pull somebody over, they can get onto this registry," said Longest. "They can see if a writ for a child support case has been issued."

Johnson, Monroe, Bartholomew, Morgan and Brown counties are participating in the pilot program, which is mostly federally funded, Longest said.

If it works, DCS plans to launch the child support registry statewide. Longest said DCS' efforts to crack down on unpaid child support are working.

Over the past 10 years, Indiana has improved from 42nd in the nation to 7th in the nation when it comes to establishing child support orders and 44th in the nation to 27th on current support collections.

"I think it's getting better," said Longest. "There are so many tools available to the prosecutors in the state Child Support Bureau. It's easier to collect child support in a more standardized manner. Income withholding comes out of their employer automatically."

Longest said the state is doing a better job at finding out if someone is working regularly, and if so, getting that money to children quickly.

"The challenge still is folks who are either self-employed or not working," said Longest, who admitted parents working under the table to avoid child support is still a problem. "We're doing a much better job at getting money to children."

In July 2012, the state dropped the emancipation age from 21 to 19.

"The duty to provide support now ceases at age 19 instead of 21," said Longest.

As of Federal Fiscal Year 2013, Indiana's Title IV-D caseload is 300,196, down from 350,000 cases when the Call 6 Investigators examined child support in 2012 .

The number of cases does not represent all child support cases in Indiana, just those receiving IV-D services .

Source:

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/call-6-investigators/indiana-launching-child-support-registry

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