Child Support Requires Helping Fathers Stay Involved
Thursday / August 30, 2007
A report by DC Appleseed says there are many more
dead-broke than deadbeat fathers.
Back on August 23, we mentioned a report
on child support collection in the District of
Columbia. We complimented the report for its
overall conclusion:
The investigation concludes that the District's child support model is primarily a punitive one designed to identify and sanction "deadbeat dads" when, based on the demographics of the District, it needs a constructive model designed to assist "dead broke dads" to meet their financial and other parental obligations.
Examiner.com has published one of its "3-minute interviews" with Walter Smith, the Executive Director of DC Appleseed, the non-profit organization that prepared the report. The questions and answers are worth repeating:
How does a broken child support system affect student achievement and school improvement?
The one thing the District is not doing well is its child support program, and there’s a direct connection between parental support and a child’s ability to succeed in school. Over 65 percent of the kids in Washington, D.C., are in child support, many more than are in the public schools. But by and large, they’re the same kids. And last year, more than one in four of the kids who should have gotten child support didn’t get any.
What’s the first move you would make to improve D.C.’s child support program?
The first thing I would do is recognize that the child support program doesn’t fit the demographics of the city. We have primarily designed a program to go after deadbeat dads. And though there are many deadbeat dads, there are many more dead-broke dads. We’ve got to have mediation services. We’ve got to have job training. We’ve got to have links to parental support. We’ve got to design a program that will give fathers an opportunity to reinvolve themselves in their children’s lives.
Does the D.C. child support bureaucracy need an overhaul?
A lot of what needs to be done to have a successful child support program is going to involve a coordination of many agencies of the District government, for example, the Department of Employment Services.
For the full report, click here.
The investigation concludes that the District's child support model is primarily a punitive one designed to identify and sanction "deadbeat dads" when, based on the demographics of the District, it needs a constructive model designed to assist "dead broke dads" to meet their financial and other parental obligations.
Examiner.com has published one of its "3-minute interviews" with Walter Smith, the Executive Director of DC Appleseed, the non-profit organization that prepared the report. The questions and answers are worth repeating:
How does a broken child support system affect student achievement and school improvement?
The one thing the District is not doing well is its child support program, and there’s a direct connection between parental support and a child’s ability to succeed in school. Over 65 percent of the kids in Washington, D.C., are in child support, many more than are in the public schools. But by and large, they’re the same kids. And last year, more than one in four of the kids who should have gotten child support didn’t get any.
What’s the first move you would make to improve D.C.’s child support program?
The first thing I would do is recognize that the child support program doesn’t fit the demographics of the city. We have primarily designed a program to go after deadbeat dads. And though there are many deadbeat dads, there are many more dead-broke dads. We’ve got to have mediation services. We’ve got to have job training. We’ve got to have links to parental support. We’ve got to design a program that will give fathers an opportunity to reinvolve themselves in their children’s lives.
Does the D.C. child support bureaucracy need an overhaul?
A lot of what needs to be done to have a successful child support program is going to involve a coordination of many agencies of the District government, for example, the Department of Employment Services.
For the full report, click here.
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