Statistics were released recently showing that Illinois ranks near last in collection of child support. I think that it is time for us to rethink our approach to the “traditional” methods of child-support enforcement and collection, and I would like to introduce you to a program that is being implemented in the Family Courts of the 16th Judicial Circuit Court to enhance the collection of child support. Perhaps even more important, it’s a program that also addresses the root causes of non-payment and the disintegration of the father/child relationship.
The program, known as Fathers Court, uses a partnership of private and public organizations, as well as the curriculum provided by the National Center for Fathering. It concentrates on three important elements to enhance the enforcement and collection of child support: offering job training to these individuals, affording substance-abuse counseling where needed and providing child-support payers with a 15-week class that concentrates on the importance of the father/child relationship.
Although the program is being called Fathers Court, because it generally is the father who is the non-custodial parent and who is paying child support, the program is gender-neutral and will be offered to all child-support payers that qualify, regardless of gender. This is a rehabilitative program, not a punitive program, which seeks to bring a novel and alternative approach to the traditional use of incarceration to coerce payment (which frequently is counterproductive due to the inability to work while in jail).
This program has been successfully implemented in about six other jurisdictions in the United States, most notably in Kansas City, Mo., where more than 75 percent of the program participants have been able to maintain full-time employment since they completed the program. Since the 73 men in the Kansas City program have been working, they have paid more than $500,000 in child support–money their children would not have otherwise seen. Once fully implemented in Kane County, the increased child-support collection and fewer men in our already overcrowded jail will make an immediate, positive impact on Kane County and its citizens.
Perhaps more important than the collection of money, the program has helped facilitate the reconciliation of these men with their children, and their reinvestment in the father/child relationship, and that aspect of the programs is truly priceless. This is the real value of the program. Because its multi-disciplinary approach addresses the root causes of non-payment of child support and the often-fractured father/child relationship, the results achieved are longer- lasting, more positive and much more effective than a short-term jail sentence for contempt of court.
Clearly there will still be cases where the court’s contempt powers must be used to enforce the obligation to pay child support. This program isn’t a panacea for all child-support collection problems, but it likely will become an important part of our local answer to the problem of child support collection. At the same time, it will also address a much more important problem–the lack of meaningful involvement by the non-custodial parent that often contributes to non-payment of child support, as well as a host of other social ills. We hope to implement this program here in Kane County in the spring, and want to publicize its availability to all of the readers who are either paying or receiving child support.
