Child support payments are critical to the children dealing with separation, according to 8th District Attorney Jared Effler.
August is Child Support Awareness Month. Effler said child support establishes support for custodial families across the state. Effler said his district is one of many with a child support division, which operate in addition to the criminal prosecution division.
“There are support persons in each child support division,” Effler said. “And they also have child support prosecutors who go to court and see the cases through, and then hopefully establish support for the custodial parent.”
Effler said working out child support issues is a matter of communication with both the custodial and non custodial parent. Effler said his division has tried to accommodate the non-custodial parent as much as possible with agreed orders outside of the courtroom.
“This allows us to work with the non-custodial parent so that he or she does not miss work,” Effer said. “He or she can come into our office at a convenient time, and it makes the process go a lot smoother. They are not missing work, and they feel a lot better about the process.”
Effler said as long as everyone is on the same page, there is a higher likelihood of collecting child support. Effler said parents who are not receiving support should be in touch with their District Attorney’s office.
Effler said the child support divisions work closely with the Department of Human Services. Effler said part of his office’s job is to help people get started on making their child support payments each month.
In doing so, Effler said it is important to take a non-adversarial approach in getting payments started. He said that the child support division hopes to work with non-custodial parents as much as possible when starting support.
“Let’s face it, child support is not a pleasant topic for those persons having to pay it,” Effler said. “And we acknowledge that. But, it’s essential to support your children.”
Effler said child support is a big help to kids and custodial parents so they are able to afford the resources needed to support everyone. He said parents with the necessary resources to raise their children increase the kids’ chances of being productive adults.
