SB 1072

This bill removes the mandatory assignment to the state of child support orders and arrears existing at the time a child enters foster care. With one exception, the bill removes the role of the Department of Children and Families and a county department of social services or human services (county department) in providing child support referrals and collecting child support for families with children in out-of-home care. Specifically, the bill allows DCF or a county department to provide child support referrals if the parent’s or parents’ income exceeds 400 percent of the federal poverty line or the parent or parents are receiving adoption assistance for the child. In either case, under the bill, any child support ordered is assigned to the state.

The bill eliminates from the Juvenile Justice Code requirements that the juvenile court order child support, except for modification of existing orders, and order the parents of a juvenile under DCF supervision to contribute towards the costs of certain sanctions, dispositions, or placements.

The bill also adds language to the “best interests of the child” factor that under current law must be used by the family court when modifying a child support order. The bill specifies that, for a child in out-of-home care under the Children’s Code or the Juvenile Justice Code, this factor includes the impact on the child of family expenditures to improve any conditions in the home that would facilitate the reunification of the child with the child’s family, if appropriate, and the importance of a placement that is the least restrictive of the rights of the child and the parents and the most appropriate for meeting the needs of the child and the family.