Resolving the Tension Between Child Support Enforcement and Family Reunification

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A state's child support program often is at odds with its child welfare system, and reunifying and reunified families find themselves caught in the middle. Just as parents are struggling to reunify with their children, the child support agency garnishes their wages to repay any debt that accrued for the child's support while the child was in state custody. Every state should have policies in place to ensure that child support enforcement never interferes with appropriate reunification.

By Eve A. Stotland From September - October 2001