Services Available from the Child Support Program
OCSE partners with federal, state, tribal and local governments and others to promote parental responsibility so that children receive support from both parents, even when they live in separate households.
The national child support program is one of the largest income-support programs for families, contributing money to family budgets to help pay for the basics – shelter, food, child care, transportation and school clothes. Child support makes a big difference to children. For example, a custodial family of three earning $18,530 per year might receive $3,500 in child support payments – depending on whether the noncustodial parent is working or not. Research says that a dollar of child support has a greater effect on how well a child does in school than any other source of family income.
Our program’s mission is to increase parental support of children by:
- Locating parents
- Establishing legal fatherhood (paternity)
- Establishing and enforcing fair support orders
- Increasing health care coverage for children
- Referring parents to employment services, helping to build healthy family relationships, supporting responsible fatherhood and helping to prevent and reduce family violence
OCSE Fact Sheet
Want to learn more about OCSE? Check out our Fact Sheet! There, you can read about our mission, purpose, goals and more to get a better sense of how our programs serve children and families.
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