Governor Signs Community Service for Child Support Bill

OKLAHOMA CITY – Gov. Mary Fallin recently signed into law a measure that officials hope will encourage parents to stay up to date on their child support payments.

Rep. Jon Echols
R-Oklahoma City

House Bill 2166, by state Rep. Jon Echols and state Sen. Brian Crain, authorizes courts to require individuals who are willingly unemployed and who owe child support to work two eight-hour-days per week in a community service program administered by the county commissioners.

“This bill will encourage personal accountability among able bodied parents,” said Echols, R-Oklahoma City. “Your children, whether they live with you or not, are your responsibility alone. If a person cannot or will not provide the financial support the court has required of them, there needs to be consequences.”

Crain said every parent has a responsibility to take care of their children.

“It is saddening and infuriating that people are more interested in their money than their family,” said Sen. Crain, R- Tulsa. “This creates a method for the judiciary to protect the children and hopefully instill right-thinking in the dead-beat parent.”

Oklahoma County Commissioner Brian Maughan, whose SHINE community service program inspired the legislation, said giving judges the authority to sentence deadbeat parents to community service will provide a potent new tool to encourage them to meet their child support obligations.

“Working two days a week picking up litter or painting over graffiti might just provide the motivation some of these non-paying parents need,” said Maughan. “We are ready and eager to start enrolling any parent sentenced by the judges in SHINE as a way to encourage them to get to work and live up to their responsibilities.”
Maughan said other counties have inquired about ways to emulate the successful SHINE program, and that the new legislation will add to that urgency.

“This is a model program that can save jail costs, teach offenders important lessons about personal responsibility and improve our community at the same time,” said Maughan. “I am grateful to Rep. Echols and Sen. Crain for sponsoring this important bill and to Gov. Fallin for signing it.”

HB 2166 passed overwhelmingly out of both chambers of the Legislature, including votes of 97-1 in the House and 47-1 in the Senate.

Expanded Child Support "Most Wanted" List Launched by OKDHS

OKLAHOMA CITY -- An online tool for finding parents who have a child support obligation launched Nov. 1 under a new law intended to hold more parents responsible for supporting their children.

The law allows Oklahoma Child Support Services to solicit the public’s help in locating absent parents in child support cases. The new Most Wanted Missing Parents Program significantly expands on the agency’s Most Wanted list, allowing it to include more parents, including those who have been established as fathers but have failed to appear in court to establish a child support order.

“When parents fail a legal obligation to support their children, there can be serious social consequences for the child and serious legal consequences for the parent,” said Jeff Wagner, spokesperson for OCSS.

“We’ll be able to locate more parents than ever before, improving collections by resolving otherwise unworkable cases at no additional cost or risk to the State of Oklahoma or taxpayers.”

In the last eight years, the Oklahoma Child Support Services’ Most Wanted list helped locate more than 600 people owing child support. The law seeks to improve that track record by expanding the number and types of individuals who may appear on a list.

Oklahoma Child Support Services is a division of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. The new law gives OKDHS the authority to release a delinquent or missing parent “Most Wanted” type list of individuals who are in arrears in their court-ordered child support obligations or who are sought for the purpose of establishing a child support order. The list includes the individual’s name, photograph when available, last known address, and amount of any child support arrearage.

Under the law, disclosures made by OKDHS in a good faith effort to support its Most Wanted Missing Parents Program may not be considered violations of any confidentiality laws.

Beginning Nov. 1, the public may view and contribute information to the OCSS Most Wanted Missing Parents Program by visiting www.okdhs.org and selecting “CS Most Wanted” from the Quick Links on the left-hand side of the screen.

To promote healthy families, OCSS establishes, monitors and enforces reliable support while encouraging self-sufficiency and strengthening relationships. The division is responsible for more than 201,000 active child support cases, collecting $318 million last year on behalf of children and families.

Links to related stories:

2011: Governor Fallin Signs Bill to Authorize “Most Wanted” List for Delinquent Parents

2009: Bill to Crackdown on Deadbeat Parents Passes State House, Headed to Governor

OKDHS Issues Open Letter to Employers about the Child Support Web Pay Portal

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Employers increasingly demand the same level of technological sophistication from government that they use in their businesses daily. With eighty-two percent of all child support payments coming from employers via income withholding orders, it is critical that businesses have accurate information regarding the Oklahoma Child Support Services’ Web Pay portal.

OCSS launched Web Pay in May 2005. Employers now make more than 3,000 child support payments each month safely and securely using the online Web Pay portal at www.okdhs-paycs.com. Other advantages employers have found using Web Pay include:

• Web Pay payments are less expensive and more convenient than mailing paper checks.
• Web Pay payments are easier to manage when entering transactions into payroll software.
• Web Pay payments provide more safeguards for the employer.
• Web Pay payments provide same-day payment confirmation.

OCSS has been using the reliable Web Pay payment confirmation system since 2005; it has a number ofsafety features which, if followed, will prevent many entry errors.

After the user logs into the Web Pay system, keys in the amount to be paid and clicks “Update”, the details of the transaction, including the dollar amount to be remitted, appear on the “Payment Details” screen. After verifying the information, the user then clicks “Continue” or “Add Distribution” for other employees. Once all employees’ withholdings are entered, the amounts are presented a second time for the user’s review. After verifying the information, the user clicks “Submit Payment” which starts the payment transfer process. Finally, the screen shows the amount of the pending payment amounts, both as a summary and as a list showing the individual payments for each employee’s child support case. A Web Pay Payment Confirmation e-mail is sent the same day to the user with the following information:

Subject: Web Pay Payment Confirmation Web Pay child support payment has been received. Name:  Amount:  Received Amount:  Received Date: Confirmation ID:

 To learn more about how to make Web Pay work for your business, call 1-866-553-2368 Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. For more information about Oklahoma Child Support Services, call 1-800-522-2922 or visit www.okdhs.org and select “Child Support”.

To promote healthy families, OCSS establishes, monitors and enforces reliable support while encouraging self-sufficiency and strengthening relationships. The division is responsible for more than 201,000 active child support cases, collecting $317 million last year on behalf of children and families.

Oklahoma Child Support Services named Outstanding Program of the Year

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The National Child Support Enforcement Association will award Oklahoma Child Support Services (OCSS), a division of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS), with its Outstanding Program of the Year Award for 2011. The national award recognizes a State, Regional, Tribal or County program that has consistently and comprehensively exemplified the best in child support enforcement through an outstanding record of performance and in providing effective services to its constituency and its community.

“The Awards Committee was impressed with the outstanding achievements of the Oklahoma program over the past several years,” NCSEA’s executive director Colleen Delaney Eubanks writes. “The accomplishments and innovation of your program are commended and is the type of national model the Outstanding Program Award is intended to highlight.”

Gov. Mary Fallin signed a proclamation last week making August “Child Support Awareness Month” in Oklahoma. The proclamation is available here.

Oklahoma Child Support Services is a division of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.  To promote healthy families, OCSS establishes, monitors and enforces reliable support while encouraging self-sufficiency and strengthening relationships.  The division is responsible for more than 201,000 active child support cases, collecting more than $317 million in the last year on behalf of children and families.

Click here to read the full release

Governor Fallin Signs Bill to Authorize “Most Wanted” List for Delinquent Parents

Governor Mary Fallin

Governor Mary Fallin today signed into law a bill that authorizes the Department of Human Services to release a “Most Wanted” list of delinquent or missing parents who owe child support.

Senate Bill 576 was authored by Rep. Jason Nelson and Sen. Patrick Anderson.

SB 576 creates a new tool for DHS to find these parents when traditional means have been exhausted. The “Most Wanted” lists may include a delinquent parent’s name, photograph, last known address and amount of child support owed.

“This bill will help DHS leverage community assistance to locate absentee parents and ensure they are fulfilling their obligation to their children,” Fallin said. “No one should be able to avoid child support payments by running off or disappearing and this bill will help to ensure they cannot.”

Child Support "Most Wanted" List Passes House, Awaits Governor's Signature

Engrossed SB 576’s intent is to increase child support collections by recruiting public assistance to locate parents when other methods have failed.

The House of Representatives voted this morning 87-0 in favor of SB 576 which now goes to the Governor for her signature.

SB 576 by Sen. Patrick Anderson and Rep. Jason Nelson authorizes the Department of Human Services to release a delinquent or missing parent “Most Wanted” list of individuals who are in arrears in court-ordered child support obligations or who are sought for the purpose of establishing a child support order.

Bill to Crackdown on Deadbeat Parents Passes State House, Headed to Governor

The State House passed a bill today that will crackdown on deadbeat parents. Senate Bill 1126, by Senator Clark Jolley and Rep. Jason Nelson, tightens statutory language related probation for failure to pay court ordered child support.

“Current law allows a parent to fall further and further behind on child support payments by allowing them to pay a little here and a little there,” said Rep. Jason Nelson, R-Oklahoma City. “SB 1126 makes it clear that a parent who is placed on probation for failure to pay child support has only ninety days to pay current and back child support or lose their professional license and driving privileges.”

SB 1126 will now go to the governor for his consideration.. Senate Bill 1126, by Senator Clark Jolley and Rep. Jason Nelson, tightens statutory language related probation for failure to pay court ordered child support.

“Current law allows a parent to fall further and further behind on child support payments by allowing them to pay a little here and a little there,” said Rep. Jason Nelson, R-Oklahoma City. “SB 1126 makes it clear that a parent who is placed on probation for failure to pay child support has only ninety days to pay current and back child support or lose their professional license and driving privileges.”

SB 1126 will now go to the governor for his consideration.