Child Support | Program Support Guide

Child Support Program Support Guide

View Ohio Child Support Program Guide

Statistics indicate that children benefit when both parents work together to take care of their children’s emotional and financial needs. Children have the right to the support of both parents. This is true even when the parents are divorced or never marry one another. Parents can be a loving and supportive force in a child’s life. Even when they do not live together, they need to work together to provide for their children.

Congress established the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) Program in 1975, as Title IV-D of the Social Security Act, as a means to collect child support. The program’s goals are to ensure that all children are supported financially by both parents and to reduce the number of children receiving public assistance. The Child Support Program is a Federal/State/Local partnership. The Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, establishes standards for state programs. In Ohio, the Ohio Job and Family Services, Office of Child Support has the primary responsibility for the child support program. Each county in Ohio is required to establish a child support enforcement agency (CSEA). Therefore, responsibility for the child support program in Ohio is shared by the state and each of Ohio’s 88 counties.

An important goal of the child support program is to help families work toward becoming or remaining self-sufficient through improved child support collections. By working with both parents to establish and enforce support orders, Ohio’s Child Support Program helps children receive the Financial and medical support they need and deserve.

The mission of Ohio’s Child Support Office is to provide the leadership, structure and resources to advance the child support program.