ANNOUNCEMENT

New Guidance for Title IV-E Agencies to Change Child Support Assignment Procedures for Children in Foster Care

July 29, 2022

Dear Colleague:

The Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF) Children’s Bureau (CB) and Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) value collaborative efforts that stabilize and reunify the children and families we serve. This letter highlights a new question and answer (Q&A) in the Child Welfare Policy Manual (CWPM) regarding when it is appropriate for a title IV-E agency to secure an assignment of the rights to child support for a child receiving title IV-E foster care maintenance payments (FCMPs) in accordance with section 471(a)(17) of the Social Security Act. ACF encourages child welfare agencies to implement across-the-board policies that require an assignment of the rights to child support for children who receive title IV-E FCMPs only in very rare circumstances. See CWPM, Section 8.4C, Question #5.

OCSE relies on the IV-E agency to refer cases as appropriate. ACF wants to ensure that only cases that have been thoroughly reviewed, and will not disrupt the reunification process, are referred to the state IV-D agency for the establishment of paternity or a support order. This approach allows the IV-D agency to continue their current practices of processing appropriate cases, and will result in both state agencies being less intrusive in the lives of the families we serve.

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