Below you will find overview information only. For specific information or details on services, please contact your county's Child Support Enforcement Agency (CSEA).

Location

Your county child support enforcement agency (CSEA) can help find the physical whereabouts of the non-residential parent, the employer, or other sources of income and assets so that the CSEA may take the next step to secure or enforce a child support order. In order to do this the CSEA uses database information from sources such as: the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Bureau of Employment Services, the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, and the Ohio New Hire Employer directory.

For additional information, refer to CSPM 2100.

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Paternity Establishment

Paternity establishment refers to the legal determination of being named as a child's father. The paternity establishment process is available at any time before the child attains 23 years of age. Paternity can be determined even if the other parent lives in another state or even in a foreign country (list of international contacts). It can be established in the following ways:

• The voluntary acknowledgment process refers to completion of a form known as an "Acknowledgment of Paternity Affidavit." You can complete this at the hospital when your child is born, before both parents leave the hospital. It can also be completed at your county's CSEA or your local Vital Statistics Registrar.
• If a case is contested or if there is some doubt as to the parentage of the child, either parent may request that the CSEA conduct genetic testing to determine the father of the child. The CSEA will then order all parties to submit to genetic testing and will issue an administrative paternity order based on the outcome of the genetic test. For a paternity order to be established, the test must show at least a 99% probability of fatherhood.
• If paternity is established through genetic testing the CSEA will schedule a support hearing to establish a support order for the child(ren).
• If either party fails to submit to the test or fails to submit the child for genetic testing, the CSEA may request the court to find the party in contempt and determine the issue of paternity.

Ohio uses a Central Registry. Click here for more information and a link to the Registry

For additional information, refer to CSPM 2200.

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Establishment of Support Orders

If a person does not already receive support, the child's parent, guardian, legal custodian, or the person with whom the child lives (considered the residential parent) can contact the CSEA for assistance in obtaining an order for the payment of child support and health care for the child(ren).

Support orders can sometimes be established by the CSEA without going to court. If it is necessary to go through the court, the CSEA will assist you in obtaining a child support order.

To determine the amount of support a parent is required to pay, the CSEA or the court will use the "Ohio Child Support Guidelines" as a guide. Both parents must provide verification of their incomes for the past six months or provide their most recent income tax returns.

For additional information, refer to CSPM 2000.

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Medical Support

The CSEA is responsible for establishing and enforcing health insurance orders for child support cases when coverage is available and reasonable or expected to become available. Health insurance coverage is considered available and reasonable if it can be obtained by a parent through the parent's employer or other group health insurance plan. Health insurance includes fee for service, health maintenance organizations (HMO), preferred provider organizations (PPO), and other types of coverage that could provide medical services to the child. Other group coverage may include, but is not limited to, retirement, disability, or union plans.

The CSEA is required to send a National Medical Support Notice to the employer of the medical insurance obligor (MI Obligor) when new or changed employment occurs. This federally required notice is designed to help obtain health insurance for children for whom there are medical support orders. The employer must send the NMSN to the health plan administrator in 20 business days, unless the employer doesn't provide insurance. The health plan administrator will enroll the children 20 business days after receiving the NMSN, unless there is a waiting period or there is more than one health insurance plan option. In those cases, enrollment takes place when the waiting period ends or the plan option is selected. Additional information for both the MI obligor and the MI obligee is found in the Accessing Health Insurance for Child Support Kids flier.

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Change to a Child Support Order (Review and Adjustment of Child Support Orders)

Either parent or guardian can ask for a change in the order. Child support orders can be reviewed every 36 months from the date the order was established or the date of the last review. Some orders can be reviewed sooner than the required time frame if certain circumstances are met.

"Review" means that a caseworker looks at both parties' income information to see if child support should be changed or if health insurance should be added or changed.

"Adjustment" means an upward or downward change in the amount of child support based on the application of the Ohio guidelines. It also means adding or changing provisions for the child(ren)'s health care needs through health insurance.

For additional information, refer to CSPM 2200.

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Enforcement of an Order

Whenever a support order is initiated or modified, a general provision requires any payor of a non-residential parent to withhold a specified amount to be applied to the child support order. Income withholding is part of a support order and established at the time the order was issued. This can change over the lifetime of the order depending on the types of income available for withholding, the work status of the parent paying support, and the availability of assets to pay the child support obligation.

Income withholding is the best enforcement method for the collection of ordered child support. This method is mandatory and applies to almost all types of income--not just wages. The word "income" includes, but is not limited to:

• personal earnings
• workers' compensation payments
• unemployment compensation benefits
• pensions
• annuities
• allowances
• private or governmental retirement benefits
• disability or sick pay
• insurance proceeds
• lottery prize awards
• any form of trust fund or endowment
• lump-sum payments
• assets in a financial institution
• any other payment in money.

Tax Offset is an enforcement method for the collection of federal and/or state tax refunds of the non-residential parent to satisfy past-due child support (arrears).

For more information, refer to Tax Offset - Injured Spouse Claims

It is the responsibility of the CSEA administering the order to monitor payment of the obligation. If payment of the current obligation falls behind, there are a variety of measures to collect past-due support.

Examples of other measures that do not require court action include:

• Credit reporting
• Professional license suspension
• Increase in the amount of income withholding to pay arrears

If the non-residential parent has no income or assets, the CSEA can get an order requiring the parent to seek work.

For additional information, refer to CSPM 3000.

If an individual fails to comply with a required action and enforcement by a court becomes necessary, the court can hold the person in contempt. Contempt penalties can increase with each offense and include fines and/or jail time or other remedies that the court finds appropriate. Some of the reasons a person can be cited for contempt are:

• Disobeying a judgment or order of the court
• Failure to obey a subpoena or refusal to answer as a witness
• Failure to appear in court as required
• Failure to submit to genetic testing
• Failure to comply with the provisions of a child support order

The above information can be found in the
Ohio Revised Code, part 2705

Child support can also be enforced by the use of criminal statutes. The state statute in Ohio provides for criminal penalties, including fines and/or a jail or prison sentence, depending on the length of time of the non-payment.

The Ohio statute can be found in the
Ohio Revised Code, part 2919.21

Federal law also provides for criminal non-support to be prosecuted, if certain criteria are present. For a misdemeanor federal offense, the non-payment must be willful, the obligation must be unpaid for at least one year or be greater than $5,000, and the offender and child must reside in different states. Possible penalties for this offense include imprisonment for up to six months and/or a fine, and mandatory restitution of the total unpaid support obligation.

The federal statute can be found in the
United States Code: 18 U.S.C. ?228.

The CSEAs offer a range of Interstate Enforcement services as well.

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Collections and Disbursement

Child Support Payment Central (CSPC) was developed by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS), Office of Child Support (OCS), in response to Federal legislation mandating the implementation and operation of a state disbursement unit (SDU) for collecting and disbursing child support payments. All child support payments must be processed by CSPC.

All payments are sent to a centralized lockbox (Post Office Box). The CSPC lockbox uses state-of-the-art equipment to image and process payments. All payments with valid posting information are processed on the same day they are received and within the 2 business day federal requirement. Payments are disbursed to the obligee either by first class mail or direct deposit.

Although some payments with invalid posting information are able to be researched and processed in the same day, others are transitioned to the exception handling section. This section attempts to resolve all "unpostable" payments by the end of the eleventh business day of its receipt in CSPC. In doing so, they work closely with county Child Support Enforcement Agencies (CSEAs), individual obligors, and the employer community. It they are unable to obtain sufficient posting information, payments are then referred to the ODJFS, OCS Payment Analysis Center (PAC).

PAC is responsible for researching unpostable payments until they are resolved. They too, work closely with CSEAs, individual obligors, and the employer community. PAC also handles overpayments and return deposit items such as stop payments and non-sufficient funds payments.

Collections assigned to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services under Ohio Works First and received by CSPC are deposited into the state treasury to credit the child support collections fund or the child support administrative fund.

For additional information, refer to CSPM 4000.

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Case Closure

A CSEA will only close a case after every reasonable effort has been made to establish or enforce the order. The CSEA will notify you in writing 60 calendar days before closing the case. However, even if a case is classified as closed by the CSEA, it does not necessarily end the non-residential parent's obligation to pay any outstanding back-support (arrearages) or eliminate the person's punishment for failing to comply with the order. A closed case can be reopened at any time if new information is provided.

For additional information, refer to CSPM 1420.

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Termination

Reasons why a support order can terminate include, but are not limited to, if the child:

• gets married
• is emancipated by court order
• enlists in the armed services
• gets deported
• dies
• has a change in legal custody
• reaches the age of 18 and graduates from high school

The residential parent of a child must notify the CSEA of any reason why the support order should terminate. The non-residential parent may notify the CSEA of any reason why the child support order should be terminated.

If the support order was established by the court, the residential parent's failure to notify the CSEA of the above reasons to terminate can be considered contempt of court. If the order was administrative, the CSEA can levy fines for failure to report that information.

If other children are included in that support order, the order is eligible for a review for adjustment upon request by either parent. The CSEA can ask for a review if there are monetary benefits paid to the residential parent for other public assistance programs.

For additional information, refer to CSPM 3900.

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Related Services that a CSEA is Unable to Provide