Title IV-D is lingo you must learn if you are to effectively work towards understanding, changing, or fighting the family law (domestic relations) system. If you receive a monthly child support statement from the state “payment center,” and if you make your support payments to the state instead of directly to the other parent, then your family problems are no longer a private matter; and rightly or wrongly, your private problems have become a public matter, under the control and heavy hand of the government, and you are a Title IV-D case. Over 77% of the current Title IV-D cases may not belong in the public system, and your case might be one of them.

The states have domestic relations law for individuals to handle their family law issues privately. The federal government provides aid to children when the parents are unable. Because the program is taxpayer funded, the federal government has specific laws the states must follow regarding children for whom the government has determined they must “take charge,” in lieu of the parents ability to do so themselves.

            --  The Complete History of Child Support and Title IV-D

The following materials may help you understand Title IV-D and facilitate proper change:

·     History/Overview

            --  Welfare for the Affluent, by Molly K Olson

            --  2009 IVD Press Release by Molly K Olson

·     Federal Title IV-D Law

            --  Compilation of Social Security Laws

            --  Title IV-D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity)  -- See Part D of this link

            --  Federal Code of Regulations

            -- ATs: Office of Child Support Enforcement Action Transmittals

            -- PIQ's: Office of Child Support Enforcement Policy Interpretation Questions 

            -- IM: Office of Child Support Enforcement Information Memoranda

            -- DCL: Office of Child Support Enforcement Dear Colleague Letter
            -- TCC: Office of Child Support Enforcement Technical Content Correspondence

 

·     Congressional Research Service Reports (CRS)