Child Support During the Pandemic and Beyond

In March of 2020, we knew the COVID-19 pandemic was disrupting the world, but we had no idea how long that disruption would last. In the first few months, operational shutdowns and the transition of in-person services to digital options redefined how child support services were delivered in many jurisdictions. As more time passed, operations settled into a “new normal,” and while the pandemic continued to disrupt nearly every aspect of our lives, child support programs found new ways to meet their charter despite the pandemic’s challenges. Things aren’t what they were, but in many cases, they’ve stabilized.

But the changes of the past year will also change the future. Many IV-D directors have taken the opportunity to look at their programs and find ways to make positive change based on lessons learned from the past year.

In conjunction with the National Child Support Enforcement Association (NCSEA), we followed up with the state child support directors who participated in our 2020 Future of Child Support conversation to revisit the pandemic’s short-term and long-term impacts. The results can be found in our new white paper, “Child Support During the Pandemic and Beyond.”