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Child Support Services

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Information for Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and other City agencies

The child support program serves one in seven children in New York City and collects more than three-quarters of a billion dollars annually on their behalf. As an agency, we continuously seek to identify improvements to our program to achieve better outcomes for the children, parents, and guardians we serve. For a basic summary of our services, see Child Support Overview or access the CBO Information Packet.

Community Partners and the partnerships OCSS has with other City agencies are vital to us for sharing information about child support with parents and informing strategies to best assist the families and children that we all serve. If your organization would like to receive training for your staff on any child support topics, please contact Alan Farrell at 929-252-5219 or alan.farrell@dfa.state.ny.us. You can also refer to the desk guide entitled How You Can Help Your Clients with Child Support (19-DG-03) for some taking points.

For close to 10 years, we have had a committee of community partners who meet with us to share ideas, suggestions, and concerns. There have been several new initiatives and changes that have come out of the committee. Contact Alan Farrell at 929-252-5219 or alan.farrell@dfa.state.ny.us if you are interested in participating.


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Relevant Documents

Additional Videos

Upcoming Presentations

Special Lunchtime Session: Q&A with OCSS Leadership

Tuesday, February 14th at 12:30 PM – Click here to register for Q&A wtih OCSS Leadership
This session is open to all parents – noncustodial and custodial parents with a child support order, as well as parents that are thinking of applying for child support, and community-based staff. The leaders of OCSS will make short presentations about how OCSS works with its clients and then we will try to answer questions from attendees on all subjects related to child support.

Best Suited For:
Parents and staff of organizations that work with individuals who have a child support case or who are thinking of applying for child support. This is an opportunity to meet the leadership of OCSS and let them know your thoughts and ideas about the program. Please help us spread the word to parents involved with or interested in the child support program.

Child Support: Debt Reduction Options for NCPs

Tuesday, February 28th at 10:00 AM – Click here to register for Debt Reduction Options for NCPs
Unpaid child support debt is a serious problem for noncustodial parents as well as custodial parents and their children. It leads to enforcement actions and causes stress for all parties. Participants will learn about the important OCSS programs that can reduce child support debt owed to the government as well as strategies to avoid debt in the first place and an option for debt owed to custodial parents.

Best Suited For:
Attorneys, parents, and staff of organizations that have a working knowledge of child support and want a deeper understanding of the steps NCPs can take to reduce debt that is owed either to the government or the custodial parent.

MOTS - Modification of Orders Through Stipulation

Tuesday, March 14th at 10:00 AM – Click here to register for Modification of Orders Through Stipulation
OCSS is devoting March to raising awareness of our updated program that allows noncustodial parents the opportunity to modify their child support order through an agreement crafted before going to Family Court. This allows the NCP to ask questions and work with child support professionals to reach the same result prior to going to court to have the agreement approved. The process is intended to reduce stress and limit time in court. Unlike the previous version of this program, this program is available to all NCPs regardless of income and regardless of whether the order is payable to the government or the CP.

Best Suited For:
Noncustodial parents and staff of organizations that work with NCPs who need to have their child support order modified to reflect their current income.

Fundamentals of Child Support

Tuesday, March 21st at 10:00 AM – Click here to register for Fundamentals of Child Support
This webinar provides an overview of the child support process including information on the value of child support, the lifecycle of a child support case, and a description of programs designed to benefit parents who have a child support case.

Best Suited For:
Parents and staff of organizations that serve families or individuals that are new to child support or those who would like to refresh their knowledge.

How to Accurately Interpret Child Support Account Statements

Wednesday, March 22, 2023 at 1 PM - Click here to register
We would like to invite you to a virtual session on how to accurately interpret child support account statements prepared for Family Court hearings. More specifically, we will review the following topics: Payment information; Obligation information; Total net due; Special conditions mentioned in remarks; Undistributed collections; Over-disbursed accounts; Unreimbursed Assistance and Assignment of Arrears; Administrative Change of Payees; and Scenarios requiring multiple account statements. Participants will also learn about details in the account statement that often cause confusion (e.g., retroactive actions such as terminations nunc pro tunc (NPT)) and how accounts are maintained by OCSS. Additionally, we will inform you about the various debt reduction initiatives that are available to noncustodial parents.

Best Suited For:
Attorneys, support magistrates, and anyone representing a parent in Family Court for a Child Support hearing.

Special Lunchtime Session: Child Support Agreements and Mediation Options

Tuesday, March 28th at 12:30 PM – Click here to register for Child Support Agreements and Mediation Options
This session is open to all noncustodial and custodial parents with a child support order – to explore the ways that agreements -either a new order or a modification - can be used to simplify and expedite the child support process by limiting visits to family court. This session will also cover how mediation can be used to address child support debt that is owed to the custodial parent.

Best Suited For:
Parents involved with child support and staff of organizations that work with individuals who have a child support case or may be considering applying for child support.

Discussion: Impact of changes in custody on child support orders

Wednesday, April 19, 2023 at 1 PM - Click here to register
We invite you to attend a discussion on the relationship between custody orders and child support orders. There are significant implications to noncustodial parents who receive custody of their children and do not terminate or suspend their child support order. We would like to explain those implications and explore ways to mitigate the problems we are seeing. As you know, when custody orders are modified in Family Court, the child support order is not automatically updated to reflect the change and OCSS is not informed. It is the responsibility of the noncustodial parent to file a petition with the Court to suspend or terminate their child support order. We need your help to get the word out.

Best Suited For:
Attorneys and more specifically 18B attorneys representing clients in Family Court for Child Support hearings.

Child Support in the Community Newsletter