County boosts child support collections, amnesty month begins

The Lorain County Child Support Enforcement Agency has increased its collections on both current and overdue child support payments so far in the 2025 fiscal year, as child support amnesty month begins. On Friday, the Lorain County commissioners recognized August as "Child Support Enforcement Month" and received an update from CSEA Administrator Amy Price. Price told the commissioners that as of June 30, the end of the third quarter of the federal fiscal year, her agency had collected $22,948,370, or 72.45 percent of all support owed this year. She said that this was an increase of 1.5 percent over last year, and was above the state average of 71.93 percent. The agency also increased its percentage of collected arrears, child support payments that are already overdue, by 3.9 percent for a total of $7,965,762 collected. "I am very proud of my staff for increasing those numbers," Price said. CSEA has a staff of just 55 and is handling more than 24,000 active cases and Price said that her enforcement workers were handling an average of 1,350 cases each. Collecting arrears became the central topic of discussion as Price announced that in addition to being the nationally recognized Child Support Enforcement Month, August is also the county's amnesty month. During amnesty month, people who have had their driver's licenses suspended due to nonpayment of child support can pay one month of what they owe and at least $1 in arrears to have their license reinstated. Price said that the amnesty month served to get people who had fallen out of payments back into paying, but its primary purpose was to get an influx of money to kids and their custodians before the start of the school year. "The last two years we have done this, in '23 we collected $46,000 of arrears to go into the home before school started and in '24 we collected $42,000, so we are hoping to hit that $50,000 mark this year," Price said. Commissioner Dave Moore said that he did not support the amnesty program because he felt it allowed those in default to skirt paying what they owe. Moore referred to a friend, now 35 years old, who was informed that his father had been arrested in Michigan for nonpayment of $5,000 in child support that was owed decades ago. "That money, I feel, is owed to the mother for that, because he did not pay," Moore said. "I hear these stories and I'm really not a big supporter of the amnesty program … I was pushing for billboards for your top 10 deadbeats, I thought that would be a little more efficient. What I've seen and heard (is that) it's not always men, there are women that owe." Price said that she was aware of Moore's stance and she thought marketing or billboards should be discussed as options, but that her office found public shaming of those who owe child support could harm their children. "Sometimes we find that that harms the children, because children can be cruel at school and (on) social media, if their dad or their mom is on the board," she said. "We can have that discussion, but there's two sides to that story." Moore said he understood the concern of impacting kids, but he thought more aggressive tactics might be effective in seeing families receive money they are owed. "I see this as an issue where our children are not getting the compensation needed, like you said, before school and other needs," Moore said. "... When you do that (an amnesty month) every year, these deadbeats know they can do that. That's just my opinion." Price and Chris Cabot, director of Lorain County Job and Family Services, said that the CSEA was planning to launch a state initiative to hopefully more effectively connect with fathers who now owe child support or are in default. The program would be a part of the Ohio County Fatherhood Mobilization Initiative to develop services for those who owe child support and raise awareness about the realities of the child support system. Cabot said that the CSEA would soon be applying for state money to fund the program. If someone renews their license through the amnesty program and then goes back to not paying, Price said their license is taken away again after 90 days. "Suspending the drivers license, unfortunately, although it seems counterintuitive, works the best to get money in," Price said. "If they don't continue to pay we do it again, and then they come pay and it becomes a cycle. I think that with this fatherhood initiative, we are hoping to break that cycle." While the agency tries to be understanding and help people meet their responsibility, Price said if someone is heavily in default or not being cooperative, her office did take more direct steps. Price referenced one individual who was a former professional athlete and owed over $1 million in arrears. The CSEA gained access to his bank account and recovered $750,000, she said. "We go after it pretty aggressively," Price said. "... Out of the 88 counties we are categorized as 'large,' and we are usually No. 1or No. 2 for intercepting out of bank accounts. We are pretty aggressive, I just need to put more case workers on these cases so they don't have 1,300, maybe they have 800 (cases). We are looking at that as well." "Awesome, keep it up," Commissioner Marty Gallagher told Price. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.