Attorney General Schwalb Proposes Child Support System Reforms to Expand Financial Support for DC Kids

Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb today introduced the Child Support Improvement Amendment Act of 2026 to reform the District's child support system by ensuring that every dollar of child support collected from non-custodial parents gets to the children and families it is intended to help. Under the current child support collection system for families receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), the District pays itself and the federal government back for the operational costs of administering the collection process before sending money to custodial families - meaning that children receive only a percentage, if any, of child support payments.

Attorney General Schwalb's proposed reforms, which are championed by Councilmembers Brooke Pinto (Ward 2) and Matthew Frumin (Ward 3), will result in some current and former TANF recipients receiving hundreds of dollars more per month once the full reform goes into effect. TANF families are among the poorest in the District - to be eligible for TANF benefits, a family of four must make less than $13,000 per year. An increase in financial support will help improve health, education, and public safety outcomes for these children and families, as well as the District overall.

"We must do everything in our power to alleviate child poverty and make the District more affordable for all of its residents. Dollars paid for child support should go directly to supporting kids - not to covering the cost of government collection operations," said Attorney General Schwalb. "I'm proud that, through this legislation, the District will be among the first jurisdictions in the country to adopt these long-overdue reforms. Thank you to Legal Aid DC for working tirelessly with my team to develop these proposals and to Councilmembers Pinto and Frumin for championing this much-needed legislation."

"These reforms refocus our child support system on what truly matters - supporting children. Instead of diverting payments away from DC's poorest families, the District can now ensure that child support reaches the parents and kids who need the help," said Vikram Swaruup, Executive Director of Legal Aid DC. "The reforms will also help build stronger families that can more easily come together to support their children, which will make our communities healthier and safer. We are grateful for AG Schwalb's leadership in proposing cost-effective changes to put more money directly into the hands of low-income families."

"All children deserve to have the financial support they need at home to thrive, and our child support reform bill will mean many District families in need will receive hundreds more dollars a month to cover costs like housing, food, transportation, and more for DC children," said Councilmember Pinto. "As we navigate recent changes to federal public benefits, it is critical as local leaders we make common sense and fiscally responsible policy changes that uplift and empower our most vulnerable families."

"Families should not have to work their way through a complicated system to receive support meant for their children," said Councilmember Frumin. "These reforms focus on improving how child support is delivered, making it more straightforward, more dependable, and better aligned with families' needs. It's a practical update that strengthens an essential public service and helps ensure support reaches children when it matters most."

Background on DC's Child Support System

For families receiving TANF, the District's child support system currently functions primarily as a debt collection operation, also known as a "cost-recovery model,"where child support payments that DC collects are used to recover benefit payments and to fund collection efforts, not to support children and families. To recover some of the TANF benefits paid, federal law requires that families applying for TANF agree to help the government collect child support payments from non-custodial parents by signing over their rights to this money to the government. The District then splits the payments it collects with the federal government.

Under the current law and system, non-custodial parents are less likely to make child support payments because they know that their dollars, rather than going directly to support their children, are diverted to recover governmental costs. This, in turn, forces the District to spend more money on more challenging debt collection operations, resulting in an ineffective system that does not end up providing more support for kids and does not use taxpayer dollars efficiently.

Additionally, the current system further undermines families because, in a typical scenario where a single parent is receiving TANF benefits, the custodial parent is required to help the District government locate and bring the non-custodial parent, often but not always the father, to Court. Many times, the father is not aware that the mother is being forced to seek a Court order, which can aggravate familial tensions and create an even less safe and healthy environment for the children - all while the mother and child ultimately receive very little additional money.

Bill Overview

The Child Support Improvement Amendment Act of 2026 seeks to take advantage of changes to federal law that allow the District more say in how collected child support payments are allocated. Specifically, the Act will require that:

• All child support payments for families receiving TANF go directly to these families and children. Until this year, the amount of child support payments that could go to families who receive TANF was capped at $150 per month. In the FY2026 budget, at the urging of Attorney General Schwalb, the District increased this cap to $200 a month. When fully implemented, the Child Support Improvement and Amendment Act will remove the cap entirely for these families and ensure that every child support dollar collected is sent to them.
  
• All overdue child support payments that are collected go directly to families and children. When fully implemented, all overdue child support payments (known as "arrears"), will go directly to families who currently or formerly received TANF.
  
• Ensure that child support collection efforts focus on payments that are due while the child is still young. It is critical that parents receive child support payments when that money is most impactful - when the child is still a child or young adult. Currently, every child support payment is a standalone obligation that expires after 12 years, unless renewed. This reform will effectively amend the statute of limitations to until the child is 26.

The text of the legislation is ​here​.

State Child Support Systems

llinois is currently the only state that gives all child support collections and arrears to families that currently receive or formerly received TANF. Maryland has passed similar legislation while seven other states pass through some combination of payments and arrears, but not both. With these reforms, DC is not only taking significant steps to support some of its most vulnerable children and families, but it's also leading by example for similar implementation across the country.

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