The DeStefano Plan for Supporting and Protecting Our Children

July 26, 2006

New Haven - John DeStefano - Democratic candidate for governor - joined State Representatives Marie Lopez Kirkley-Bey and Minnie Gonzalez, and the Director of the Allaya Daycare facility in Hartford for a news conference to announce his child support policy that will help single parents and their children receive the support they need and deserve.

"I believe Connecticut needs a child support system that will better protect and support our working families. Child support helps children perform better in school, improves parent-child relationships, and is the right thing to do to help families care for their children," said Mayor John DeStefano.

Child support is the second largest source of income for low-wage families who receive child support, and nationally comprises 26% of a low-wage family's income (Center for Law and Social Policy). Research has found that reliable child support improves children's school performance and enhances relations between children and their parents, in addition to reducing divorce rates and the amount of non-marital childbirths. Child support also reduces families' welfare use and increases parents' employment rates.

Despite the importance of child support in helping children and families in Connecticut, there is more than $1.6 billion in outstanding child support payments to Connecticut's children and their guardians.

(U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services - Office of Child Support Enforcement (www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cse/pubs/2006/reports/preliminary_report/table_5.html)

While the amount of child support collections increased $13.9 million between 2004 and 2005, Connecticut can do better to make sure all families receive the child support they are entitled to. A renewed focus on child support is vital as an increasing number of Connecticut children are living in low-income working families, and often those families are run by a single parent who is dependent on child support to make ends meet (Annie E. Casey Foundation).

- 27% of Connecticut children live in single parent families and 10% of all children in Connecticut live in poverty. (Casey Family Services).

- From 1990 to 2000 the percent of children in Connecticut living in low-income working families increased by 44%, compared to 16% nationwide. (Annie Casey Foundation)

- At the same time, the percentage of children living in single parent families has increased by 23%. (Annie Casey Foundation).

- The number of female-headed families receiving child support has increased by 20% since 1990. It's estimated that there are more than 35,000 female-headed families receiving child support. (www.kidscount.org)

- 28% of single parent families with related children are below the poverty level, while just 2% of married families with related children are below the poverty level. (Casey Family Services).

Under the plan, DeStefano will impose reforms that ensure parents have the necessary financial support to provide for their families.

DeStefano pledges to:

- Demand a Comprehensive Review of Connecticut's Child Welfare System and Cases. As Governor, John DeStefano will not wait for the abuse of children to happen before he makes our state's child protection system function better. As Governor, John will ensure that the state undertakes the following reforms immediately:

- Audit the state's child abuse system to ensure that abuse and neglect reports are being investigated and given the highest priority.

- Review all current child abuse cases, remove children from homes where significant incidents of abuse or neglect have been reported, and establish protocols to ensure that findings of abuse prompt immediate action.

- Review all foster care cases to ensure that the state knows where all foster children are living and that all foster parents have undergone a thorough criminal background check, including checks of out-of-state records.

- Require annual audits of the state sex offender registry to ensure that Connecticut sex offenders are registered with local law enforcement as required by law.

- Provide this information to the Probate and Superior Courts to ensure that habitually abusive parents are not awarded custody of other children.

- Drastically increase the number of employees, especially bilingual employees, in the state child support system. A critical obstacle in enforcing child support laws, collecting child support, and providing families with information and aid is the extreme staffing shortage in the state's child support system. Connecticut is in dire need of more state marshals to serve parents, more employees at the Support Enforcement Services to keep up a dialogue with parents, and more workers at the Department of Social Services to implement child support orders. More specifically, too many parents are unable to communicate with and relay information about their situation to child support officials because Connecticut has an insufficient number of bilingual employees. Our families should not be barred from child support because of a language barrier. Far too much child support goes uncollected which ultimately harms our children, and we must be more aggressive about ensuring that child support is collected and paid by staffing these services with sufficient people, including bilingual employees.

- Support the Fatherhood Initiative of Connecticut and other community-based programs that provide fathering training and support to dads. Established in 1999, the Fatherhood Initiative works to promote healthy relationships between fathers and their children and offers emotional and educational support to fathers. The program provides education on parenting, encourages fathers to financially and emotionally care for their children, and informs fathers about state and local services available. It is important to support this program and other programs which serve as resources to Connecticut fathers, and we will improve the programs by including referrals for employment, substance abuse treatment, and mediation between parents.

- Increase monitoring of Probate Estates to insure that delinquent parents pay their support arrearage before they receive a distribution from any estate.

- Establish pay equity in Connecticut. Establishing pay equity will lead to tangible results for mothers struggling under our child support system. In Connecticut, women earn on average 74 cents for every $1 earned by men, compared with women nationally who earn 76.5 cents to every $1 earned by men. Expanding women's earning potential will enable them to better provide for their children without having to rely solely on child support from the father. Increased earnings allow women broader options and increased security to support their families.

The DeStefano Pay Equity Initiative details my plan to enforce an equal wage for women. The plan includes creating a Connecticut Pay Equity Commission that would reassess the results of the state's pay equity program and the state's hiring and promotion practices; providing additional training, personnel and resources to Connecticut's Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities to eliminate specific cases of gender and race-based discrimination resulting in unfair pay; and working with the General Assembly and Attorney General to make a verifiable pay equity plan a requirement for any company bidding on state contracts.