Opinion: Why the D.C. Council should pass child support reform

By Tianna Gibbs, Meridel Bulle-Vu, Rosemary Edwards, Ruchika Sharma, Ryan Vulpis, Sarah Horne

The D.C. Council is considering a bill that, if passed, would mark a long overdue reform to the child support system. Introduced in January, the Child Support Improvement Amendment Act of 2026 is an important step toward reimagining how child support works for low-income families. 

For decades, the District has used child support money owed to families who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to pay back the government. Currently, when families receive TANF, up to the first $200 paid in child support each month goes to the family. The government keeps the rest. The proposed bill establishes a full pass-through of child support payments. Instead of TANF families seeing some of the court-ordered money disappear with little to no explanation, a full pass-through would ensure that these families receive all their child support. 

D.C. is currently following a federal policy from 1996 that encourages states to recover costs from families on public assistance. This policy has fundamentally shaped the child support system. The government makes parents who receive TANF pay by cutting into their child support. Often, these parents are Black and Brown mothers living in poverty. About 20 years ago, federal policy shifted to encourage states to pass along more child support to TANF families. D.C. is currently operating under outdated federal policy. A full pass-through will refocus child support policy on its core purpose: to ensure that children receive consistent and meaningful financial resources from their parents.

With a full pass-through, every dollar paid in child support goes directly to families. This policy change will increase household income and provide more stability for children. However, realizing the promise of this reform depends on more than policy change. The District’s Child Support Services Division (CSSD) is also working on upgrades to its computer system to help facilitate the change. 

While the computer upgrade is in progress, the D.C. Council should ensure that the new program can support the full pass-through from the start. CSSD’s new system must be able to process, track, and distribute child support payments accurately and transparently — without requiring manual workarounds. A computer system designed to automatically route all payments to families will reduce administrative burdens, minimize errors, and prevent unnecessary delays. 

 Currently, CSSD has no definite timeline for upgrading its computer system. Further, the legislation does not offer a specific completion date. A clear timeline for when the new system will come online is essential to ensure that the full pass-through can take effect as soon as possible. Any delay in upgrading the system is a delay in ensuring TANF families receive all the financial support they need and deserve.

While this reform is critical, it does not by itself dismantle the deeper structural issues in the child support system. The current framework emphasizes enforcement. In many instances, it uses penalties that often undermine parents’ ability to make child support payments. Parents who owe child support, primarily low-income Black and Brown fathers, continue to face a system that imposes unmanageable penalties, such as driver’s license suspension, even if they cannot pay.  

The shift to a full pass-through highlights a broader truth: the child support system has long focused on extracting money from low-income families for the District’s benefit. Even with the full pass-through in place, many policies throughout the child support system continue to punish poverty and destabilize families. To truly transform child support into a system that supports children, further reforms are necessary.

The full pass-through would be a meaningful improvement. By ensuring that all child support payments reach the children they are meant to support, the District is taking a necessary step toward fairness. This change should only be the start. The D.C. Council must continue to make system reforms that center families and recognize the realities of poverty. Without passage of the proposed bill and further reform, families will continue to experience harm.

Tianna Gibbs is a professor of law and Director at the American University Gender Justice Clinic. Rosemary Edwards, Ruchika Sharma, Ryan Vulpis, Sarah Horne are students at the Gender Justice Clinic. Meridel Bulle-Vu is a managing attorney in the domestic violence/family law unit at Legal Aid DC.