Child Support Awareness

During Child Support Awareness Month, the Wisconsin Child Support Program recognizes the parents and caregivers who work hard to protect and support their kids’ futures, and the child support professionals who assist them.

Child Support Awareness Month increases public awareness of the importance of providing kids with the support they need to be successful.

Wisconsin’s Child Support Program strives to provide whole-family services to meet the needs of kids throughout our state, supports the involvement of parents in their kids’ lives, and promotes the parents and caregivers in employment programs, fatherhood initiatives, and other family-centered services. The program also upholds care for the physical and mental health of children through establishing and maintaining medical support orders.

The act of raising awareness during August aligns closely with the Bureau of Child Support’s vision and mission. The bureau believes that children thrive with the support of engaged parents and caregivers, and to see that through, the Bureau works to provide effective and family centered child support services through dedicated staff and partners. The Wisconsin Child Support Program served 341,000 children statewide in 2023

Helping Parents Support Kids

The Wisconsin Department of Children and Families' Bureau of Child and Support and the Wisconsin Child Support Enforcement Association are hosting a Month of Giving in Wisconsin this August in honor of Child Support Awareness Month. 

Our county child support agencies and our tribal program partners help locate custodial and noncustodial parents, establish legal fatherhood (paternity), and establish and enforce child support orders and our state staff provide important assistance to the program. Yet, we are more than child support professionals, we are also active and engaged members of our communities. We support the communities we serve and recognize the importance of addressing needs in our communities. 

Parent Advisory Group

Currently, the Wisconsin Child Support Program is working to modernize its system and elevate the voices of parents and caregivers by launching a Parent Advisory Group and incorporating their recommendations into policies and practices, both of which will serve the program positively for years to come.

In May 2024, the Parent Advisory Group launched and two meetings have been held. The Parent Advisory Group provides the communities that the Wisconsin Child Support Program serves with an opportunity to make their voices heard and share their concerns in a safe and respectful environment.

History

National Child Support Awareness Month was first proclaimed by President Bill Clinton in August 1995 on the 20th anniversary of the federal child support enforcement program. Wisconsin, along with many other states and the federal Office of Child Support Services (OCSS), continues to honor this tradition. 

ELEVATE

In 2019, five Wisconsin counties received funding to test an innovative approach to serving families involved in the child support system. The program, called ELEVATE (Empowering Lives through Education, Vocational Assessment, Training, and Employment), provides a supportive range of services to paying parents. The five counties to receive funding were Brown, Kenosha, Marathon, Racine, and Wood. This program launched in January 2020.

DCF pursued and received a new waiver from the OCSS to continue and expand the ELEVATE program. The updated wavier is set to operate for five years, extending the operation of the ELEVATE program through March 31, 2029.

As of March 2024, there was a total of 1,752 enrollments.

Several recent success stories related to the ELEVATE program can be found below.

Success Stories