Wisconsin Department
of Children and Families - Division
of Early Care and Education
Bureau of Child Care Subsidy Administration
Wisconsin Shares Handbook
A Child Support and Good Cause publication (DCF-P-5600) must be provided to all Wisconsin Shares applicants and participants at the following times:
At application for Wisconsin Shares
When a child is added to the Assistance Group
When a parent leaves the Assistance Group
At the annual eligibility renewal for Wisconsin Shares
When a parent discloses to his or her agency worker circumstances that may meet the good cause criteria
The Child Support and Good Cause publication describes the requirement to cooperate with child support, the right to claim good cause as an exception to the cooperation requirement, and the criteria for good cause. The document must be provided even if both biological/adoptive parents of all children are living together. Local agencies must provide the Child Support and Good Cause publication to parents by either:
Printing the Child Support and Good Cause Publication from the online DCF Publications Repository and manually providing it to the parent; or
Using the Manual Letter functionality in CWW to mail the Child Support and Good Cause publication.
If the parent applies for Wisconsin Shares through ACCESS – Apply for Benefits (AFB) or Add a Program (AAP), the language from the Child Support and Good Cause publication displays on the page where the parent signs the application. The parent must check a box indicating that they have read this information and understand that they have the right to claim good cause for not cooperating with the Child Support Agency (CSA). If the parent has chosen to view ACCESS in Spanish, the text box and acknowledgement also display in Spanish. This notice and acknowledgement are included on the Application Summary which is viewable to the parent in ACCESS and to the agency worker in CWW and the Electronic Case File (ECF).
Because this information is the same as the information contained in the Child Support and Good Cause publication and captures the parent’s acknowledgement, this is sufficient for providing the Child Support and Good Cause publication at application for Wisconsin Shares. Agency workers do not need to manually provide a copy of the Child Support and Good Cause publication when the parent completes this acknowledgement in ACCESS – Apply for Benefits (AFB) or Add a Program (AAP). However, this notice and checkbox do not appear in ACCESS when the parent reports a change or completes a renewal in ACCESS. Therefore, the agency worker must manually provide the Child Support and Good Cause publication even when the parent uses ACCESS for other reasons.
If the parent is exempt from cooperating with child support per Section 4.7.1 and the parent has no other biological or adopted children for whom cooperation with child support is required, the local agency does not need to provide the parent with the Child Support and Good Cause publication.
This section last updated 10/1/2023