Child Support Guidelines: Formulas to Protect Our Children from Poverty and the Economic Hardships of Divorce
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Authors
McDonald, Loretta D.
Issue Date
1990
Type
Journal Article
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Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
INTRODUCTION|As one commentator put it, "If you want to say what's the biggest problem in America, and you want to put it in two very short words, it's poor kids." For every five children under the age of eighteen, one is poor. For children under the age of three, one in every four is poor. Two in every five Hispanic children are poor and nearly one out of two black children is poor. Perhaps the biggest cause of child poverty in the United States is single parenthood. |Congress reacted to this national crisis with three important pieces of legislation: Title IV-D of the Social Security Act; the Child Support Enforcement Amendments of 1984; and the Family Support Act of 1988. This legislation provides methods to set, award, and collect adequate child support. Perhaps the biggest impact on child support awards is the creation and use of child support guidelines. All states have now adopted child support guidelines pursuant to federal legislation. Beginning January 1, 1990, federal law established a rebuttable presumption that these state guidelines set a just and appropriate figure for the award of child support. |Part I of this Comment examines the serious situation that led to federal legislation concerning child support. Part II examines that federal legislation. The various monetary guideline formulas are set out in part III, while Part IV examines the effect these guidelines have had. The Nebraska guidelines, along with suggestions for their improvement, are discussed in Part V...
Description
Citation
23 Creighton L. Rev. 835 (1989-1990)
Publisher
Creighton University School of Law