New Ohio child support statutes

USAToday this morning is carrying an article about the “changes to Ohio's child support laws that mean that parents who pay at least half of their court-ordered support will no longer face suspension of their driver's or professional licenses,” noting a more expansive Columbus Dispatch article yesterday.

Those changes go into effect Wednesday.

The changes in particular being referred to were tacked on to the recently-passed state budget, but, as noted in the Dispatch article, also “come on the heels of sentencing-reform law in HB 86 that encourages judges to sentence non-payers to probation or community service instead of jail.”

The Dispatch article noted, Donald Hubin-- chairman of Fathers and Families of Ohio, a national 501(c)3 not-for-profit charitable organization that seeks better lives for Ohio's children through family court reform that establishes equal rights and responsibilities for fathers and mothers,-- having said, that “for years, many child-support policies have been predicated on the assumption that parents were able, but unwilling, to pay, but that’s not the case. The vast majority of overdue child support is owed by parents who can’t pay it with two-thirds of the money being owed by people who earn less than $10,000 a year.”

( Summary of budget bill portion )( Sentencing Reform summary)