Child Support Services At A Glance

Child Support is one of the most cost-effective programs in government¹  PLUS it creates savings for other programs². This work brings children the full advantage of parental support and involvement by helping families determine paternity, establish orders for child support and medical support, and collect regular and reliable payments

• Collected more than $303 million in child support
• Served 166,025 Oklahoma children
• Recorded 17,784 paternity establishments and acknowledgments
• Established child support orders in 82 percent of open cases
• Collected $4.11 for each dollar spent by the program

• Child Support is the third largest social services program in the number of children served (after Medicaid and SNAP), serving seven times as many children as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and three times as many as Social Security⁶
• In 2023, 45 percent of Oklahoma births were to unmarried mothers⁷

¹US Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Child Support Enforcement 2020 Annual Report to Congress:  https://www.acf.hhs.gov/css/report/fy-2020-annual-report-congress

²Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), 2016: The Child Support Program is a Good Investment, The Story Behind the Numbers: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/css/resource/sbtn-child-support-program-is-a-good-investment

³US Department of Health & Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, “Child Support and TANF Interaction: Literature Review, April 2003: https://aspe.hhs.gov/basic-report/child-support-and-tanf-interaction-literature-review-april-2003

⁴Oklahoma Human Services, Child Support Services, Oklahoma SFY 2024 Cost Avoidance and Cost Recovery Calculations based on Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement-Urban Institute study

⁵Center for Law and Social Policy Research Fact Sheet, The Child Support Program: An Investment That Works: https://www.clasp.org/publications/fact-sheet/child-support-program-investment-works

⁶Oklahoma Human Services, Child Support Services, Public Programs Comparison

⁷Oklahoma State Department of Health birth data file sent to CSS

Families receiving more financial support from both parents are less likely to need assistance from taxpayer-funded benefit programs including Medicaid, TANF, SNAP, SSI, Housing Subsidies, Foster Care, School Lunch, Child Care, and WIC. In fact, families receiving child support are more likely to exit and remain off of public assistance than any other source of unearned income³.

Investment in child support reduces other public spending².  CSS collections in SFY 2024 resulted in:

               $50,397,700 Avoided by other programs
               $12,479,811 Recovered for other programs
               $62,877,511 Total Cost Avoidance and Recovery (total state¹ & federal dollars)⁴

Families who receive child support are better able to remain self-sufficient, with decreased rates of re-entry into public assistance and a slower job loss rate than those without regular child support⁵. Child support benefits children’s educational outcomes, reduces the risk of child maltreatment, increases parental involvement among nonresident parents, and reduces non-marital births and divorce².