In 1975, the Congress created the federal child support enforcement program as title IV-D of the Social Security Act. The program’s original purpose was to strengthen state and local efforts for obtaining child support for families receiving AFDC and for any non-AFDC individuals who apply for child support services. The program provides a broad range of services, including basic services such as locating the noncustodial parent or parents, establishing paternity through genetic tests or other means, establishing support orders obligating noncustodial parents to pay specific amounts, and collecting the payment of support owed. While the ultimate goal under the program is to collect child support for each case, any one case may need a different combination of basic services before collections can begin. To illustrate these different combinations of needed services, figure 1 gives a breakdown of the services Virginia’s child support cases needed when time limits began. For example, at the beginning of the 2-year time limit, 4 percent of the custodial parents already had a support order in place but the noncustodial parents needed to be located and their support orders needed to be enforced through wage-withholding or other means. Appendix II describes the basic child support enforcement services. Child support enforcement is a joint federal and state responsibility. Within the federal government, OCSE is responsible for providing leadership, technical assistance, and standards for effective state programs. States or local offices under state supervision deliver child support services to families. The federal government and the states share administrative costs at the rate of 66 percent and 34 percent, respectively. In fiscal year 1996, administrative costs for the program were $3 billion and collections totaled $12 billion. About 13 percent of the 7.4 million AFDC child support cases and 28 percent of 9.3 million non-AFDC child support cases nationwide received at least one support payment in 1996. The new welfare reform law significantly changed our nation’s welfare policy. Since 1935, AFDC had entitled single-parent families to receive monthly cash assistance generally for as long as they met income and other eligibility criteria and had children under age 18. TANF represents a significant departure from this approach, placing a 5-year limit on federal aid designed to ensure that assistance is temporary for most recipients.Before the welfare reform law passed, however, 14 states were granted waivers under section 1115 of the Social Security Act allowing them to experiment with assistance time limits ranging from 18 months to 5 years.Although state policies regarding exemptions and extensions varied, these state waivers were the first efforts to make assistance temporary based solely on a specified period of time. Table 1 summarizes some provisions of the time-limited programs adopted in the three states we reviewed. The Congress also wanted to encourage parental responsibility by requiring OCSE and the states to strengthen the existing child support enforcement program by adopting new enforcement tools. These tools include federal and state registries of child support orders, federal and state directories of new employee hires, and state reporting of quarterly wage reports to help locate noncustodial parents and enforce support orders. As all states move to implement these tools, many states are also working to complete the statewide automated systems required by federal law. From fiscal year 1981 through fiscal year 1997, the states have spent about $3.2 billion in federal and state funds to develop these systems to manage their caseloads. However, as of March 30, 1998, only 25 of the 54 child support enforcement systems had been certified by HHS. In addition, the welfare reform legislation established new custodial parent cooperation requirements and penalties to strengthen existing requirements and to simplify the paternity establishment process. The law also included additional tools such as the matching of data with states’ financial institutions and the revocation of noncustodial parents’ driver’s, professional and occupational, and recreational licenses to enforce the payment of child support. Finally, the Congress required that HHS in consultation with the states develop and report to the Congress on a new incentive payment system to encourage states to operate effective programs. In the first three states to enforce time limits, most families who reached their 21-month to 3-year time limits did not have any child support collected for them during the 12 months before their welfare termination. Moreover, in about one-half to two-thirds of these families’ child support cases, child support was not due at termination because a support obligation had not yet been established. Only about 20 to 30 percent of families reaching their time limits had any child support collected for them in the 12 months before termination. Figure 2 shows the status of welfare families’ child support cases during the 12-month period before termination. The median annual amounts due for all cases with a current support order in Connecticut, Florida, and Virginia were $3,054, $2,134, and $2,067, respectively. However, as shown in table 2, the amount collected for families rarely equaled the full amount due. On average, the amount collected ranged from 43 percent to 52 percent of the amount due. For families with child support collected, median child support collections ranged from $581 to $1,348 and mean collections ranged from $1,065 to $1,388 for the 12-month period. Upon reaching termination, many families in the three states still required one or more basic child support services, including locating the noncustodial parent and establishing paternity and support orders, before collections and enforcement could begin. From 56 to 81 percent of all child support cases reviewed still needed at least one of these basic services when welfare benefits expired. One-half to about two-thirds of these cases had been open in the child support system for 5 years or longer. Locating a noncustodial parent is an essential precondition of all child support collections, for without location, paternity and support orders cannot be established, orders cannot be enforced, and collections cannot be made. In addition, locating a noncustodial parent may be necessary even though paternity has previously been established and a support order is in place. As figure 3 shows, from 56 to 81 percent of the noncustodial parents who needed to be located at the start of the time limit were not located by the time welfare benefits were terminated. State officials said locating noncustodial parents for families with older child support cases was particularly problematic. Information initially provided by custodial parents when they applied for welfare is no longer current, and new information is rarely forthcoming. Some noncustodial parents, like the custodial parents, are less educated, have fewer skills, and are less likely to be regularly employed. Therefore, they are harder to locate through employment sources. State officials also said noncustodial parents are often mobile, work “off the books,” and some may quit their jobs as soon as they are located through their employers. Another basic child support service that may still be needed is establishing paternity. Of the large proportion of the cases we reviewed needing paternity established at the start of the time limit, the vast majority still did not have paternity established by the time welfare benefits were terminated. From 71 percent to 79 percent of the child support cases that needed to have paternity established did not have paternity established by the time welfare benefits ended, as shown in figure 4. Most of the cases reviewed needed support orders established at the start of the time limit, and the vast majority of them still did not have orders established by the time welfare benefits were terminated. From 75 to 79 percent of the child support cases needing orders remained without orders at termination, as illustrated by figure 5. The outcomes in two states with strong child support performance demonstrate how states may achieve better results establishing paternity, obtaining support orders, and collecting child support. In these states, we reviewed new AFDC child support cases that were first opened in 1992 and remained open for 5 years—the maximum length of time a family may receive federal TANF aid. About two-thirds of the cases that remained open for 5 years received some child support in the last 12 months of the period. Yet, despite the greater success rate of these states, about one-third of their child support clients would have reached the end of a 5-year time limit without any child support, as shown in figure 6. About two-thirds of the cases that remained open for 5 years had some child support collected for them in the last 12 months. However, the majority of cases did not receive the full amount due, as shown in table 3. The median annual amounts due for all cases with a current support order in Minnesota and Washington were $2,351 and $2,358, respectively. The amount collected per case averaged 69 to 83 percent of the full amount due, higher than the cases reviewed in the first states to enforce time limits. For cases with collections, the median child support collections ranged from $1,875 to $2,118 and mean collections ranged from $2,211 to $2,316 in the last 12 months. States achieved high rates of paternity and support order establishment during the 5-year period. More than 80 percent of cases needing paternity or support order establishment or both received these basic services during the 5-year period, as figures 7 and 8 show. However, about one-third of all the cases that remained open for 5 years had no child support collected for them during the last 12 months of the period. Time limits are being implemented on the two different sets of families represented in our study: those already receiving aid before time limits began and those whose assistance will begin under time limits. Many of the families already receiving aid who did not have collections before the time limits began may be unlikely to obtain child support before welfare benefits expire unless states can improve their performance in locating noncustodial parents. In addition, families who begin receiving aid under time limits are much more likely to receive some support before their benefits expire if states aggressively pursue their cases.