Child support

“ In my radio address lastweek, I talked about the need to have tougher child support enforcement, to demand that parents take responsibility for their own children and not let parents off the hook or make the taxpayers pick up the tab for their neglect. ”

“ By ensuring the enactment and implementation of my Administration's strong child support enforcement proposals, we will send a clear signal to our citizens that they should not have children until they are prepared to care for them. Those who do bring children into the world must bear the responsibility of supporting them. We must rededicate ourselves to the task of putting these youngest and most vulnerable of our citizens first. ”

“ There is one other thing I'd like to talk about that we must do to protect our children. Fathers must take their share of responsibility, too. Children deserve to be raised by both parents, but when that's not possible, children must still receive the support they need. The unfortunate division of families cannot mean the end of child support. ”

“ For families who stay together not only do better economically, their children do better as well.
In particular, I challenge the fathers of this country to love and care for their children. If your family has separated, you must pay your child support. We're doing more than ever to make sure you do, and we're going to do more, but let's all admit something about that, too: A check will not substitute for a parent's love and guidance. And only you--only you can make the decision to help raise your children. ”

“ We know, for example, that the simple failure to pay child support is one of the chief reasons women and children are on welfare. And this week, the Vice President and Secretary Riley released a report showing that when fathers do take an active role, their children do better—much better—in school. ”

“ The failure of some parents to meet their child support obligations threatens the health, education, and well-being of their children. Compounding this problem, States have experienced difficulties enforcing child support obligations once a parent has moved to another State. With this Executive order, my Administration takes additional steps to support our children and strengthen American families by facilitating the collection of delinquent child support obligations from persons who may be entitled or eligible to receive certain Federal payments or Federal assistance. ”

“ Principle 6 The child, for the full and harmonious development of his/her personality, needs love and understanding. He/she shall, wherever possible, grow up in the care and under the responsibility of his/her parents, and, in any case, in an atmosphere of affection and of moral and material security; a child of tender years shall not, save in exceptional circumstances, be separated from his/her mother. Society and the public authorities shall have the duty to extend particular care to children without a family and to those without adequate means of support. ”

“ Dedicated cooperation among family support enforcement personnel, the judiciary, and the legal community has led to greater success in locating absent parents, establishing paternity, and, ultimately, collecting child support. Nonetheless, much remains to be done to foster a nationwide conviction that child support represents not only a legal responsibility but a profound ethical obligation of parents and an urgent moral right of children. ”

“ Every child deserves a safe and supportive family. Ensuring that children grow up with the opportunity to reach their full potential is a top priority of my Administration. For thousands of children whose biological families are unable to support them, foster families provide a secure and nurturing environment that is essential for a successful start in life. ”

“ So long as responsibility for the care and support of children continues to be vested in the parents, so long, for the sake of the child, will it be the duty of society to insist that parents shall not neglect this responsibility. ”

“ For several years, the Federal government has worked with the States to recover child support payments from non-custodial parents. Collections for these children have improved dramatically in recent years, enabling thousands of families to leave the public assistance rolls. ”

“ We have doubled child support collections since 1992, and I am proposing tough new measures to hold still more fathers responsible. But we should recognize that a lot of fathers want to do right by their children--and need help to do it. ”

“ Sound public policy must support the family in its mission of child care. To do so effectively, public policy must increase and strengthen, not narrow and dilute, the variety of child care options open to families. It must help ensure that child care serves as an adjunct and buttress to parental guidance and love; that it reflects as far as possible the actual preferences of parents for the personal care of their precious offspring ”

“ The next year we worked across party lines to enact landmark welfare reform, which requires unmarried minor parents to stay in school and live under adult supervision. We also demanded that fathers live up to their obligations and have doubled child support collections. ”

“ During National Child Abuse Prevention Month, we underscore our strong commitment to preventing child abuse and neglect and to ensuring that all children have the opportunity to grow up in safe and nurturing environments.
Parents hold the primary responsibility for a child's health and well-being and provide a foundation of love and support for their children. Parents are not alone as they work to keep their children safe. Helping children requires a commitment from other family members, as well as individuals and organizations in every community. ”

“ The recognition of some of these needs of every child has been more general and intelligent than that of others. For example, the equal guardianship of the father and mother, their mutual responsibility for financial support when financially competent, their equal control over the family life and their common pledge 167to the community of parental care—this has not been recognized until recently, is not now in many of the States of the Union and perhaps not perfectly in any one. ”

“ Because the person who enjoys a healthy, happy childhood is most likely to become a healthy, well-adjusted adult, we do well to recall our obligation—as parents and as a Nation—to protect, nurture, and provide for our children.
Most parents are keenly aware of their responsibilities of providing food, shelter, clothing, and basic health care—the fundamental material support that is essential to every youngster's physical and emotional well-being. Yet parents also have a responsibility to nurture the spiritual and intellectual development of the child whom God has entrusted to their care. ”

“ We support a family preservation program to reduce child and spousal abuse by providing preventive services and foster care to families in crisis. We favor ensuring quality and affordable child care opportunities for working parents, and a fair and healthy start for every child, including essential pre-natal and well baby care. ”

“ More; parents hold their children in trust for society. “My own child” can only be true in a limited sense; the children are held as a public trust to be trained as is best for the welfare of the community; and in this sense, also, the parents are persons in authority, with the dignity of their office to support, and are even liable to deposition. ”

“ No question has been raised concerning the legality under federal law of reliance upon such benefits to relieve parents or their estates from the state-imposed obligations of child support.↑ La.Civ.Code Ann., Art. ”

“ Both are nature's dictates and intrinsic elements of the social state; the natural affections which blend parent and child in one, excite each to discharge those offices incidental to the relation, and constitute a shield for mutual protection. The parent's legal claim to the child's services, while a minor, is a slight return for the care and toil of his rearing, to say nothing of outlays for support and education. This provision is, with the mass of mankind, indispensable to the preservation of the family state. ”

“ Bipartisan support for this initiative-the first Federal investment in child welfare protection in more than a decade-has enabled States to use resources flexibly and creatively to strengthen families and work to reduce child abuse.
But government alone cannot end mistreatment. Social service agencies, schools, religious organizations, law enforcement agencies, businesses, and concerned citizens are all working to help children live up to their full potential. ”

“ Parents themselves have the primary responsibility for helping their children to grow up safely and healthily and at a pace that is right for the individual child. Children need their parents to help them navigate the world around them and to give them appropriate values as well as drawing reasonable boundaries that help minimise actual harm. But parents also want and expect businesses to support them in this. ”

“ The Program seeks to prevent child abuse and neglect, avoid removing children from their homes, support family reunification services, and help those children who are unable to return home by providing crucial adoption and post-adoptive services. These important resources benefit families across our Nation and hold the promise of a bright future for countless young people. ”

“ The child welfare boards afford advisory assistance, admonish the parents, and supervise the child's regime under preventative procedures. Taking a child into custody for social care is the last resort. ”

“ The overwhelming majority of all preschool child care is now provided by relatives and neighbors and churches and community groups. Families who choose these options should remain eligible for help. Parents should have choice. And for those children who are unwanted or abused or whose parents are deceased, we should encourage adoption. ”

“ The State lays down the principles in accordance with which the foster-parents must bring up the child, and sees that the foster-parents have access to expert advice concerning every department of the hygiene of childhood. The State insists that whenever necessary the foster-children shall have medical aid, that the children shall attend the elementary school, &c. If the foster-parents apply these principles properly in their care of the foster-children, they are likely to take care that their own children are treated at least equally well. ”

“ In rendering the assistance, whether it come from public or private funds, great care ought to be taken not to weaken, but, rather to stimulate, the interest of the parent in the child's progress, both by assigning to him a share of the responsibility of supervision, and, if possible, by compelling him to contribute an equitable proportion of the cost. ”

“ But they are not the mothers of your children, and it is not in nature that they should have the care and anxiety adequate to the necessity of the case. Out of the immediate care and personal superintendence of one or the other of the parents, or of some trusty relation, no young child ought to be suffered to be, if there be, at whatever sacrifice of ease or of property, any possibility of preventing it: because, to insure, if possible, the perfect form, the straight limbs, the sound body, and the sane mind of your children, is the very first of all your duties. ”

“ Can we not find some means to secure to infants a mother’s care and love for at least the first year of their lives, by furnishing these mothers with some honest means of support, and thus saving both mothers and children? ”

“ Educators, concerned citizens, faith-based and community organizations, and public officials all have vital roles in protecting our children and supporting families. When children are surrounded by positive relationships and experiences, they are more likely to grow into confident and caring adults.
My Administration remains dedicated to protecting our youth from child abuse and neglect. ”

“ Because the tasks facing foster parents often include special challenges, such as care of a child who is physically or mentally handicapped or who has been emotionally or physically abused, the mothers and fathers whom society qualifies to accept this added responsibility must be held to a high standard. To accomplish this goal, many more happy and successful families must be willing to step forward and to offer to share heart and home with children desperately longing for both. ”

“ We will double the number of children we move from foster care to permanent homes, from 27,000 a year today, to 54,000 a year by the year 2002. With this effort we're saying no child should be trapped in the limbo of foster care; no child should be uncertain about what the word "family" or "parents" or "home" mean, particularly when there are open arms waiting to welcome these children into safe and strong households where they can build good, caring lives. ”

“ The parent who from any cause is prevented from taking charge of the superintendence of her offspring at this period, incurs a serious responsibility in the choice of her assistant; for if these qualifications be awanting, or, if they be not exercised by the nurse or the keeper, the happiness and moral welfare of the child during life are in imminent danger. ”

“ We have proposed an historic initiative to ensure that parents have access to quality, affordable child care for their children. I pledge to continue supporting these types of effective programs and legislation so that America's parents have the tools they need to give their children a strong start in life. ”

“ In the absence of proper home care and training, society for its own protection and for the welfare of the child must assume charge. The State becomes a foster-parent, and as far as possible provides a substitute for the home. The earlier method was to place the individual child, with many other similar unfortunates, in a public or private philanthropic institution. In such an environment it was possible to maintain discipline, to secure instruction and a wholesome atmosphere for social development, and to have the advantage of economical management. ”

“ Children welfare institutions and relief and protection agencies for minors shall provide family education guidance to the foster families arranged by them, and to the parents or other guardians of the minors who receive their assistance and protection. ”