BILL NUMBER:  S3879A

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the social services law, in relation
to publication of a child support standards chart; to amend the social
services law and the family court act, in relation to clarifying the
role of the support collection unit in violation proceedings and the
role of an attorney appearing for the social services district on
behalf of an individual receiving child support services; to amend the
family court act, in relation to correcting references to federal
authority; and to amend the social services law, the family court act
and the domestic relations law, in relation to increasing the combined
parental income amount utilized for the calculation of child support

 PURPOSE OF THE BILL :  This bill would: (1) clarify and confirm the
role of the child support enforcement unit relating to the provision
of child support enforcement services to individual parties; (2)
ensure consistency between Social Services Law and the federal Office
of Child Support Enforcement, the oversight agency for state child
support enforcement programs operating in compliance with Title IV-D
of the Federal Social Security Act ("Title IV-D") by providing that
attorneys providing legal services under Title IV-D represent the IV-D
agency in carrying out its duties; (3) correct a reference to federal
law in Family Court Act (FCA) § 413; (4) remove a requirement that
certain charts published annually by the Commissioner of OTDA must
appear in regulation; and (5) increase the consistency of support
orders throughout the State by updating the combined parental income
              

amount utilized by courts for calculating support to reflect current
economic realities.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :  Section 1 of the bill would give the bill
the short title of the "Child Support Modernization Act."

Section 2 of the bill would amend Social Services Law (SSL) § 11-i (2)
to: (1) remove the requirement that publication of the self-support
reserve and the child support standards chart published by the
Commissioner of OTDA appear in regulation; and (2) define the combined
parental income amount and require publication thereof in the child
support standards chart.

Section 3 of the bill would amend SSL § 111-c to provide that: (1) in
providing child support services, a local social services district
represents the interests of the district in carrying out its duties
under the child support program; (2) the provision of legal services
under the child support program does not constitute or create an
attorney-client relationship between the individual receiving services
and any attorney representing or appearing for the district to provide
such legal services; (3) the social services district has standing to
appear in any child support proceeding involving an individual in
receipt of child support services; and (4) the social services
district will provide notice to individuals requesting or receiving
services that the attorney representing or appearing for the district
does not represent the individual.

Section 4 of the bill would amend FCA § 453 (a) to clarify that the
support collection unit may originate and prosecute violation
petitions on behalf of persons in receipt of public assistance or in
receipt of services pursuant to SSL § 111-g.

Section 5 of the bill would amend FCA § 516-a to correct a reference
to federal law.

Sections 6 and 7 of the bill would amend FCA § 413 and Domestic
Relations Law (DRL) § 240, respectively, to increase from $80,000 to
$130,000 the combined parental income amount used to calculate child
support orders and for which application of the Child Support
Standards Act (CSSA) percentages are mandatory. These sections also
include a mechanism for revising the "combined parental income amount"
every other year based upon the consumer price index for all urban
consumers (CPI-U) published by the United States Department of Labor.

Section 8 of the bill would provide for an immediate effective date
for all sections of the bill, except for sections 2, 6 and 7 which
would take effect on January 31, 2010.

 EXISTING LAW :  Various sections of the FCA, the DRL and the SSL,
including FCA § 413 and DRL § 240, contain provisions concerning the
obligation of parents to support their children.

SSL § 111-c sets forth the functions, powers and duties of social
services districts.

SSL § 111-i requires the commissioner of OTDA to publish annually in
regulations the child support standards chart.

FCA § 453 provides that the support collection unit may originate a
petition for a violation of a court order.

FCA § 516-a sets out the procedures for establishing paternity by
written voluntary acknowledgement.

 PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :  In the 2007 legislative session, S.4848
contained provisions similar to sections 2 and 3 of this bill. The
bill was not reported from the Senate Judiciary Committee. In the 2008
legislative session, similar provisions were part of 5.8340 which was
not reported from the Senate Rules Committee.

 STATEMENT IN SUPPORT :  Under Title IV-D, child support enforcement
services must be made available by the local district child support
enforcement units (CSEU) to both custodial and non-custodial parents,
public assistance recipients and non-public assistance recipients, and
must be conducted in accordance with applicable State and federal laws
and regulations. Likewise, legal services must be made available by
the CSEU to all persons in receipt of public assistance and care and,
upon request only, to persons in receipt of services pursuant to SSL §
111-g. However, existing law does not clearly provide that the role of
the CSEU, including that of its legal staff, is to comply with State
and federal program requirements and provide enforcement-related
services to individuals and not to represent an individual in a
traditional attorney-client relationship. The bill would clarify and
confirm the role of the CSEU in providing child support enforcement
services, thereby ensuring the program will comply with federal
requirements.

As originally conceived in the 1970s, child support enforcement
programs operating in compliance with Title IV-D were responsible for
establishing paternity and obtaining support for custodial parents.
Over the last several decades, the Title IV-D program has expanded to
require state certified programs to provide services to both custodial
and non-custodial parents and the caseload composition has changed
from predominantly public assistance families to former or
never-assistance families. Attorneys providing legal services are
generally government employees (county attorneys or local county
department of social services employees) or are under contract with
local governments. In order to fulfill this expanded role and ensure
compliance with attorney ethical obligations, the child support
enforcement attorney's role has been clarified in states nationwide to
provide that the IV-D attorney and the IV-D staff do not represent
individual parties but instead represent the agency with respect to
the delivery of IV-D services, specifically establishing paternity and
establishing, modifying and enforcing orders of support. The bill
would clarify that attorneys who provide child support services do not

represent individual parties, but represent the agency in the
provision of these services.

The bill would also clarify that the support collection unit may not
only originate but may also prosecute a violation proceeding on behalf
of non-public assistance individuals in receipt of child support
services pursuant to SSL § 111-g. This amendment is in response to
MONROE COUNTY SUPPORT COLLECTION UNIT v. WHITE, 2 A.D.3d 1368 (4th
Dept. 2003), which held that: (1) while the support collection unit
had authority under FCA § 453 to originate the proceeding, it lacked
authority to prosecute a violation proceeding regarding an order
payable through the support collection unit for the support of a child
not receiving public assistance; and (2) the support collection unit
lacked standing to prosecute the violation proceedings because the
custodial parent did not execute a "right to recovery" agreement
permitting the support collection unit to recover its costs, and
therefore was not a "party in interest."

The bill would also eliminate the requirement that the Commissioner of
OTDA publish the revised self-support reserve and child support
standards chart in regulation. The Commissioner would still publish
this information, but it would appear in a document produced by OTDA.

The bill also corrects a, citation error contained in FCA § 516-a. FCA
§ 516-a (d) erroneously refers to section 652 of the Social Security
Act. Section 652 (a) (7) is the U.S. Code section; section 452 is the
relevant section of the Social Security Act.

Lastly, the bill would increase the "combined parental income amount"
(the maximum dollar value of parental income, or "cap", to which the
Child Support Standards Act (CSSA) percentages must be applied for the
calculation of child support) from $80,000 to $130,000 upon the
effective date of the proposal, with a mechanism beginning in 2012 for
revising this threshold every two years to reflect changes in the
consumer price index. The current threshold of $80,000 was created in
1989. Since then, there have been both increases in income levels and
the cost of living, thus it no' longer signifies the high-income
families it was intended to delineate, families with combined income
levels potentially warranting deviation from the CSSA percentages. In
short, the exception has lost its meaning. It is imperative that the
"combined parental income amount" keep pace with current economic
realities so that proper orders are granted on a consistent and
predictable basis throughout the State, leaving only exceptional
income cases to potentially be determined outside of the presumptively
correct CSSA percentages.

 BUDGET IMPLICATIONS  This bill would have no significant fiscal
implications.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :  This bill would provide for an immediate effective
date, except for sections 2, 6 and 7 which would take effect January
31, 2010.