The Merced County Board of Supervisors proclaimed August 2025 as Child Support Awareness Month and heard an update from the county Child Support Services director on program activity and a community event.

Jeffrey Watoon, director of Merced County Child Support Services, told the board the program collected and distributed nearly $29.8 million to children and families in federal fiscal year 2024 and served a caseload the director described as about 13,683 cases. He said the county is on pace to exceed $30 million in collections in the current federal fiscal year.

Watoon said nationally $29.6 billion in child support was collected and distributed in federal fiscal year 2023 and that California local child support agencies collected $2.5 billion in 2024. He said the program serves one in five children nationally and helps reduce child poverty.

Watoon invited the public to the department’s sixth annual Kids Connect back-to-school event, scheduled for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on a July Saturday at Margaret Sheehy Elementary School, where the county and partners will distribute backpacks, school supplies and food boxes and provide community resources. He said the event is free and open to children and guardians.

The proclamation text read during the meeting also states that Merced County had a caseload of 13,600 child support cases in 2024 and served more than 14,700 children; the director’s spoken remarks cited a caseload figure of 13,683 and nearly $29.8 million in county collections. The board approved the proclamation as part of the consent calendar earlier in the meeting.

Watoon noted the program is funded by state and federal funds and described it as cost neutral to the county. He said roughly 92% of the county’s open child support cases had an order established through June of the current year and that the program collected over 64% of the total child support due month to date in the current fiscal year.

The board encouraged residents to attend the Kids Connect event and invited board members to participate.