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DCF urges statute to match practice: exclude child-support nonpayment from grounds for parental-rights termination in CHINS cases
Summary
Heather McLean of the Department for Children and Families told the House Judiciary Committee the agency supports 2024 changes that removed child-support nonpayment as a termination factor but seeks a statutory carve-out making that explicit for CHINS (Title 33) proceedings to avoid unintended consequences.
Heather McLean, revenue enhancement director for the Department for Children and Families (DCF), told the House Judiciary Committee on S.109 that DCF supports 2024 statutory changes that removed language in Title 15A permitting consideration of nonpayment of child support as a factor in termination of parental rights, but the agency is asking lawmakers to add a specific carve-out for CHINS proceedings initiated under Title 33.
Nut Graf: McLean said the change is intended to align statute with current DCF practice and federal guidance, and to avoid unintended consequences in adoption and termination-of-parental-rights cases where Title 15A applies after Title 33 proceedings end.
McLean explained that when a child enters foster care, DCF staff assess whether an active child-support order exists and, if appropriate, ask the court to make the state the obligee so support offsets foster-care costs. She said child-support work is handled separately from case planning and permanency decisions and that DCF bases termination decisions on a parent’s ability to safely care for a child, not on poverty or an isolated missed payment. She told the committee that federal rules historically required child-welfare agencies to analyze pursuing support for Title IV-E–eligible children, but a 2022 federal change removed that requirement and allowed agencies to be “more trauma informed and equitable.”
McLean also referenced media attention, saying a 2023 National Public Radio story highlighted practices in other states and mentioned Vermont; she reiterated that DCF has not pursued terminations on the basis of child-support nonpayment. To prevent future divergence between practice and statute, DCF proposes restoring the struck language to Title 15A only with an explicit statutory carve-out: "nonpayment of child support shall not be used as grounds for termination of parental rights in CHINS proceedings initiated under Title 33," McLean said.
Committee members asked whether the requested carve-out would affect other proceedings; McLean and questioners clarified it would apply only to CHINS work under Title 33 and would not alter unrelated termination or adoption matters outside that statutory pathway. She said DCF legal staff is coordinating proposed statutory language and will provide it to the committee.
Ending: The committee did not take a vote during the hearing; DCF said it will deliver draft statutory language for the committee to consider as S.109 moves forward.
