Commission urges completion of preamble draft ahead of June 15 Judicial Branch printing deadline

At its April 2 meeting, the State of Connecticut Commission for Child Support Guidelines focused much of its discussion on finishing a draft preamble to accompany the updated guidelines.

Chair opened the meeting saying the primary reason for convening was to "check to see how everyone's doing with the preamble," and Attorney Graham Schaeffer said he had circulated an updated draft and additional sections earlier that day. Schaeffer asked the panel whether sections that the Commission did not discuss should remain in the preamble with a brief note that they were not addressed or be removed entirely.

Members agreed to add a short, uniform line for any section the Commission did not take up rather than drafting extended explanations. Schaeffer said the Judicial Branch requires a completed draft by June 15 to print materials and that he contacted the Secretary of the State's office to obtain a PDF of the full guidelines with the proposed changes so he can combine that file with the preamble into one document for submission.

Schaeffer asked members to aim for consolidation by the May 7 meeting to allow a buffer for any June edits. He offered to maintain a master document if members send redlines or plain-text edits to him; several members confirmed that workflow. Schaeffer also noted two sections where "shared parenting" needs explicit attention and said he has begun drafting one of those sections and will coordinate with Representative Cara on the other.

The Commission set its next meeting for May 7, 2026, and did not take additional formal actions on the preamble at this session.