Key Points
- In 1984, the House ways and Means Committee requested the creation of a national advisory panel on child support guidelines in order to assist the federal government and states with the creation and implementation of guidelines.
- Funded by the federal government, the National Center for State Courts established the panel (also know as Child Support Project).
- The Panel consisted of a cross-section of stakeholders. Dr. Robert Williams was the major investigator.
- It recommended Income Shares and Melson models.
- The final report was issued in 1987 showed recommendations to Congress on child support amounts and recommendations to the states on the development of guidelines. Here are the principles.
- The Panel also recommended that states incorporate eleven factors in their guidelines.
Analysis
- Some of the principles should be unsettling, as it created a new entitlement simply because one parent wanted to divorce.
- Ironically, the Incomes Shares model fails to meet some of these principles.
- Comparing the three models used by the states, none of them incorporate the 11 factors.