Bill Summary: SB00446 - Child Support Orders, Enforcement and Reports

• Permits Department of Social Services to share information with Department of Correction and Judicial Branch to identify inmates, parolees, and probationers with IV-D support cases who may benefit from educational, training, and rehabilitation programming to increase their ability to pay child support.

• Requires courts to make a finding of paternity prior to entering orders concerning custody, care, education, visitation, and support of minor children when paternity has not been established.

• Expands child support orders for disabled children to continue until age twenty-one for children with mental retardation, mental disability, or physical disability who reside with a parent and are principally dependent for maintenance.

• Allows IV-D agency reports to the General Assembly to be submitted in electronic form rather than requiring physical copies to be filed with the State Librarian.

• Modifies income withholding procedures by removing the specific "eighty-five percent of first $145 per week" exemption and referencing federal law (Section 1673 of Title 15 of the United States Code) to determine exempt income amounts.