THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 31, 1994 TAG: 9408310465
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
State officials will begin sending notices next month to several dozen health workers warning that they could lose their professional licenses if they refuse to pay child support they owe.
The 66 health professionals are the first to be targeted by a new state law that allows the court to suspend their licenses for failure to pay child support.
The law could affect about 10,000 parents, nearly all of them fathers, who owe about $60 million in back child support in Virginia, said Michael Henry, chief of the state's Division of Child Support Enforcement.
He said other license holders who owe child support will be sent warning notices over the next several months as they are tracked down through the state's licensing agencies. They must be at least $5,000 or 90 days behind on payments.
Those covered by the law include physicians, lawyers, architects, engineers, accountants, truck drivers, barbers, plumbers and real estate brokers.
Henry said the law that took effect in July is intended to compel parents to pay before their licenses are taken away.
``The idea here is not to suspend licenses. If we do that, we've failed in a case,'' he said at a news conference marking the end of child support enforcement month.
Arizona, one of about 14 other states with the law, applies the law about 50 times a month and has only had to revoke one license, he said.
``It seems to be a very effective way to get noncustodial parents' attention,'' Henry said.
Under the law, a judge can order that a parent's professional or business license be revoked if a child support payment is not made within 90 days.
Henry also released a list of Virginia's latest ``10 Most Wanted'' child support evaders. They include a cross-section of so-called deadbeat dads and not necessarily the ones who owe the most, he said.
The state has released similar lists for the past eight years and has tracked down 47 of the 66 parents who have been on the list, Henry said.
The state is trying to collect a total of $622.4 million in back child support.
Of the state's 340,000 parents who owe child support, 10 percent are up to date on their payments.
In half of the 340,000 cases, the mother has not even told state officials who the father is. In the remaining 170,000 cases, a court has ordered child support, but only about 85,000 parents make a payment in an average month.
Secretary of Health and Human Resources Kay Coles James said she supports education efforts to encourage families to stay together and more emotional involvement by fathers.
``We don't want just their paychecks. We want them,'' she said.
She was surrounded by several mothers and their children, but did not say whether they are owed child support.
One mother, Josephine Campbell, said afterward that the fathers of her two children are up to date on their payments. One has always been supportive and the other got behind once, she said.
``I'm one of those that's not really had a problem,'' she told a reporter. ILLUSTRATION: AP photo
Michael Henry, chief of the Virginia Division of Child Support
Enforcement, said the licenserevocation programs in other states
have been ``a very effective way to get noncustodial parents'
attention.'' Henry also unveiled the state's latest poster featuring
its ``10 Most Wanted'' child-support evaders.
KEYWORDS: CHILD SUPPORT by CNB