Child Support Services workshop held for base helping agencies

  • Published
  • By Nancy Koch-Castillo
  • 412th Test Wing
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  A free update and training workshop presented by the Los Angeles County Child Support Services Department was held June 4 in order for Edwards personnel assigned to base helping agencies to learn about important updates in child support services.

The workshop was held to better equip base helping agencies with information to pass on to the Edwards community.

"The Department's mission is to enrich our community by providing child support services in an efficient, effective and professional manner, one family at a time," said Lori Cruz, deputy director of Branch Operations from the Los Angeles County Child Support Services Department.

During the event, speakers went over the new customer service focus of child support services and what services are offered by the CSSD.

According to Al Reyes, division chief of the Outreach Services Division, services offered by the child support program include: locating parents, establishing paternity, obtaining child support & medical support orders from the court, enforcing and modifying child and spousal support orders and collecting and distributing court-ordered child support. Services that are not offered by the child support program are: divorce, custody, visitation, restraining orders and establishing spousal orders.

Since child support is no longer handled by the District Attorney's office in Los Angeles County, representatives from the CSSD wanted to make sure base helping agencies knew that there are six Los Angeles County CSSD offices located in: Lancaster, Encino, Commerce, West Covina, South Los Angeles and Torrance.

The Department was created by Congress in 1975 and it was originally designed to recover money from parents whose children received welfare. Their program goals are to ensure the economic security of children by establishing paternity for children born out of wedlock, establishing and enforcing child support orders, and establishing and enforcing health insurance coverage.

For more information, parents can access case specific information via the Customer Connect website, www.childsup-connect.ca.gov, which is California's new child support self-service information system. There is also a toll-free automated phone system to contact CSSD during business hours or access account information 24 hours a day at (866) 901-3212.