KidsMatter Supports Landmark Lawsuit Challenging Violations of Parental Rights in California

San Diego, CA – October 3, 2023 – On behalf of the thousands of California families we serve, KidsMatter strongly supports the new class action lawsuit, D’Souza v. Guerrero, that seeks to enforce the constitutional rights of fit parents in court proceedings. For too long, decent, loving parents have been stripped of custody rights without any findings of parental unfitness. This draconian practice is harming far too many children and families.

This lawsuit alleges that entrenched practices and policies in California’s courts are systemically violating the fundamental rights of parents guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments. All parents have a constitutional right to the care, custody and control of their children, as well as a right to private familial association, absent findings of unfitness. Yet everyday, courts impose near-total bans on custody and parenting time against fit, non-abusive parents.

So-called “supervised visitation” are highly profitable to the State, frequently and arbitrarily ordered with no justification for such draconian restrictions. This deprives parents of any meaningful time with their children or ability to fulfill their role. Worse, temporary orders depriving parents of equal access to their children can drag on for several years without a trial. These policies claim to serve children’s best interests, but nothing could be further from the truth. Children need and have a basic human right to the care and companionship of fit, loving parents.

KidsMatter calls upon the California Legislature to step in and protect the parent-child relationship. Legislative hearings must be held to investigate widespread reports of corruption and collusion between judges, appointed experts and attorneys in family law cases. Emergency action is urgently needed to enforce the constitutional rights of parents in all custody proceedings. When Judges are not trained on Constitutionally guaranteed fundamental and civil rights protections, courtrooms disintegrate into lawless profit centers for unscrupulous professionals.

Families turn to the court system expecting impartial justice. Yet too often, they encounter a system that profits from prolonging conflict, and where Constitutional rights only exist on paper. It is time for systemic reform to uphold the rights of parents and children alike. KidsMatter remains committed to advocating for all parents targeted in overreach, corruption and negligence in California’s family courts.

The systemic violations outlined in KidsMatter’s June 2022 press release, 13 unethical and unlawful violations in the San Diego family courts further underscore the urgent need for reform alleged in the new D’Souza v. Guerrero lawsuit. For years, advocacy groups like KidsMatter have been sounding the alarm about widespread abuses of power and due process in California courts. Yet the judicial oversight bodies meant to address such misconduct have utterly failed in their duties.

Now, this class action suit seeks to compel statewide judicial reform by enforcing the baseline constitutional rights of parents in all custody proceedings. Without such reform, thousands more children are at risk of being unjustly separated from fit, loving parents in proceedings rife with conflicts of interest and corruption. The Legislature must act where oversight bodies have failed, and enforce the rights of parents and families through legislative hearings and reform. 

About KidsMatter:  KidsMatter is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to reuniting children with loving, fit parents unjustly deprived of custody and parenting time. For more information, visit www.kidsmatter.charity

Or Media Contact Robert Emert at 760-612-9328 cl3@kidsmatter.com

The Problem

The child support system can alienate fathers from their children, create high hurdles for parents trying to comply with support orders, and result in fewer resources for the children it is meant to help.

• The system treats many fathers as antagonists. Research suggests that many fathers want to be more to their children than a paycheck. Yet when fathers fall behind on child support, they can be driven away by a system that assumes they need threats to remain involved in a child’s life.
• The system creates a vicious cycle. States can garnish up to 65 percent of fathers’ wages for child support, and orders are rarely adjusted, as they should be, if a father loses his job. States can intercept tax returns, withhold or revoke driver’s licenses, deny professional licenses, and seize assets. States can also throw fathers in jail for not paying child support. All this discourages employment and reduces child support payments.
• When fathers pay, the government keeps a portion to cover the costs of social programs. In 28 states in 2016, families receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families cash assistance received none of the child support their fathers paid. Research shows that when governments keep child support payments, fathers are less likely to pay support.

The Solution

1. Empower parents to decide together how best to support their children. States can encourage parents to collectively agree to child support payments and reframe the system as a family resource rather than a punitive enforcement program. States can also allow a father’s noncash and informal contributions to count toward his child support obligation, if parents agree.

2. Apply reasonable standards to child support orders. Research shows that fathers who owe more than 35 percent of their earnings are less likely to comply. We propose evaluating a standard of 20 percent of a father’s disposable income. Orders should also be modified when necessary.

3. End child support as a mechanism to recoup welfare costs. States should not cover program costs by keeping a share of child support payments. Although federal cost recoupment would require legislative change, states can voluntarily end the practice. Costs will be offset by lower child poverty, stronger family relationships, higher child support payments, and more fathers establishing paternity.

What Philanthropy Can Do

Philanthropy can fund demonstration projects with states and localities to build additional evidence to help legislators understand the need to change the child support system. Philanthropy can also fund demonstration programs to increase understanding of the costs and benefits of services designed to support both parents and increase noncustodial parents’ ability to pay child support.

What Government Can Do

Government can help parents collaborate on how to support their children. States and localities can rename and reframe their programs to emphasize family-building, and states can authorize judges to approve coparenting plans.

The federal government can end the cost-recovery aspect of child support. Meanwhile, states can give up child support dollars as a revenue source and use state funds to meet their federal obligations. States and counties could begin immediately to limit child support orders or forgive debt owed under child support orders.

What Does “Mobility” From Poverty Mean?

The US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty’s definition of mobility has three core principles: economic success, power and autonomy, and being valued in community. These principles drive five mutually reinforcing strategies:

• Change the narrative
• Create access to good jobs
• Ensure zip code is not destiny
• Provide support that empowers
• Transform data use

Transforming child support is part of the strategy to provide support that empowers.

How Changes To The Child Support System Can Improve Mobility

• Economic success: We expect increased earnings for noncustodial parents, greater compliance with child support orders, and improved social, emotional, and cognitive outcomes for children that may eventually boost educational attainment and income.
• Power and autonomy: We expect lower arrearages, fewer noncustodial parents facing sanctions for failure to pay, and better mental health for parents and children.
• Being valued in community: Non-custodial parents will feel more important in their children’s lives and have higher perceived standing in the community.

This brief summarizes the paper Transforming Child Support into a Family-Building System. The paper lists sources for the research summarized here.

As we celebrate the institution of Kids Matter, our non-profit organization established to advocate for the at-risk children of divorced and divorcing parents, we are pleased to invite you to become a partner in our effort to increase services to disenfranchised families who lack the ability to afford equitable family court services.

Founded in 2020, Kids Matter is a nonprofit 501c3 organization dedicated to improving the lives of children of divorced or disputing parents through child advocacy and family education. Our organization is committed to working collaboratively with child and family advocacy groups and individuals who are passionate about serving disenfranchised children and families.

Kids Matter champions restorative family counseling, education and legal services that produce equitable co-parenting structures for children who deserve to have both parents actively engaged in their lives.