My new co-authored column, "AB 612 Will Make It Harder to Protect Children from Parental Alienation" (Riverside Press-Enterprise, 4/2/07), criticizes a new California bill which will make it harder for noncustodial parents to protect their relationships with their children after a divorce or separation.

The bill would discourage mental health professionals from issuing findings of Parental Alienation in divorce/custody cases. It would also make it more difficult for target parents to get courts to order psychological evaluations as part of child custody investigations. The column appears in full below.

As we mention in the column, April 25 is "Parental Alienation Awareness Day." The Parental Alienation Awareness Organization has made great progress in gaining recognition of Parental Alienation, and has gotten the Governors of three states to officially recognize April 25 as PAAD. The PAAO is also holding a conference on Parental Alienation this month. I fully endorse these activists' efforts--to learn more, click here or write to Robin Denison at robin@parental-alienation-awareness.com.

If you'd like to write a Letter to the Editor about "AB 612 Will Make It Harder to Protect Children from Parental Alienation," send it to letters@pe.com. The Riverside Press-Enterprise

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I am partnering with Parental Alienation expert J. Michael Bone, Ph.D., John Curtis, Ph.D., author of  The Business of Love, and Debby Hirschhorn Ph.D., author of The Secret Marriage Killer: Eradicating Verbal and Emotional Abuse, in the new 'Being a Better Dad' Teleseminar series.

The seminar is a convenient way for men to learn vital information or gain new skills on being a better dad. Fathers can attend training from the privacy of their own homes via telephone.

A Certificate of Attendance will be awarded to fathers who complete all 4 hours of "Being a Better Dad," and can be used to help show judges, child custody evaluators, mediators, etc.,  your commitment to co-parenting after divorce or separation, and to being the best dad you can be.

The first Teleseminar is Thursday April 19 (9 p.m. EDT / 6 p.m. PDT)--to sign up, go to www.beingabetterdad.com.

I love being a dad, but there are times when it can be trying, and parenting during divorce or separation must be 10 or 100 times more difficult. The Being a Better Dad seminars are designed to help. The Being a Better Dad seminars cover:

- The national perspective on the most significant parenting and men's issues of 2007
- How a father can respond to Parental Alienation (where one parent tries to turn a child against the other parent)
- Stopping verbal abuse in marital or post-marital conflict along with winning strategies to raising healthier children
- A new approach to healthy intimate relationships based on business strategies that will actually work in the 21st century especially among dual-income couples

The Teleseminar's presenters are:

J. Michael Bone, Ph.D. is a national expert on Parental Alienation and high conflict divorce. He has been an evaluator, expert witness and educator on Parental Alienation in courts throughout the United States.

Debby Hirschhorn Ph.D. is a marriage and family therapist and the author of The Secret Marriage Killer: Eradicating Verbal and Emotional Abuse and How to Get Your Kids to WANT to Do What YOU Want Them to.

John Curtis, Ph.D. is the author of The Business of Love: 9 Best Practices for Improving the Bottom Line of Your Relationship, a unique book which details a step-by-step approach to apply proven business strategies to a marriage. Curtis and The Business of Love have been covered by the Today Show, the New York Times, Bloomberg Financial and numerous others.

Glenn Sacks is a fathers' advocate and columnist, commentator, blogger and talk show host. His columns appear regularly in US newspapers, he has made hundreds of radio and TV appearances, and is often quoted on fathers' issues in newspapers and magazines.

The first Teleseminar is Thursday April 19 (9 p.m. EDT / 6 p.m. PDT)--to sign up, go to www.beingabetterdad.com.

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

The American Coalition for Fathers and Children The American Coalition for Fathers and Children is dedicated to creating a family law system which promotes equal rights for all parties affected by divorce. Contact the ACFC at 1-800-978-3237 or visit them on the web at www.acfc.org. Parental-Alienation-Awareness.com Workshop 2007 Parental-Alienation-Awareness.com will be sponsoring a conference on Parental Alienation in Palmetto, Florida on April 14-15, 2007. This conference will cover the legal, psychological, social, and familial aspects of parental alienation, child abduction, child abuse, and custody and divorce issues. Speakers will include Dr. Stephen Ceci, PhD, author of Jeopardy in the Courtroom, Harvey Shapiro, a retired law enforcement official who is an expert on false sexual allegations, Randy Rand, Ed. D., and numerous others. To learn more, click here. Parental-Alienation-Awareness.com does good work--it is they who have made the remarkable achievement of getting the Governors of Nevada, Maine and Iowa to proclaim April 25 as Parental Alienation Awareness Day. To contact Parental-Alienation-Awareness.com, write to Robin Denison at robin@parental-alienation-awareness.com. SAMSONLAW--Divorce Lawyers for Michigan Men & Fathers If you're a Michigan man faced with divorce, you need SAMSONLAW on your side--SAMSONLAW defends men. Smart Advocacy Means Stopping Oppression Now. INeedSamson.com

April 2, 2007

Background: Recently Ohio's Butler County Child Support Enforcement Agency launched a highly-publicized new campaign which puts mug shots of the County's "Most Wanted Deadbeat Parents" on pizza boxes. The idea was the brainchild of Agency Executive Director Cynthia Brown. I debated Brown on FOX News' nationally-syndicated Morning Show with Mike and Juliet on Tuesday--to watch, click here. See the Associated Press story on it here. To learn more about the story, click here.

My new co-authored column, "Ohio Pizza Box/'Deadbeat Dad'" Campaign Unfairly Stigmatizes Fathers" (Cincinnati Post, 4/2/07), criticizes the newest campaign against so-called "deadbeat dads." In the column family law attorney Jeff Leving and I wrote:

"Three roofers, two construction workers, a musician and four men with no known occupations just became very famous. They are the Ohio 'deadbeat dads' targeted in the Butler County Child Support Enforcement Agency's highly-publicized new campaign which puts mug shots of the County's 'Most Wanted Deadbeat Parents' on pizza boxes. Agency Executive Director Cynthia Brown and campaign supporter Kay Cullen of the National Child Support Enforcement Association would have us believe that the men targeted are high-flying deadbeats who are selfishly stiffing their children. Research contradicts this.

"That Butler County was unable to come up with even one alleged 'deadbeat' who has an education or a middle-class job might give public officials less zealous than Brown and Cullen some pause...Cullen asserts that there is $106 billion in cumulative past-due child support since child support enforcement agencies were formed in the mid-1970s. Yet this figure is largely meaningless because most of these arrearages are artificially-inflated paper debt, and do not represent what child obligors should actually have been expected to pay."

If you'd like to write a Letter to the Editor about the column, published under the title 'In Defense of 'Deadbeat Dads'', send it to the Cincinnati Post at postedits@cincypost.com.

To read more and to discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

The facts of the James Stewart case, as described in "Suit: Police killed man as he tried to kill self" (Allentown Morning Call, 4/3/07), appear pretty outrageous, though perhaps the accused officer has facts that support him that we don't know about. Apparently Stewart, only 24, pulled out a boxcutter and attempted suicide rather than go back to jail for being behind on his child support. According to the lawsuit, a police officer then shot Stewart twice in the back, killing him.

It is not uncommon for men to commit or attempt suicide over child support issues. A few examples are:

1) The Derrick Miller case--see my column Distraught Father's Courthouse Suicide Highlights America's Male Suicide Epidemic (San Diego Union-Tribune, 1/11/02). Miller had just received a child support order that would have taken three-quarters of his pay.

2) The Francis Borgia case--hear my radio commentary radio commentary on Borgia at Deadbeat Dad or Deadbroke Dad?

3) The Darrin White case--to read a letter from White's daughter, click here.

Suit: Police killed man as he tried to kill self, Allentown officers shot work release inmate in back during arrest

A federal lawsuit accuses two Allentown police officers of "outlandish and outrageous conduct" in what it calls the unprovoked shooting of a man who tried to kill himself with a box cutter.

James H. Stewart, 24, died from two gunshots to his back after the officers tried to arrest him for failing to return to Northampton County Prison after a work-release assignment. He had been jailed for failing to make child support payments.

The suit, filed by attorney John P. Karoly Jr. on March 19, exactly two years after Stewart's death, alleges officer Jeremy Moll shot Stewart twice and that Moll's partner, Wesley Wilcox, yelled at him, "What the f-- are you doing?"

Filed on behalf of Stewart's estate and his sister, Tonya Stewart, the suit accuses both officers of brutality and using excessive force. Besides Moll and Wilcox, it names former Chief Joseph Blackburn and the city as defendants, and seeks at least $300,000 in punitive and compensatory damages...

Stewart, a handyman and father of three, had fallen behind on child support payments and in February 2005 was sent to Northampton County Prison, where he was placed in a work-release program. But he failed to return to the prison March 4, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Early on March 19, 2005, police received an anonymous tip that Stewart was at his sister's home at 510 Auburn St., Allentown.

According to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court:

Moll and Wilcox arrived minutes later and "pushed their way" into the home, where they found Stewart ''sitting harmlessly" on his bed. The officers ordered him to stand, asked his name and checked his identifying tattoos. When they told Stewart to turn around, he took a box cutter from his belt and "tried to stab himself."

One of the officers wrestled the box cutter away and threw it to the floor.

As Stewart stood with his back to the officers and arms to his sides, Moll shot him. Stewart fell to his knees, and Moll shot him again in the back. Stewart dropped to the floor, where he lay dying in a pool of blood.

To read more and to discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

One of the most common and pernicious anti-male myths in popular culture is the myth of the lazy husband. As I've noted before, research shows that when both work outside the home and inside the home are properly considered, it is clear that men do at least as much as women.

The new article Dads increase time with children, housework (Washington Post, 4/6/07) discusses a University of Maryland that shows that the total workloads of married mothers and fathers -- when paid work is added to child care and housework -- are roughly equal, at 65 hours a week for mothers and 64 hours for fathers.

The article goes into the obligatory "men used to not do enough but now they're getting better" routine, but I don't see any evidence in the article to show that men were ever doing less overall than women. Yes, in the past men did less childcare and housework, but women did less market labor, too. And much research shows that even in the pre-feminist era men worked as many hours overall as women did, and this doesn't even account for the physically demanding, dangerous work that so many men did when America had a mostly industrial economy.

To learn more about men, women and work, see my co-authored column Are American Husbands Slackers? (Tallahassee Democrat, 3/22/06). Warren Farrell also has an excellent section on this in his 1999 book Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say.

Dads increase time with children, housework
Washington Post, 4/6/07

It was a Saturday, and Roberto Clark was out with his 6-year-old daughter and 7-year-old twin sons. They hit the mall to pick up baseball caps and were headed to Dairy Queen for ice cream. Clark figured they would be out of the house half a day, a time to reconnect after a long week of work and school.

"The only way to really understand their lives is to hang out with them, talk with them, play with them," said Clark, a 36-year-old businessman from Frederick County, Md., who said he does not remember such "Daddy Time" from his own childhood, possibly because fathers were more often around the house.

In what is surely a sign of modern life, recent research shows that over the past four decades, fathers like Clark have nearly tripled the hours they spend focused on their children.

They still lag behind American mothers, who put in about twice as many hours directly involved with their children and doing housework. But, as researcher Suzanne M. Bianchi put it, today's fathers "do a lot more than their fathers did."

A comprehensive study of "time diaries" by researchers from the University of Maryland shows that fathers have increased their child-care work from 2.5 hours a week in 1965 to seven hours a week in 2003. There is a similar trend with housework: Dads did 4.4 hours a week in 1965 and 9.6 hours a week in 2003.

Perhaps even more striking, the total workloads of married mothers and fathers -- when paid work is added to child care and housework -- is roughly equal, at 65 hours a week for mothers and 64 hours for fathers.

"It's not the case that men are slugs," said William Doherty, a family studies professor at the University of Minnesota who has done several studies on fatherhood. "It's a new generation of fathers, and they are internalizing some of the very high expectations that mothers have."

To read more and to discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

Crippled Man Charged with Rape His back was broken in eight places but they still charged him with rape. Another man's life is ruined over a false rape allegation. And another example of how, under our terrible patriarchy, the authorities will go to great lengths to believe and assist women and to disregard men. Lesbian accuses innocent stranger of rape to win back lover Evening Standard [UK], 3/23/07 A lesbian falsely accused a complete stranger of rape in a bizarre bid to win back her former lover. Zoe Davydaitis, picked the innocent man from a police line-up even though he had broken his back in eight places and had to wear a body brace. Her false accusation led to Phillip Young being charged with rape, despite his protestations that his horrific injuries from an accident meant the attack was impossible. He went on to receive death threats, was assaulted and eventually attempted suicide. But on Friday a court heard Davydaitis was a "self-centered attention seeker" as she was jailed for 18 months after admitting perverting the course of justice. Mr. Young's ordeal began in July 2004, when Davydaitis, 24, claimed to have been brutally raped on a piece of waste ground in Bedford as she walked her dog. In a 17-page statement she gave a detailed account of her assailant and the attack. Detectives immediately launched a major hunt for her attacker and put out his description and an appeal in local papers and posters. At the same time Mr. Young, 49, was recovering from a horrific fall. That spring he had broken his spine in eight places after falling off the roof of his third floor flat while trying to get through a skylight after locking himself out. Surgeons inserted three metal rods into his back, held in place by 96 screws, and he had to wear a body brace and walk with crutches. However he was arrested after a member of the public noticed his description fitted that of the rapist. After he was questioned, Davydaitis picked him out from a picture ID parade and despite his protestations that it would have been physically impossible for him to have raped her, the Crown Prosecution Service decided he should be charged. To read more and discuss this issue on my blog, click here. New DVD set from Dr. Warren Farrell--The Best Interests of the Child In this new DVD set from Dr. Warren Farrell, one of the foremost experts on children of divorce, he summarizes over 200 studies, and finds that the research is clear: children do far better with near equal exposure to both parents with minimal conditions. The video can be submitted as evidence, and Dr. Farrell is available to testify as an expert witness. www.BestInterestofChildren.org Help for Los Angeles/Ventura County Dads Certified Family Law Specialist Peter M. Walzer was one of the key figures in our successful legislative struggle to preserve the LaMusga move-away decision. As Chair of the State Bar of California Family Law Section Executive Committee, Walzer lobbied the state legislature to improve California laws on child support and child custody. He's an American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers Fellow who has authored numerous articles on custody issues, business valuation in marital dissolutions and spousal and child support.  www.California-Divorce.com Parenting Plan Calendar Software Shared Ground (R) is an easy-to-use software program designed for divorced parents to track their parenting plan schedules over many years. Do-it-yourself or let us build your approved parenting plan into a multi-year calendar so that you can print, share, or modify the calendar later. Parents, attorneys, arbitrators and mediators can generate equitable parenting plans, which is especially useful for parents seeking fair division of their children's time. FREE ASSISTANCE TO OUR CLIENTS- $49.95 one-time charge, FREE TRIAL & MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE. Click here for more information.

Hartford Courant columnist Helen Ubinas hits the nail on the head in her new column criticizing the National Organization for Women's opposition to federal fatherhood initiatives:

Saving Dads Illegal? Get Real
By Helen Ubinas
Hartford Courant, 4/1/07

Consider this an open invitation to NOW President Kim Gandy, who complained this week that the White House's fatherhood initiatives are sexist.

Come to Hartford.

Let me show you around, give you a glimpse of what happens to families, to cities when men are MIA whiles their children grow up.

We could knock on a few doors - almost any one really; with more than half the households in Hartford led by women only, it shouldn't take long to find a single mother and get a big dose of reality.

Chances are that woman and her children are living in squalor, with no health insurance and not enough food. In 2005, nearly 50 percent of families in Hartford led by women were living below the poverty level. To really understand what that means, consider this: The median income for married couples with children under 18 that year was about 71 grand. For a female head of household, it was about 26 grand.

And that doesn't even get us into the incalculable chaos that ensues when men are absent from homes and communities.

I know, we could chat up some kids on the street, where the only male role models they had growing up were the guys on the corner - the deadly corners they're now standing on. And then, I wonder if the president of the National Organization for Women would still think it makes sense to oppose the programs because they're aimed exclusively at men?

Gandy didn't return calls Friday, but in a recent newspaper article she and other advocates who filed complaints with the federal Department of Health and Human Services insist that the programs to help men build job skills and connect better with their children are illegal...

The government has spent billions of dollars over the years on welfare-to-work job training programs that, if not specifically limited to women, benefit women almost exclusively. Women are specifically targeted for nutrition education in a variety of programs, including the federal Women Infants and Children program.

At the Village for Families & Children in Hartford, which recently received funds for a fatherhood initiative program in Hartford, there are three parenting programs. Except for guest appearances by a few men, most clients are women.

You know why? Because men need to learn to show up.

"There's a big difference between closing a door of opportunity and opening one," said Village chief program officer Nelly Rojas Schwan.

It's really simple, actually: Helping men become better fathers benefits women and children.

And in the end, shouldn't it be about the children?

Read Ubinas' full column here. And since we're on the subject of "the incalculable chaos that ensues when men are absent from homes and communities," I would add that research shows that even noncustodial fathers can have a very positive impact on this "incalculable chaos." To learn more, see my recent co-authored column CA. Anti-Gang Bills Miss Central Truth About Kids & Gangs (Pasadena Star-News & Affiliated Papers, 3/25/07)

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

I'm no expert on the Emergency Contraception issue but I think the feminists are right on it, and they just scored a success. According to Planned Parenthood:

"Wal-Mart has signed onto Planned Parenthood's pharmacy policy on emergency contraception (EC), also known as the 'morning-after pill.' This means that Wal-Mart will provide EC in-store, without delay. Over the past few years, Wal-Mart pharmacies have been notorious for not stocking EC or refusing to provide it even when it was in stock. And without a clear corporate policy, the pharmacies were not held accountable.

"Under the new policy, Wal-Mart has committed to:

"1) ensure that customers receive their prescriptions or over-the-counter (OTC) products in-store, without discrimination (no harassment or lectures), without delay, without judgment or regard for the number of refills prescribed or, in the case of OTC products, requested.

"2) stock emergency contraception in every store in which one or more customers request the product.

"3) ensure timely access to out-of-stock medication by offering to order the medication or refer the customer to another pharmacy that stocks the medication.

"4) circulate and enforce these policy and procedures corporation-wide."

To read more and to discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

Elizabeth Marquardt of www.familyscholars.org reports the following:

"On a train ride tonight from Battle Creek, MI to Chicago we're chugging along, train car is quiet, I'm tapping away on my computer. We stop at a station and a young woman gets on, plunks down in the seat behind me, starts making phone calls, 'call me, call me, OK? It's an emergency.' Another phone call, 'Hey, tell mom and dad to call me, OK? I've got news for them.'

"I'm eyeing my pile of suitcase, computer bag, etc., wondering if it's worth trying to move to another, quieter seat when her cell phone rings. This is what I hear (and yes, dear readers, I started typing her words as I was hearing them):

"I found my real father. I'm going to meet him on Thursday. I've only wanted this for, like, 30 years? So I'm trying to call my mom and tell her to tell my dad don't be jealous because I finally found my real father. He's white and my mother is mixed so that means I'm well... whatever. So anyway, they showed him pictures of me and J, and they said I look like him, and he has a daughter and my son and her son look alike.

"I know. I know.

"Now I feel complete.

"Now I won't feel like an abandoned child anymore.

"Thank you so much. I'm so happy too. I love you. Bye."

Hmmm...

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

Boys and the Boy Crisis, the Third National Men's Equality Congress, will be held July 13-14 in Washington D.C. The speakers list is great--perhaps the best I've ever seen at a conference. Speakers include:

1) Matt O'Connor--leader of the English fathers' group Fathers 4 Justice. O'Connor has done more than anybody to raise awareness of the terrible social problem of children being separated from their fathers after divorce or separation.

2) Christina Hoff Sommers--author of the books The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men and Who Stole Feminism?. In The War Against Boys, Sommers asserts, "It's a bad time to be a boy in America," and takes a hard look at the boy crisis and the misguided policies which have helped create it. Who Stole Feminism? is a devastating expose of the way feminists have disseminated misinformation about men and gender issues via the media and academia, and helped poison our popular culture against men.

3) Warren Farrell--the intellectual wellspring of the men's movement, and the author of  Father & Child Reunion, the Myth of Male Power, and others. Farrell is also an expert on shared parenting--to watch Warren speak, click on Warren Farrell's Case for Shared Parenting (Video).

4) Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young, co-authors of Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture and Legalizing Misandry: From Public Shame to Systemic Discrimination Against Men.

5) Stephen Baskerville--president of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children and author of the soon-to-be released book Taken into Custody: The War Against Fatherhood, Marriage, and the Family.

6) Glenn Sacks--men's and fathers' issues columnist, commentator, talk show host and blogger.

To register for the conference, click here.

There will also be three 2+ hour pre-conference workshops, one conducted by Matt O'Connor, one by Warren Farrell, and one by Glenn Sacks. The workshops will start Friday morning and conclude prior the conference opening that evening.

These workshops will allow the speakers to go into greater detail and allow participants to spend more time with our speakers. The pricing for early registrants will be $33 for each workshop. Attending these workshops is extra and separate from the conference. People can choose to go to none, one, two or all three.

To sign up for 'early bird' prices for these workshops and/or to register for the conference, click here.

The mover and shaker behind these conferences is Tom Golden, LCSW, a Washington DC-area men's activist. Golden does an excellent job--both of the previous conferences he's held were well-attended and well-organized.

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

According to this Associated Press article, a Texas grand jury is actually holding a woman accountable for making a false accusation of rape--an accusation which led to the killing of the man she accused. The jury, correctly, saw that the woman's husband acted reasonably--his wife screamed to him that she was being raped, so, like any good Texan, he shot the "rapist." But it turns out that the man wasn't a rapist at all--she was having an extramarital affair with him. Believe it or not, they dropped the charges against the husband and indicted the wife for manslaughter.

According to the article, Mark Osler, a Baylor University law school professor and a former federal prosecutor, said the grand jurors evidently put themselves in the husband's place: "I can see one of them saying, `I would have shot the guy, too. I was just protecting my wife."'

To be fair, the woman acted quickly, and perhaps would not have made a similar claim if she had more time to think. Nevertheless, I don't have much sympathy for her.

Wife indicted after husband shoots and kills her lover in Texas

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- Darrell Roberson came home from a card game late one night to find his wife rolling around with another man in a pickup truck in the driveway. Caught in the act with her lover, Tracy Denise Roberson -- thinking quickly, if not clearly -- cried rape, authorities say. Her husband pulled a gun and killed the other man with a shot to the head.

On Thursday, a grand jury handed up a manslaughter indictment -- against the wife, not the husband.

In a case likely to reinforce the state's reputation for don't-mess-with-Texas justice, the grand jury declined to charge the husband with murder, the charge on which he was arrested by police...

Tracy Roberson, 35, could get two to 20 years in prison in the slaying of Devin LaSalle, a 32-year-old UPS employee.

Assistant District Attorney Sean Colston declined to comment on specifics of the case or the grand jury proceedings but said Texas law allows a defendant to claim justification if he has "a reasonable belief that his actions are necessary, even though what they believe at the time turns out not to be true."

Mark Osler, a Baylor University law school professor and a former federal prosecutor, said the grand jurors evidently put themselves in the husband's place: "I can see one of them saying, `I would have shot the guy, too. I was just protecting my wife."'

The December night before the shooting, Tracy Roberson sent LaSalle a text message that read in part, "Hi friend, come see me please! I need to feel your warm embrace!" according to court papers. LaSalle apparently agreed.

Darrell Roberson, a 38-year-old employee of a real estate firm, discovered the two, his wife clad in a robe and underwear.

When Tracy Roberson cried that she was being raped, LaSalle tried to drive away and her husband drew the gun he happened to be carrying and fired several shots at the truck, authorities said...

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.
 

One of the many injustices that divorced dads face is that the tax code is slanted heavily towards custodial parents and away from noncustodial parents. As Sanford Braver, author of Divorced Dads: Shattering the Myths has explained, one can be in favor or against the pro-custodial parent slant, but either way the tax consequences must be considered when setting child support guidelines. For the most part, however, they aren't.

Whereas child support income is tax-free to the custodial parent, noncustodial parents must pay federal, state, and local income tax, as well as social security or FICA, on the money they pay in support. Also, in most cases only the custodial parent can claim the $3,050 per child tax exemption. Additional custodial parent tax advantages include: the Child Tax Credit (worth up to $1,000 per child); the Earned Income Credit (up to $4,204, with two children); deductions for school tuition and fees (up to $3,000 per return); the Child Care Credit (worth up to $1,050 per child); and a lower tax rate for "head of household" filing status.

Conversely, the federal tax code treats divorced and unwed fathers--who are often paying 40 or 50 percent of their net income in child support--as if they are childless bachelors.

This story--Extra Credit for Fathers: Reliability Earns a Tax Break--discusses how New York officials are addressing this issue by offering lower-income child support obligors who are current with their child support payments an earned income tax credit of up to $1,600 a year. It's certainly not a major step, but it at least provides evidence of some brain wave activity on child support issues at the governmental level--an unusual event.

EXTRA CREDIT FOR FATHERS: RELIABILITY EARNS TAX BREAK

By Tracie McMillan for City Limits

New state programs aim to support dads doing the right thing. A new tax break will be available come April for lower-income parents responsible for child support, making it the first of its kind in the country. State officials are launching an earned income tax credit (EITC) for noncustodial parents who are current with their child support payments, offering up to $1,600 a year in are fundable credit.

"What we're trying to do is work on the success of welfare reform, where we saw single moms move off the rolls. But we have not seen the same movement among young men," said Michael Hayes, spokesperson for the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA), which will administer the program.

The payment is intended to help low-income, noncustodial parents -- at least 90 percent of whom are fathers -- maintain steady employment and keep up on child support, as well as maintain active roles in their children's' lives. The new credit will be available to parents who are not their children's primary caretakers and earn as much as $32,000. That's a considerably higher income limit than the traditional EITC, which cuts off eligibility for single adults earning up to $11,750 -- and offers only about $500 a year. Officials expect about 74,000 people to qualify statewide, including 22,000 in New York City, and estimate the first year will cost $18 million.

To read more and to discuss this issue on my blog, click here.
 

Help for California Divorced Dads
The Divorced Fathers Network helps dads in Los Angeles, the Bay Area and Santa Cruz. Local chapters sponsor free weekly co-parenting classes, individual mentoring for fathers and much more. www.divorcedfathers.com

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