When the relationship between a child's parents ends, it does not mean that either parent's responsibility for that child ends. Both parents remain legally and financially obligated to a child no matter whether the parents remain together or not.
The purpose of DC’s Child Support Services Division (CSSD) is to help the person caring for a child to collect child support from the child's other parent. CSSD also helps those who are divorced to collect spousal support in cases that also involve child support.
CSSD has a trained professional staff that provides a variety of services to eligible persons. These services include:
- locating a child's parent for the purpose of establishing parentage and child support
- establishing parentage
- establishing a child support order
- establishing medical support
- enforcing the ordered child support payments and medical support
- collecting child and spousal support payments
- reviewing child support orders to determine whether an adjustment is needed
CSSD’s customer service team is available at (202)442-9900 or cssdcustomerservice@dc.gov to answer questions and to help customers with their child support needs.