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dads, and now as “disconnected” dads who do not commit to the mother and child. Child support in the United States should strengthen marriage as the norm, restore broken homes, and encourage unmarried couples to commit to marriage.

Child Support Tax Credit. National or state guidelines and tax law should be updated to ensure that nonresident parents with child support orders can receive anondependent, child support tax credit. Single filers of up to $41,756 and married or joint filers of up to $47,646 would be eligible for a child support tax credit similar to the current earned income tax credit. Filers could receive a maximum of $538 in annual returns for one child and a maximum of $3,584 in annual returns for two or more children (based on a credit rate of 34 percent). A child support tax credit would use the low-income, nonresident parents’ own earned income and history of employment to assist them further in the task of caring for their children.

The key to this policy is that it empowers fathers with their own resources and money rather than creating another government assistance program (or a fully refundable credit) devoid of the father’s own monetary efforts. This way, the nonresident father’s role as financial provider and relational figure is affirmed, and much-needed financial resources are given to the children.

Visitation. Visitation is key to revitalizing child support and increasing payment frequency. The most effective way to lower a nonresident parent’s monthly child support order is to spend more court-accounted-for time with the child. For example, Texas combined its child support court with its visitation court to ensure that resident and nonresident parents received state-mandated financial support orders and enforceable visitation orders.

Child Support Payment and Interactive Smartphone Application. Each state should be induced to implement a high-tech, easy-to-use application to centralize child support payments. As with Venmo or Cash App, nonresident parents would link their bank accounts and provide one-click monthly payments (or contribute incrementally throughout the month while tracking how much is due). Additionally, the nonresident parents could track “informal” gifts from money, groceries, clothes, sports gear, and more through the app.

This would address one of the main issues within current child support payment systems: nonresident parents claim that they are spending much of their own money to provide for children outside of their monthly payments and resident parents’ claim that they spend little and neglect their official child support orders. Currently, only the latter claim can be tracked reliably. This process would enable nonresident parents to track the amount of informal support they provide and the reason for it while ensuring that the resident parent acknowledges and accepts the contribution.

Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) Program. The HMERE program is part of the ACF Office of Family Assistance. The following policies should be implemented.