The Change Coming for Family Court
By DK, Family Court Trauma Coach
Creator of Noncustodial Mother’s Day and the 2025–2026 Noncustodial Mothers Be Counted! Be Heard survey with the Funeral Protest!
A quiet
shift is happening in family courts, and it's being led by a company named Maximus.
These changes come on the heels of growing public pressure—especially from
parents in Arizona—where conversations about reforming child support and
custody enforcement started heating up in 2025. Since then, politicians in
Arizona and other states have begun holding meetings on the matter.
But what
exactly is changing? And who is being left out of the conversation?
What
Maximus Is Planning
Jeremy
Toulouse, a representative of Maximus, says the company plans to modernize
the child support system with a more “holistic” approach to family
services. He acknowledges that the current system is often punitive toward
noncustodial parents, especially fathers, citing examples like contempt
proceedings and driver’s license suspensions.
The
Maximus website promotes ideas like empowering fathers, coparenting
initiatives, and stabilizing noncustodial parents to reduce child
welfare cases. On the surface, that sounds like progress—but we have serious
concerns.
There’s no
mention of noncustodial mothers. Nothing about helping us maintain contact
with our children or supporting our visitation rights. Once again, the
narrative is dominated by fathers, while noncustodial mothers—many of whom are
suffering in silence—remain invisible.
Follow
the Money: Title IV-D and the Courts
To
understand what’s really happening, you need to look at how the system is
funded.
The plan
to modernize family court involves Title IV-D of the Social Security Act,
a federal program that provides funding to states for child support
enforcement. Courts and agencies receive incentive payments for the
amount of support they collect—often tied to performance metrics. While this
may sound like a tool to ensure accountability, it creates a dangerous
incentive structure.
Some
believe this system prioritizes collection over fairness and may even
influence judicial decisions. Critics argue that these incentives can benefit
judicial retirement funds, raising ethical questions about how decisions are
made—and who truly profits.
It’s hard
not to feel like our retirement futures are being used to fund theirs.
Where
Are the Noncustodial Mothers?
There is a
growing number of noncustodial mothers in the U.S., and yet we are
consistently left out of these policy conversations. We face barriers to seeing
our children. We are silenced in courtrooms. We are dismissed in the media. And
now, as systems begin to “modernize,” we’re watching reforms unfold without our
voices in the room.
It’s time
for that to change.
We are
launching a year-long campaign to collect data on noncustodial mothers
across the U.S. This effort will culminate in a demonstration and a
symbolic funeral, a public act of grief and protest for the children we are
blocked from seeing.
What
You Can Do
We are
urging mothers and allies to take action:
- Contact Maximus directly at (844) 592-2218
Let them know how you feel about their “restructuring” of family court—and how it fails to address noncustodial mothers. - Join our data collection
project
Help us count how many noncustodial mothers are out there and document what we’re experiencing. This is about being seen, being counted, and being heard. - Share this article
The more awareness we build, the more pressure we create to include all parents in future reforms.
Final
Thoughts
Family
court should be about what's best for all children and all parents—not
just those who fit the most visible narrative. We believe that justice must
include noncustodial mothers, and we will continue to fight for reform that
reflects the full truth of what’s happening in family courtrooms across this
country.
We’re not
asking for special treatment. We’re demanding equal recognition.
Comments
Post a Comment