August is Child Support Awareness Month serving to remind parents that providing child support is one of the many ways they demonstrate love for their children. This year’s theme is “Giving them roots to reach for the sky.”
In honor of the month, the San Mateo County Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) is acknowledging parents who pay child support. So far this year, $18.6 million has been paid and 94 percent of these collections were sent directly to families residing in San Mateo County who are in need of financial support.
“Thank you for your child support payments and ongoing commitment to providing for your children,” Kim Cagno, director of the Department of Child Support Services said in a message to San Mateo County residents. “We work in partnership with both parents to establish a reasonable support order that results in reliable and consistent payments to the families of San Mateo County, and it is an honor to serve you.”
Child Support Awareness Month also marks a new service for cash payers called PayNearMe. It allows customers to make child support payments at any of the more than 1,500 participating 7-Eleven stores throughout California and others across the nation. There are 20 locations throughout San Mateo County listed at dcss.smcgov.org under "Make/Receive a Payment" and "View Payment Options."
PayNearMe is the second cash pay option made available this year. The first was MoneyGram, which child support customers have used to pay more than $2.4 million in 9,000 cash payments since it first launched in January 2015, according to the California Department of Child Support Services.
“Now with the two cash pay services in retail stores throughout San Mateo County, DCSS is helping even more parents with convenient options to make child support payments,” Cagno said. “The vision of the San Mateo County Department of Child Support Services is for all parents to responsibly share in providing for their children and raise them to be healthy and successful.”
San Mateo County DCSS serves more than 9,800 children and is ranked in the top 10 local child support agencies distributing an average of $1,100 to families each month.
Contact information: Kim A. Cagno, director of the County’s Department of Child Support Services, (866) 901-3212 or smcdcss@smcgov.org.