New Jersey is offering a weeklong amnesty to parents who are behind in child support payments.
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Parents that have arrest warrants or revoked driving privileges can visit county probation offices between April 28 and May 3 to establish a payment plan.

"They need to go into their local probation division and each county has a local probation office," said Alisha Griffin, director of the Office of Child Support Services at the New Jersey Department of Human Services. "The individual should go in, expect to make a payment and expect to make an agreement to make a regular payment after that."

Fifty-eight percent of child support cases involve a non-custodial parent who is not meeting his or her payment obligations according to figures from DHS.

What happens to parents that make an agreement?

"The child support warrant would be discharged and as long as people keep current with that plan and keep that agreement in place, no future warrants should be issued," Griffin said

Each county probation office has specific hours based on staff availability. Hours and locations can be found at www.njchildsupport.org or by calling 1-877-NJ-KIDS1.

"It's an important opportunity for parents to both emotionally and financially support their children and do the right thing and then get themselves back on the right track," Griffin said.

The last time New Jersey held such a program was a decade ago. More than 400,000 New Jersey children depend on child support.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

 

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