Notice

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, telephone and lobby service with our office is unavailable until further notice.

You may still communicate with us by:

• E-mail at foc.mail@kentcountymi.gov
• 2-Way Communication through the MiSupport website at www.michigan.gov/michildsupport.

To access your case online, you may sign up at www.michigan.gov/michildsupport.

If you are trying to make a payment, you have several options:

Support Payment Options:

• Online: www.govpaynow.com or www.misdu.com
• Mail: MiSDU, PO Box 30351, Lansing, MI 48909-7851

Court Hearings:

All FOC hearings, including Show Cause Contempt hearings, are canceled until further notice. New notices will go out if the hearings are rescheduled.

If you are not working because of COVID-19:

• Please provide proof in writing to FOC from your employer that this is a lay-off or the business closed
• If a lay-off, include the return-to-work date if it is known, and whether the employer will continue to pay you during the lay-off.
• If you are filing for unemployment benefits, let the FOC know this and make payments from these benefits the best you can until you see automatic deductions for support being made.
• If you are seeking employment, report your job search in writing to the FOC monthly until new employment is found, you return to work, or you start receiving benefits.

Modification of Child Support Orders

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the Friend of the Court is unable to routinely commence support reviews at this time. Under Michigan law, the Court may only modify support effective the date that a motion is filed and served on the other party. Until the Friend of the Court is fully operational, we recommend that you file and serve a motion to preserve the effective date. Please use this motion form packet, and be sure to serve a copy on the other party. To file the motion, it must be filed via regular mail addressed to the Clerk of the Court, Kent County Circuit Court, 180 Ottawa Ave. NW, Suite 2400, Grand Rapids, MI 49503. If you need a fee waiver request, you may find it here.

Will a support payer’s stimulus check be intercepted for child support?

This is a possibility, but it’s a decision being made at the federal level. Your local FOC has no control over whether those checks are intercepted or not.

My child is 18 and supposed to graduate in May.  Now that the Governor has ordered that schools cannot be physically open, does my support obligation end now?

In support orders that don’t have a specific termination date, many continue support for a child age 18 or older (but not exceeding 19 ½) for so long as the child “is regularly attending high school on a full-time basis with a reasonable expectation of completing sufficient credits to graduate from high school while residing on a full-time basis with the recipient of support…”  Although your child may not be physically in a classroom, it is up to the individual school districts to determine what still constitutes “attending.”  Until further clarification from the appellate courts or the State Court Administrator’s Office, the Kent County Friend of the Court will continue to follow the same schedule as though school is still in normal session.  This means that if the child is 18 and graduates in May, support will terminate on June 1.

Parenting Time Orders and COVID-19

Here are some guidelines:

• Parenting Time Under Shelter In-Place Executive Order: Governor Whitmer’s Executive Order requiring citizens to “shelter in place” beginning March 24, 2020, permits parents to travel as required to permit parenting time exchanges under a valid custody or parenting time order. Please continue to follow your parenting time orders.
• FOC will treat Spring Break as the same block of time it would have been had school shutdowns not occurred.
• FOC will treat Summer Break as the same block of time it would have been had school shutdowns not occurred.
• We encourage parents to work together and make reasonable efforts to ensure that parenting time occurs as ordered, even if exchange locations are impacted by COVID-19 closures/mandates.
• Please put any agreements to alter parenting time for COVID-19 in writing.
• Click here for more information on Parenting Time and COVID-19

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