Their stories are sadly similar. They first mentioned things their children missed out on without financial support from their ex-spouse -- summer camp, extra sporting activities, birthday and Christmas presents, and help with the children’s medical or dental expenses.

All also mentioned the hurt caused their children by lack of contact with the absent parent.

Persons featured on the Most Wanted poster symbolize in many ways the most difficult cases faced by the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) Division of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. They are the runners -- absent parents who have gone to great lengths to avoid their court-ordered obligation to their children.

The 11^th Most Wanted poster is being released today. Audrey Chubb, the ex-spouse of one of the absent parents featured, said a main problem has been keeping her two children covered by health insurance over the 13 years since her divorce.

"Both have chronic illness and often we had no health insurance," she said. "When we got child support, we put it toward health insurance. But it’s never been enough and we couldn’t depend on it."

Ms. Chubb said her ex-spouse has never paid voluntarily and she has not received anything for her children’s support for several years. The only time the payments came regularly was when her ex-spouse’s construction company checks were garnished years ago.

"Then he figured out the trick of skipping from job to job," she said. "It’s meant the kids haven’t gotten to do or have a lot of things they wanted. I’d always have to say ‘there’s no money.’"

Of the 100 men and women featured in the 10 previous poster campaigns, 74 of them were located after the poster came out. But 33 of the 74 are now back on the run. Twenty five are making regular payments and sporadic payments have been made in 15 cases.

Another spouse of an absent parent featured on the 7^th Most Wanted poster has received some help since the poster was released. Joan Donovan’s ex-spouse began paying court-ordered support for three children after the poster came out in January, 1997. But he has made no effort to cut down on the $18,721 owed in back support.

"One of my children has bad teeth that’s causing problems with speech," she said. "I can’t afford to get them fixed. The dentist said they would have to break his jaw to get the teeth to come in right.

"The main problem has been when they’re sick," she added. "And shoes ... they’ve had to wear shoes that weren’t in the best shape."

Like Ms. Chubb, Ms. Donovan said her ex-spouse jumped from job to job to avoid payment for many years. "And visitation is one thing that hurt. He didn’t want anything to do with them."

Cindy Philbrick’s ex-husband is also a runner. He was featured on the first Most Wanted poster in September, 1993. At that time, he owed $64,328 in back support; Ms. Philbrick says the amount owed now has passed $200,000.

In the 12 years since their divorce, Ms. Philbrick said there has been little contact and no child support payments.

"That hurts a kid," she said. "His dad has not been in contact with him; he’s not sent anything for his birthday or for Christmas."

The series of Most Wanted posters is one of the more visible methods used by CSE to collect child support and educate the public about its importance. Among criteria used in selecting parents for the poster are the following:

Persons who have a court-ordered obligation to pay child support; persons who owe more than $1,000; persons who have not made a child support payment in the past six months; and persons whose whereabouts are unknown, unverified, or, if known, refuse to meet their child support obligation. With this poster, one of the absent parents did make a payment in late January, the first payment received since September, 1997. However, his whereabouts remain unknown.

SRS Secretary Rochelle Chronister said the situation faced by the spouses of parents who run from their court-ordered obligation to support their children is a sad commentary on society. She said when parents fail to fulfill their legal responsibility to their children, government then has a role to play.

"I consider Child Support Enforcement a children’s program," she said. "Children benefit when they are supported both financially and emotionally by both parents."

Federal and state laws now have given CSE several new tools to help bring in court-ordered child support. One of them resulted in two federal arrest warrants for failure to pay a support obligation being issued earlier this month in Wichita.

Gregg P. Banfield, featured on the poster that came out in May, 1996, because of an unpaid child support obligation of $29,112 for two children, was indicted earlier this month by the federal grand jury in Wichita and a warrant issued for his arrest. He and Ralph E. McKinney III, were charged under the Child Support Recovery Act of 1992 with willful and unlawful failure to pay a support obligation for a child.

Another new tool is the New Hires Directory, which allows CSE workers to more quickly locate absent parents who have failed to meet their child support obligation. Under the New Hires law, employers supply information on newly hired employees within 20 days. Previously, information on newly hired employees was sent only four times a year. With quicker reporting, CSE needs less time to locate persons who have a court order for child support and to enforce that order through court-ordered income withholding.

A sign that the New Hires Directory, which began last October 1, is beginning to work is the amount of income withholding for child support. In the year prior to the New Hires reporting, the amount withheld increased an average of $600,000 each quarter. But in the first quarter since CSE began using New Hires data, the amount increased by $1.1 million, about $500,000 more than expected.

Jim Robertson, director of CSE, said the new tools and the Most Wanted poster are part of an ongoing effort to help Kansas children.

"The cases on the Most Wanted poster are not unlike thousands of others we are working," he said. "It’s pretty sad. There are thousands of absent parents in Kansas defying court orders to support their children."

The CSE program asks anyone with information about any of the absent parents on the poster to call the toll-free CSE hotline at 1-800-432-3913 or any SRS office. People with information can also respond through the comment button on the SRS web site on the Internet. The address is: http://www.ink.org/public/srs/srswanted.html

Page Last Updated: May 29, 2001