Central Texas mom awaits nearly $40K in child support. Parents owed $21B statewide

  

ROUND ROCK, Texas (KXAN) — On the Saturday morning we were supposed to meet Ashely Bolling, she had already been up since 2:30 a.m. One of her daughters was sick and violently vomiting for hours. 

“Sorry, this is such a mess,” she texted. “Story of my life!”

Bolling was frantically trying to figure out what was going on with her 7-year-old. By mid-morning, she was relieved her daughter was feeling better — but the episode was just another example of what life is like for the single mom of three: “Everything is chaotic all the time.”

We spoke with Bolling on a rare day off. She runs a cleaning service and provides home health care and explained it’s been challenging raising her daughters without the help of their dads — especially her middle daughter’s. She showed us records from the Texas Attorney General’s office that he owes them nearly $40,000 in child support.

“There’s never enough time. There’s never enough money. There’s never enough me. There’s never enough help,” she said, her voice breaking as tears started coming down her face.

The Office of the Attorney General enforces child support in Texas. Data KXAN investigators obtained shows as of the end of December, the amount of child support owed statewide has topped $21 billion. 

Bolling isn’t the only one of those Central Texas parents to reach out to KXAN about the challenges they’re facing to get the money they’re owed.

“They have screwed up my child support so badly that I did not receive my May or June child support. That’s $4,600,” wrote another single mom last summer to KXAN. “I have called five times and get a different answer and the run around every time.”

In November, another parent emailed KXAN asking us to look into the AG’s office “not enforcing child support payments.”

KXAN has reached out to the AG’s office about the Child Support Division, and while it has yet to respond to our questions, Attorney General Ken Paxton addressed it as he presented his office’s proposed budget to lawmakers in January.

“I feel for these parents that need help and — and I really wanted to make a difference in that program — even though it doesn’t get a lot of publicity — but it does really matter,” Paxton said.

Tracking down delinquent parents

Bolling said she’s repeatedly called the agency about not receiving payments, and officials there tell her they can’t locate her ex to make him pay.

“I’ve had two case investigators over the 7 years, and that was me calling and basically begging, begging, begging for someone to call me back,” she added. 

She explained that if she tracks down a new address for him, she shares it with the AG’s Child Support Division. She said she’s notified the agency of at least 20 different addresses. KXAN investigators have asked the AG’s office about Bolling’s case but have yet to get a response.

Bolling says if she’s not able to get her ex in front of a judge who can hold him in contempt, “we don’t move forward.”

One way Bolling thinks could help find him: adding him to a list on the AG’s website.

Since 1997, Texas law has required the AG’s office to publicly name parents who are behind on child support. Then in 2019, the office created the Child Support Evader website which solicits tips online to find parents avoiding payments.

To be on the evader list, a parent must owe more than $5,000 in court ordered child support, have an arrest warrant issued and regularly fail to pay in the last six months. As of December, records show there were 410,835 cases falling into that timeframe. Yet only seven parents are on the public webpage. It shows nearly 60 have been arrested between 2006 and late last year.

Bolling says she has received some payments in the past, but they haven’t been consistent. 

“For about a year during the pandemic, he ‘paid’ because the unemployment office paid me, not because he paid me. But how did someone who hasn’t had a job in all these years get unemployment?” Bolling wondered.

State asks for more funding 

At a recent Texas Senate Finance hearing, Paxton fielded questions from state lawmakers considering his agency’s latest budget proposal including funding for child support enforcement.

“I am really pleased with what’s happened with child support over the last, say, four years. We did a complete restructure. We changed a lot. It’s become a lot more decentralized,” Paxton said during the hearing.

In the latest figures KXAN investigators obtained from the Legislative Budget Board, the AG’s office requested more than $390 million for “Child Support Enforcement” next fiscal year; a $25 million increase from the current fiscal year’s appropriation. 

“We’re trying to speed up the process because it was all getting stuck up in the bureaucracy, and we’re trying to figure out how can we get these people help faster,” Paxton added.

Since November, KXAN Investigators emailed and called Paxton’s office multiple times to ask how additional funding could help stop child support evaders and to learn more about the work of Child Support Division, but no one responded. Paxton also refused to speak with our team in person at the Capitol after that hearing.

During the budget hearing, officials with his office applauded what they call success in collecting money during Paxton’s tenure – attributing much of that to recent upgrades in technology. During Paxton’s administration, which began in 2015, the agency collected nearly $42 billion in child support. 

According to the federal Office of Child Support Services Fiscal Year 2023 Preliminary Report, Texas led the nation by collecting nearly $4.3 billion in child support.

‘I could have been a better mom’

The state has found ways to punish parents avoiding child support through a number of different enforcement measures. 

In severe cases, parents have been sent to jail. Last year alone, 92,452 liens were filed on either property, bank accounts or retirement plans; 81,703 passports were denied; 20,952 vehicle registrations were blocked; plus 1,091 licenses — including professional, hunting and driver’s licenses — were suspended.

“Judges have broad discretion when it comes to how they are going to enforce the orders and how lenient a judge is going to be can vary from courtroom to courtroom, from county to county,” said Jennifer Severn, a family law attorney who most recently worked in the AG’s Child Support Division. 

KXAN reached out to several judges in Travis and Williamson counties whose courts handle child support cases but they either declined to talk to us about enforcement measures or didn’t respond. 

Severn said she understands the frustrations shared by families fighting for child support payments. She explained that the case load is massive for the state and attorneys are doing the best they can with the resources they have.

“Voters must advocate for stronger child support enforcement by insisting that legislators fund and improve programs dedicated to ensuring the financial stability of children and families and tackling poverty. If these initiatives are truly valued by Texans, we cannot permit their defunding,” she said. 

Ultimately, Severn said hiring a private attorney is the quickest way to see any money. She encourages families who can’t afford attorney to contact the Austin Bar Association, Travis County Women Lawyers Association or the State Bar of Texas to ask about lawyers doing pro bono work. 

Bolling has an attorney, but she said she could no longer afford her. 

“I’m one paycheck away from being homeless,” she explained. “We’re out a vehicle because my car transmission went out.”

She has shared her concerns with lawmakers and has called her representatives to see what they can do about the system. This legislative session, several bills have been filed including paying retroactive child support beginning on the date of the child’s conception and lowering interest rates on overdue child support payments from 6% to 3%.

Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, is behind Senate Bill 629 and explained that lowering the financial pressure on overdue balances would encourage more parents to pay what they owe. 

“Overdue child support payments can quickly spiral out of control, with interest compounding so fast that catching up becomes nearly impossible. This bill would make repayment more manageable, helping parents stay on track and, most important, ensuring that children benefit from the resources they deserve,” Zaffirini said. 

Last session, lawmakers made other significant changes like giving judges the power to order parents behind on child support payments to get a job or enroll in a community employment program.

The Texas Workforce Commission along with family court judges and the AG’s office also provide help through a program which targets low-income, unemployed or underemployed parents who are behind on child support. 

A spokesperson with TWC said during the fiscal year 2024, 1,971 program participants were ordered into the program with $4.5 million in child support collections achieved. Also, last year, 47.1% of participants gained employment after participating in the program. 

KXAN Investigators tried to reach Bolling’s ex but have not heard back. She said she hasn’t been able to reach him for several years now. She added that after we started looking into her case, he did make a few payments around Christmas last year but that’s since stopped again. 

“I can’t work another job,” Bolling said. “I’ve gotten on every support system that there is in our government.”

For parents like Bolling, it comes down to enforcement. She said if that’s lacking then no program or new laws will make a difference. She said the impact of not receiving the financial help is now so wide reaching that it’s affecting everything else in their lives.

“I could have been a better mom with them being better dads,” she said. “There’s never enough to fulfill the need, and nothing’s gonna change.”

KXAN Senior Investigative Producer and Reporter David Barer, Investigative Photojournalist Richie Bowes, Graphic Artist Wendy Gonzalez, Investigative Reporter Matt Grant, Investigative Photojournalist Chris Nelson, Social Media Producer Jaclyn Ramkissoon, Digital Special Projects Developer Robert Sims, Investigative Intern Talisa Treviño and Digital Director Kate Winkle contributed to this report.