Tehama County Child Support Services offers relief from driver’s license suspension – Red Bluff Daily News

RED BLUFF – The Tehama County Department of Child Support Services is coordinating a driver’s license release campaign from Saturday, June 1 through August 30.

During the promotion, eligible parents whose driver’s licenses have been suspended for unpaid child support can obtain their license from the agency by paying a $25 fee, regardless of the amount of past-due child support. Parents who have recently been released from prison may also be eligible to have their license issued for free.

For more information, contact Tehama DCSS at 1-866-901-3212 or visit www.tehamachildsupport.org. The department is located at 1005 Vista Way, Suite A in Red Bluff and is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

According to DCSS, temporary driver’s license suspension is a practice used by child support services across the country to compel parents to regularly pay court-ordered child support and to make child support a reliable source of income for the parent receiving it.

A driver’s license can be temporarily suspended if court-ordered payments are late or not made in full. DCSS stresses that if a parent loses a job or gets into difficulties that make paying child support impossible, communication with the child support department is critical to preventing the driver’s license suspension. A child support case manager can temporarily delay the driver’s license suspension if they have knowledge of the circumstances that require the parent to make the payments.

“New laws that will take effect in January 2025 will limit the use of driver’s license suspensions as an enforcement tool by the CA Department of Child Support Services,” said CSS Director Tonya Moore. “Until then, parents whose driver’s licenses have been suspended for unpaid child support can use the $25 payment option. The only restriction is that if a parent has another child support case in a county other than Tehama County, the other child support department must also agree to the driver’s license release amount.”