Section 304.20 - [Effective 10/1/2025] Availability and rate of Federal financial participation(a) Federal financial participation at the applicable matching rate is available for:(1) Necessary and reasonable expenditures for child support services and activities to carry out the State title IV-D plan;(2) Parent locator services for individuals eligible pursuant to § 302.33 of this title;(3) Paternity and support services under the State plan for individuals eligible pursuant to § 302.33 of this chapter.(b) Services and activities for which Federal financial participation will be available will be those made to carry out the State title IV-D plan, including obtaining child support, locating noncustodial parents, and establishing paternity, that are determined by the Secretary to be necessary and reasonable expenditures properly attributed to the Child Support Enforcement program including, but not limited to the following:(1) The administration of the State Child Support Enforcement program, including but not limited to the following:(i) The establishment and administration of the State plan;(ii) Monitoring the progress of program development and operations and evaluating the quality, efficiency, effectiveness and scope of support enforcement services available in each political subdivision;(iii) The establishment of all necessary agreements with other Federal, State, and local agencies or private providers to carry out Child Support Enforcement program activities in accordance with Procurement Standards, 2 CFR 200.317 through 200.327. These agreements may include:(A) Necessary administrative agreements for support services;(B) Utilization of State and local information resources;(C) Cooperation with courts and law enforcement officials, and Indian Tribes or Tribal organizations pursuant to § 302.34 of this chapter;(iv) Securing compliance with the requirements of the State plan in operations under any agreements;(v) The development and maintenance of systems for fiscal and program records and reports required to be made to the Office based on these records;(vi) The development of a cost allocation system pursuant to § 304.15 of this chapter;(vii) The financial control of the State plan including the administration of Federal grants pursuant to § 301.15 of this chapter;(viii) The establishment of agreements with agencies administering the State's title IV-A and IV-E plans including criteria for:(A) Referring cases to and from the IV-D agency;(B) Reporting on a timely basis information necessary to the determination and redetermination of eligibility and amount of assistance payments;(C) The procedures to be used to transfer collections from the IV-D agency to the IV-A or IV-E agency before or after the distribution described in § 302.51 or § 302.52 , respectively, of this chapter;(D) The procedures to be used to coordinate services; and(E) Agreements to exchange data as authorized by law.(ix) The establishment of agreements with State agencies administering Medicaid or CHIP, including appropriate criteria for:(A) Referring cases to and from the IV-D agency;(B) The procedures to be used to coordinate services;(C) Agreements to exchange data as authorized by law; and(D) Transferring collections from the IV-D agency to the Medicaid agency in accordance with § 302.51(c) of this chapter.(2) The establishment of paternity including, but not limited to:(i) Reasonable attempts to determine the identity of the child's father such as: (B) The development of evidence including the use of the polygraph and genetic tests;(ii) Court or other actions to establish paternity pursuant to procedures established under State statutes or regulations having the effect of law;(iii) Identifying competent laboratories that perform genetic tests as described in § 303.5(c) of this chapter and making a list of those laboratories available;(iv) Referral of cases to the IV-D agency of another State to establish paternity when appropriate;(v) Cooperation with other States in determining paternity;(vi) Payments up to $20 to hospitals, State birth record agencies, and other entities designated by the State and participating in the State's voluntary paternity establishment program, under § 303.5(g) of this chapter, for each voluntary acknowledgment obtained pursuant to an agreement with the IV-D agency;(vii) Developing and providing to parents and family members, hospitals, State birth records agencies, and other entities designated by the State and participating in the State's voluntary paternity establishment program, under § 303.5(g) of this chapter, educational and outreach activities, written and audiovisual materials about paternity establishment and forms necessary to voluntarily acknowledge paternity; and(viii) Reasonable and essential short-term training associated with the State's program of voluntary paternity establishment services under § 303.5(g) .(3) The establishment and enforcement of support obligations including, but not limited to: (i) Investigation, the development of evidence and when appropriate, bringing court actions;(ii) Determination of the amount of the child support obligation including developing the information needed for a financial assessment;(iii) Referral of cases to the IV-D agency of another State to establish a child support obligation when appropriate;(iv) Enforcement of a support obligation including those activities associated with collections and the enforcement of court orders, such as contempt citations, issuance of warrants, investigation, income withholding and processing, and the obtaining and enforcing of court-ordered support through civil or criminal proceedings either in the State that granted the order or in another State;(v) Bus fare or other minor transportation expenses to enable custodial or noncustodial parties to participate in child support proceedings and related activities;(vi) Services to increase pro se access to adjudicative and alternative dispute resolution processes in IV-D cases related to providing child support services; and(vii) Investigation and prosecution of fraud related to child and spousal support.(4) The collection and distribution of support payments including:(i) An effective system for making collections of established support obligations and identifying delinquent cases and attempting to collect support from these cases;(ii) Referral of cases to the IV-D agency of another State for collection when appropriate;(iii) Making collections for another State;(iv) The distribution of funds as required by this chapter;(v) Making the IV-A agency aware of the amounts collected and distributed to the family for the purposes of determining eligibility for, and amount of, assistance under the State title IV-A plan;(vi) Making the Medicaid agency aware of amounts collected and distributed to the family for the purposes of determining eligibility for assistance under the State XIX plan.(5) The establishment and operation of the State parent locator service including: (i) Utilization of appropriate State and local locate sources to locate noncustodial parents;(ii) Utilization of the Federal Parent Locator Service;(iii) Collection of the fee pursuant to § 303.70(e) of this chapter;(iv) Referral of requests for location of a noncustodial parent to the IV-D agency of another State;(v) Cooperation with another State in locating a noncustodial parent.(6) Activities related to requests for certification of collection of support delinquencies by the Secretary of the Treasury pursuant to § 303.71 of this chapter.(7) Activities related to requests for utilization of the United States district courts pursuant to § 303.73 of this chapter.(8) Establishing and maintaining case records as required by § 303.2 of this chapter.(9) The operation of systems that meet the conditions of § 307.35(a) of this chapter.(10) Systems approved in accordance with 45 CFR part 95, subpart F. (See § 307.35(b) of this chapter.)(11) Medical support activities as specified in §§ 303.30 , 303.31 , and 303.32 of this chapter.(12) Educational and outreach activities intended to inform the public, parents and family members, and young people who are not yet parents about the Child Support Enforcement program, responsible parenting and co-parenting, family budgeting, and other financial consequences of raising children when the parents are not married to each other.40 FR 27166, June 26, 1975 81 FR 3021, 1/20/2016; 81 FR 93567, 12/20/2016; 89 FR 80072 , 10/1/2025 For FEDERAL REGISTER citations affecting §304.20, see the List of CFR Sections Affected, which appears in the Finding Aids section of the printed volume and at www.fdsys.gov.