Tulalip Tribes to collect child support

The Tulalip Tribes plan to begin collecting child support on behalf of tribal children next year.

When they do, even parents who are not Tulalip tribal members should expect to pay up, said Catherine Bryan of the National Tribal Justice Resource Center, a Colorado-based tribal law advocacy center.

“If the tribal program has trouble collecting, it can seek cooperation from the state agency,” Bryan said. “The state agency can also call the tribe and say, ‘We need to collect from this tribal member on the reservation.’ So it goes both ways.”

Tribes can expect the same challenges in collecting child support as states do, Bryan said. In most cases, parents who are delinquent in payments are eventually found, and must pay.

A growing number of tribes are taking over child support collection for tribal children, and tribes in Washington are leading the way, Bryan said.

“Washington is probably the best state in the U.S. as far as dealing with tribal child support,” she said. “It’s by far the most progressive.”

The Tulalip Tribes announced the plan to collect child support on their Web site.

Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.