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The mission of the Child Support Enforcement Division of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office is to help parents and custodial guardians establish paternity, receive child support and enforce support obligations owed by non-custodial parents to their children.

Prosecutors in this division work with the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) to aid custodial parents or legal guardians to:

Establish paternity Obtain child support and medical orders Enforce payments if the non-custodial parent/obligor fails to pay Modify existing orders Criminally prosecute non-custodial parents who fail to pay child support

The division is supervised by veteran prosecutor Zeophus Williams. (Click here for Zeophus's profile.)

Under federal law, all states are required to have a Child Support Enforcement IV-D Program, which is part of a federal-state-county effort established in 1975. In Illinois, HFS, through its Division of Child Support Enforcement is the designated IV-D agency.

PLEASE BE ADVISED OF THE FOLLOWING:

THE STATE'S ATTORNEY'S OFFICE DOES NOT REPRESENT THE CUSTODIAL PARENT OR LEGAL GUARDIAN, BUT REPRESENTS THE ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF HEALTHCARE AND FAMILY SERVICES.

THE STATE’S ATTORNEY’S OFFICE REPRESENTS THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS IN CRIMINAL NON-SUPPORT CASES, NOT THE CUSTODIAL PARENT, LEGAL GUARDIAN, OR THE ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF HEALTHCARE AND FAMILY SERVICES.

THE STATE’S ATTORNEY’S OFFICE DOES NOT HANDLE CUSTODY, VISITATION OR PROPERTY DISTRIBUTION MATTERS.

THE STATE’S ATTORNEY’S OFFICE DOES NOT ASSIST IN PURSUING THE COLLECTION OF COLLEGE OR EDUCATIONAL EXPENSES.