"Every child has the right to financial and medical support from both parents. Our goal is to assure families receive the child support they need and deserve."

The Manatee Clerk's Child Support Enforcement Division provides comprehensive case management including:

• Locating parents responsible for the support of a child 
• Establishing Paternity
• Getting Child Support Orders
• Enforcing Child Support Orders
• Changing Child Support Orders

There is no cost to apply for these services.

We have a variety of tools available to assist you with your efforts to ensure that both parents support their children including: legal actions, administrative enforcement, license suspensions, intercepts of unemployment compensations and worker's compensation, wage garnishment, IRS tax returns, credit reporting, indirect criminal contempt and cooperative actions between other states and countries.

Note: We do not establish or enforce visitation or custody.

• General Information
• Applying for Services
• Required Documents

[ Back to Top ]

General Information

Any parent or custodian of a dependent child may apply for Child Support services. Families who receive public assistance automatically receive child support services. If you have received public assistance or child support services in the past, contact us to determine if you have an open child support case.

Our services are available even if a parent lives in another state or country.

One of our Case Managers will meet with you, gather all information we need to proceed, help locate parents, take administrative action to establish and enforce support and track payments through the State Disbursement Unit (SDU). We will establish new support orders and follow through enforcing payments and collecting past due amounts.

Child support services are provided by the Clerk of the Circuit Court in Manatee County, the State Attorney’s Office in Miami-Dade County and the Department of Revenue in all other Florida counties. Visit the Florida Department of Revenue's Child Support Page to find other child support offices in Florida. If you have an existing child support order or a divorce order in a Florida county other than Manatee, you will need to apply for services with the Department of Revenue. For more information on applying for services, go to the Department of Revenue website at http://dor.myflorida.com/dor/childsupport/apply.html

In Manatee County, records of all Court-ordered child support and alimony payments are maintained by the Child Support Depository , which is a separate division of the Clerk’s Office. If there is an order for support and/or alimony payable through the SDU, the Child Support Depository will maintain those records. The depository has only a few possible enforcement remedies whereas the Child Support Enforcement division has a wide assortment of enforcement remedies and also provides legal services to the Department of Revenue. There will almost always be a case through the depository if there are court ordered support payments but not all of those cases are enforced by our Child Support Enforcement division. (See Applying for Services)

For More information on Child Support Services visit http://dor.myflorida.com/dor/childsupport/services.html

[ Back to Top ]

Applying for Services

Anyone seeking our services who does not already have a child support case through our office must apply for services.

If you are currently receiving or applying for State Assistance (TANF cash assistance, Food Stamps or Medicaid), we can see you on Monday through Friday, between the hours of 8:30am - 10:30am or 1:00pm - 4:00pm. You will be seen on a first come, first serve basis. You will need to bring in the required documents listed below and a valid picture ID. This is very important because we will not be able to interview you until you have the required ID.

If you are not receiving or applying for State Assistance (TANF cash assistance, Food Stamps or Medicaid), we can see you on any Monday through Friday, between the hours of 8:30am – 10:30am or 1:00pm – 4:00pm. You will be seen on a first come, first serve basis. You will need to bring in the required documents listed below and a valid photo ID. This is very important because we will not be able to interview you until you have the required ID. Another option is to complete an application and mail it to our office for processing. This application is available for printing on this site in the On-Line Forms Section.

The following information is provided to assist you in setting up a child support case with our office. Please read this information carefully and bring the required documents listed below with you, which will help with the processing of your case. We will assist you as much as we can or give you information to obtain any documents you don’t have with you.

[ Back to Top ]

Required Documents

You will need to bring the following information, as applicable, at the time of your visit:

• Valid picture ID for yourself (This is mandatory for notary purposes)
• Parent Information Form If there is more than one non-custodial parent for the child(ren), complete a form for each one.
• Full name, Social Security Number & Date of Birth of the non-custodial parent(s), if known
• Address & employer information for the non-custodial parent(s) & photo, if known.
• Any existing Court orders for Paternity or Child Support
• Marriage Certificates, Divorce orders and settlement agreements, if applicable
• Birth certificates for the children in the case, if not born in Florida
• Social Security cards for you and the children

Due to the volume of interviews, you may have to wait to be seen. Since space and seating are limited, we ask that you do not bring family, friends or children to the interview with you.

[ Back to Top ]