*(Written by: Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media) – Legislation authored by California Assemblymember Dr. LaShae Sharp-Collins (D-La Mesa) to make it easier for low-income parents to settle child support debt they owe has made it to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Days before the Legislature adjourned for its mid-summer recess, Assembly Bill (AB) 2395 passed out of the Senate Human Services Committee with a 4-1 vote. Before that, on May 26, the Assembly approved it with a 58-17 floor vote.
AB 2395 aims to overhaul the Compromise of Arrears Program (COAP), also frequently referred to as the child support debt reduction program. AB 2395 would make the COAP more effective by streamlining and expanding low-income parents’ access to child support debt relief.
“My child support bill is basically making sure that people from low-income communities can have the ability to have an option to help pay down their actual debt,” Sharp Collins told California Black Media (CBM). “This debt reduction program already currently exists, but a lot of people are not notified regarding the program.”
Sharp Collins added, “My goal is to make sure we increase the overall transparency and make sure people are aware that this is a program they can apply for additional assistance to ensure they are paying down their debts, their child support, back to the government based on whatever they can provide.”
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COAP makes it easier for eligible low-income parents to resolve government-owned child support debt built up while receiving public assistance like California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs).
CalWORKs is California’s welfare program that provides temporary cash aid and supportive services to eligible low-income families with children. When a custodial parent signs up for CalWORKs cash aid, they are required by law to assign their child support rights over to the state.
According to Western Center on Law & Poverty, the back-debt in California is subjected to a 10% annual interest rate—one of the highest in the country— making the debt virtually no chance of being paid and trapping low-income parents in perpetual arrears. Across California, as of 2024, struggling families owed $6.4 billion in debt to the government for past-due child support.
Sharp-Collins said approximately 80% of this debt is owed by obligors earning less than $15,000 per year.
“It’s just another debt collection program for when you decide to consolidate and make sure you’re acting in good faith,” Sharp Collins said.
Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R-Yucaipa) was the sole dissenting member, voting “No” during the Senate Standing Committee on Human Services hearing.
AB 2108, another Sharp-Collins bill, advanced in the Legislature last week. That legislation would require prosecutors and county probation departments to determine if defendants charged with certain theft offenses such as shoplifting and vandalism are eligible for a theft diversion program. The options would allow individuals to avoid jail time and criminal records by completing specific requirements.
On June 30, AB 2108 passed out of the Senate Standing Committee on Public Safety with a 5-1 vote. It has been re-referred to the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
“The whole thing is this: diversion is a recognition of second chances, and it truly has the power to rehabilitate,” Sharp Collins said. “It is not a get-out-of-jail-free card, but it is a true commitment to do the hardest work possible, which is working on yourself.”
According to Sharp-Collins office, AB 2108 was created to offer alternatives to incarceration.
Vern Pierson, the District Attorney-elect of El Dorado County, opposes AB 2108. He was a principal co-author and architect of Proposition 36, the voter-approved initiative that significantly reformed California’s sentencing laws by scaling back elements of 2014’s Proposition 47.
Pierson told the Senate Standing Committee on Public Safety that the framework of Prop 36 was to “hold people that have repeatedly committed property crimes accountable.”
“That was the way (Prop 36) was constructed. I’m one of the most conservative DAs in the state of California, yet for what this bill (AB 2108) purports to do, we routinely divert people already,” Pierson said. “This is an unnecessary bill. In other words, it is a solution in search of a problem. Just a very short period of time ago, two-thirds of the state of California came together and said, Prop 36 is the law of the land.”
The legislation does not intend to repeal, invalidate, or contradict the provisions laid out in Prop 36, Sharp-Collins said. In contrast, she explains, it runs parallel to Prop 36 by offering structured rehabilitation alternatives.
“This bill excludes any theft that involves violence or threatened violence, organized retail theft offenses, and habitual repeat theft offenders,” Sharp Collins said.
“Furthermore, it ensures judges retain the discretion to evaluate a defendant’s suitability for diversion based on the actual case.”
“Without this bill, folks who are in poverty who are convicted of theft crimes are left with no treatment options,” Sharp-Collins said. “Further, this bill is supported by the very victims themselves, the Retailers Association, who acknowledge that this is a way to reduce theft crimes.”
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