Washington State Department of Social and Health Services

Tribal Relations

DCS is working with tribes to obtain agreements and establish procedures for use of tribal courts to establish and enforce child support obligations on Indian reservations. The Division of Child Support (DCS) is the state agency that administers state and federal child support laws. If you are a custodial parent, a non-custodial parent, or the custodian of a dependent child, the resource center will help you to understand DCS and the services we provide. DCS provides various services to parents and to custodians which include:

• Paternity establishment.
• Child support order establishment and modification.
• Child support order enforcement.
• Payment processing through The Washington State Support Registry (WSSR).

There are twenty-nine (29) federally-recognized Indian tribes in Washington State, which are independent sovereign governments with similar status as other states and foreign nations. The DCS Tribal Relations Team (TRT) in conjunction with twenty-six statewide tribal liaisons, promote Tribal TANF and Tribal IV-D programs, negotiate intergovernmental cooperative agreements, develop tribal specific policy and procedure, and provide technical assistance and training to staff and to tribes.