In an effort to educate Pennsylvanians about changes in state child support laws, the Pennsylvania Bar Association�s Client and Community Relations Committee held a statewide �Your Kids Come First� public education campaign.

Joining with PBA President Louis N. Teti and Committee Chair Thomas M. Golden for the campaign�s kick-off at the state capitol were Philadelphia Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe, president of the State Conference of Trial Judges; Mary Cushing Doherty, chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Family Law Section; and Richard K. Betts, immediate past president, Domestic Relations Association of Pennsylvania.

The PBA�s child support educational effort, which ran from March 27 through April 10, 2000, focused on issues related to the new guidelines, such as the sharing of day care and health care costs, support order changes, and the relationship between seeing the children and paying support. Such issues were addressed statewide at local bar association-sponsored events, including free public seminars, radio call-in programs and informational expos. The campaign was funded through grants from the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation and the Pennsylvania Bar Trust.

A series of ads highlighting legal questions and a toll-free number to receive the free PBA Guide to Child Support in Pennsylvania appeared in most newspapers statewide during the campaign. These ads were the result of a partnership between the PBA and the Pennsylvania Newspapers Association.

Local bar associations involved in the campaign included the Allegheny County Bar Association; Berks County Bar Association; Bradford County Bar Association; Bucks County Bar Association; Butler County Bar Association; Cameron County Bar Association; Chester County Bar Association; Columbia & Montour County Bar Association; Dauphin County Bar Association; Delaware County Bar Association; Erie County Bar Association; Fayette County Bar Association; Franklin County Bar Association; Lancaster Bar Association; Lehigh County Bar Association; McKean County Bar Association; Mercer County Bar Association; Monroe County Bar Association; Montgomery Bar Association; Northampton County Bar Association; Philadelphia Bar Association; Potter County Bar Association; Schuylkill County Bar Association; Snyder County Bar Association; Susquehanna County Bar Association; Venango County Bar Association; Washington County Bar Association; Wayne County Bar Association; Westmoreland Bar Association; Wilkes-Barre Law & Library Association; and York County Bar Association.

To access the text of the Amendments to the Pennsylvania Support Guidelines, go to the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts' Web site at www.courts.state.pa.us/Index/SupCtCmtes/DomesticRelations/Indexdomrel.htm