At what cost? For Baltimore's poorest families, the child support system exacts a heavy price — and it's hurting whole communities

Maryland’s child support system, which is supposed to sustain children, is actually hurting some of the state’s neediest families — especially in Baltimore, an investigation by The Baltimore Sun has found. A dysfunctional system has decided that parents in struggling city neighborhoods owe tens of millions of dollars in back child support — a whopping $23 million in one West Baltimore ZIP code alone.

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