Eight Oklahoma tribes are negotiating agreements with the state to improve child support services.

The agreements would allow the state to garnish state or federal tax refunds for parents who owe child support money for Indian children. It would allow the tribes more access to state data to locate parents in child support cases.

"It's an enforcement tool and it's real important," Deborah Yates, the president of the National Tribal Child Support Association, told The Tulsa World. "Unfortunately, a lot of the noncustodial parents only pay with their income tax return, and in their mind, that's how they pay their child support. That's an enforcement tool we don't have access to."

Currently, only a handful of tribes have agreements with the state to cover child support issues.

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Tribes seek state tools for child support (The Tulsa World 7/13)