The return of fall signals back-to-school time for children across the country. A new school year brings a flurry of forms for parents of school-aged children to fill out, such as emergency contact information forms and permission slips for who has a right to pick a child up from school. When a child's parents are not married and share child custody, sometimes school forms cause problems down the road if one parent is not included.

It is usually beneficial to list both parents on most school forms, even if one parent does not have primary physical custody. In fact, most custody judgments require both parents to be listed on school forms. If a non-custodial parent is not listed as a person who can pick a child up from school, the non-custodial parent may not be allowed to get his or her child from school if an emergency arises or during times when he or she has parenting time with the child.

While it may merely be an oversight, the child involved is the one who really loses out, when both parents are not listed on the records as the child has less access to the other parent.

In what some analysts call a rising trend, several states have recently passed laws requiring casinos to check for back child support owed by gamblers before giving them their winnings - minus any child support owed - at the casino cage. Illinois does not have such a law or program in place to recover past due child support payments, but some legislators say they are intent on passing such legislation next year.

Currently, five states divert gambling winnings from people who owe child support to the other parent of their children. According to the Chicago Tribune, the programs have collected almost $3 million in child support while avoiding placing significant burdens on casinos.

In Colorado, where a casino child-support confiscation law took effect in 2008, the system works like this: Casinos check the Social Security numbers of gamblers who win $1,200 or more at gambling machines or who beat odds of at least 300 to one and win more than $600 at table games, which are the points at which gamblers must report their winnings on federal tax forms.

Last month Illinois observed Grandparents Day, and the Illinois Department of Aging took the opportunity to raise awareness of programs and resources available to grandparents serving as the main caregivers for their grandchildren.

Currently over 200,000 kids in Illinois reside in grandparent-headed households, and that number is on the rise. More and more grandparents are being considered the "primary caregivers" of their grandchildren. The state considers a primary caregiver to be the person the child lives with and whom is responsible for meeting the child's basic needs.

The Grandparents Raising Grandchildren is a state program that promotes awareness and provides resources and support services for older caregivers. The acting director of the Illinois Department on Aging explained the program's purpose, "It's an important decision to take on the role as primary caregivers for their grandchildren when the parents are unable to. These grandparents need to know there's somewhere to turn for help during this additional round of parenthood."