Fifty-two people may be very surprised if they pick up today's Roanoke Times and spot an advertisement inside the Virginia section.

The Virginia Department of Social Services Child Support Enforcement Division has taken out a full-page ad with the heading: "Have you seen these parents?" View copy of the ad

The ad features 45 men and seven women who have failed to appear in court or pay child support in Roanoke, Roanoke County and Salem as of Sept. 12. Warrants have been issued for their arrest.

Together, the people in the ad represent almost $1 million in child support that has not been paid toward the care of 122 children in Roanoke and Roanoke County alone, according to Nick Young, director of the Division of Child Support Enforcement in Virginia. (Two Salem men owe a combined $31,940.52, according to the ad). The back payments the 52 parents owe range from $2,881.46 to $58,820.02.

The ad encourages people with information about the parents to call Crime Line. Callers with information can receive a reward of up to $1,000.

Placing newspaper ads is another aggressive tactic Virginia has instituted in recent months to find parents who aren't paying court-ordered child support.

"Virginia has come up with some very innovative ways to enforce the collection of child support," said Kay Cullen, a spokeswoman for the National Child Support Enforcement Association in Washington D.C.

Virginia and other states have run similar ads in the past, but Virginia has reinstituted the idea, Cullen said.

Young said the idea is not to humiliate people, but the shock-value strategy is necessary because the problem of parents who are delinquent with their child support payments is getting worse.

In fiscal year 2005, Virginia collected $561 million in child support debt. But an additional $2.1 billion is still owed and that amount goes up by about $100 million each year, Young said. The Division of Child Support Enforcement's caseload includes almost 25 percent of children in Virginia.

But Child Support Enforcement has had success with newspaper ads in Virginia Beach with two similar ads that ran in the Virginian-Pilot last month, Young said.

Out of 152 people featured in those ads, 40 either came forward or were arrested, according to Carolyn Davis, assistant director of child support enforcement for the Roanoke District Office.

One man featured in the Pilot ads came into work and was told his name was in the paper, Young said. He came in and made a payment by lunchtime, Young said.

In another case, a man living in Florida who appeared in one of the Pilot ads, received a phone call from an aunt in Norfolk. She told her nephew to pay his debt and not shame the family, Young said. (The man made the payment.).

Others, women in particular, came in and said they'd pay if their pictures weren't published in the paper anymore.

From the ads that ran in the Pilot, child support enforcement received $15,000 in initial payments, Young said. They anticipate that they will bring in an additional $25,000 over the next few years in wage withholdings.

The average child support payment in Virginia is about $250 per child per month, Young said. The amount of support a parent who does not have custody of a child is required to pay is determined by their income, he said.

The 52 people featured in the Roanoke Times ad represent only about 1 percent of the people in Roanoke and Roanoke County who owe back child support payments, Young said.

In Roanoke and Roanoke County alone, there are about 10,000 non-custodial parents, Young said.

About half of them are delinquent in child-support payments. Child Support Enforcement's caseload in Roanoke and Roanoke County consists of 14,382 children, Young said.

Child Support Enforcement picked the people in the ad because they have information that the people might still be in Virginia or even the Roanoke Valley; and because in most cases, they were able to get their pictures from the Department of Motor Vehicles, Young said. The office may place another Roanoke Times ad in the future, and also plans to run ads in Richmond newspapers, he said.

While people featured in the ad may be surprised by it, Young said they should not be surprised to find out that Child Support Enforcement is looking for them.

"They've had notice after notice," Young said.

His office tries every administrative means necessary before bringing the matter to court, he said.

Other methods used in Virginia to get people to pay child support include boots on cars; denying passports; suspending drivers' licenses; placing liens on homes, cars, boats, motorcycles; garnishing workers' compensation or disability payments; and subpoenaing cellphone and cable bills records to find people.

"We admit it. People end up getting tied in knots," Young said.

To contact Crime Line with information about the parents featured in the ad, call 344-8500.