Resources
Child Support Resource Library
Welcome to the YoungWilliams Child Support Resource Library. Search by keywords or use the filters to select categories of interest to you. Currently, our Library consists of academic and government research articles and reports from around the country, federal opinions, and case law from states in which our full service child support projects are located.
Muir v. Kansas Health Policy Authority (Kansas 2014)
The Kansas Health Policy Authority did not erroneously interpret the law or act arbitrarily, capriciously, or unreasonably when it calculated a Medicaid recipient’s available income that could be used to pay the cost of medical care without first deducting amounts that the person had been ordered to pay in child support and maintenance.
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How Do Child Support Order Amounts Affect Payments and Compliance?
This study examines the primary strategy used to prevent arrears growth from the time a court order was established: setting appropriate orders. The Research and Reports Unit from the Orange County, California Department of Child Support Services analyzed 102,332 California child support cases in order to determine the appropriate support amount to be set relative to a non-custodial parent’s (NCP’s) income. The study found that orders set above 19% of the NCP’s income leads to lower performance in the form of lower compliance, arrears growth, and missed monthly payments. Additionally, cases with imputed income leads to lack of payment and high arrears grown.
Understanding Payment Barriers to Improve Child Support Compliance
The Research and Reporting Unit of the Orange County Department of Child Support Services (CSS) produced a multivariate examination of the number and type of barriers that prevent Non-Custodial Parents (NCPs) from making consistent child support payments. The study determined the major barriers associated with low payment compliance. NCPs predicted to yield low compliance are associated with multiple barriers. Predictive analytics was used to predict future compliance based on these barriers and can lead to effective policy decisions that emphasize setting appropriate orders for NCPs with barriers. In this study, setting appropriate orders effectively improves compliance for NCPs with barriers.
Behavioral Economics and Social Policy: Designing Innovative Solutions for Programs Supported by the Administration for Children and Families
Insights from behavioral economics, which combines findings from psychology and economics, suggest that a deeper understanding of decision-making and behavior could improve human services program design and outcomes. Research has shown that small changes in the environment can facilitate behaviors and decisions that are in people’s best interest. However, there has been relatively little exploration of the potential application of this science to complex, large-scale human services programs.This report, from the early stages of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation’s (OPRE) Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project, provides an overview of behavioral economics, presents an approach to applying behavioral economics to social programs, shares insights from three case studies in the BIAS project, and concludes with some early lessons that have emerged from the work and next steps for the BIAS project. Additionally, a separate technical supplement to the report provides a description of 12 commonly applied behavioral interventions identified through a review of the literature.
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Taking the First Step: Using Behavioral Economics to Help Incarcerated Persons Apply for Child Support Order Modifications
This report presents findings from a behavioral intervention designed to increase the number of incarcerated noncustodial parents in Texas who apply for modifications to reduce the amount of their child support orders. Incarcerated noncustodial parents have a limited ability to pay their child support orders each month, due to their incarceration, which can lead to the accumulation of significant child support debt. The Texas Office of the Attorney General’s (OAG’s) Child Support Division operates a program that contacts incarcerated noncustodial parents via mail, informs them of the option to apply for order modifications, and provides instructions on how to begin the process. In the past, less than one-third of contacted parents responded to the outreach and applied for a modification — less than expected, given the benefits they gain from modifying their orders.
Review of the Pennsylvania Child Support Guidelines
This is a link to a report prepared for the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, representing the federally mandated quadrennial review of Pennsylvania’s child support guidelines. It examines child support guidelines models, identifies similarities and differences between Pennsylvania’s guidelines approach and the approaches of other states, presents findings from the analysis of case file data including rates of deviations from the guideline, and contains a proposed schedule, summary of findings, and conclusion.
Analysis of Federal- State Financing of the Child Support Enforcement Program
This report by the Congressional Research Service describes the current system of child support financing, analyzes trends in child support collections and expenditures, and discusses the effect of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) rolls on child support enforcement program financing. It also explains how child support collections are distributed to families and the state and federal governments. Appendices include pertinent state data, and the distribution of child support payments and the “family first” policy.
Child Support Models and the Perception of “Fairness”
This is a link to a research paper on the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) website that provides an overview of each of the three different models of child support guidelines – Income Shares, Melson, and Percentage of Income – and examines the perceptions of fairness of each model. In recent years, states have been moving toward the Income Shares model, both because of the perception of fairness of this model in that it takes into consideration the income of both parents, and because of states’ desire to address a shift in the parenting arrangements of families.
