Helping Noncustodial Parents Support Their Children: Early Implementation Findings from the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Demonstration (CSPED) Evaluation

In 2012, OCSE competitively awarded grants under the Noncustodial Parent Child Support Demonstration (CSPED) Project to child support agencies in eight states to provide enhanced child support, employment, parenting, and case management services to noncustodial parents who are having difficulty meeting their child support obligations. Also in 2012, OCSE competitively awarded a cooperative agreement (under Grant Number: 90FD0184) to the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families to procure and manage an evaluation of CSPED through an independent third-party evaluator, a partnership between The Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin, and Mathematica Policy Research. This interim implementation report provides an early look at the first two years of CSPED, consisting of a planning year and one year of program operations, and provides insights into recruitment, engagement, collaborative partnerships, and service delivery strategies for anyone thinking about or actually implementing employment programs for noncustodial parents who are unable to pay their child support.