Tribal Child Support Directors’ Resource Guide
The Tribal Child Support Directors Resource Guide was developed by OCSE in collaboration with numerous tribal child support directors. The purpose of this handbook is to help orient new tribal child support directors during their first weeks on the job and to serve as a desk reference for both new and seasoned directors. It provides…
Read More2017 Preliminary Report
The FY 2017 Preliminary Report provides data for the past five fiscal years reported by state, District of Columbia, and U.S. territory child support programs and includes information on collections, expenditures, paternities, orders established, and other program statistics. The data is used to develop the Annual Report to Congress.
Read MoreThe Story Behind the Numbers: Exploring Trends in the Percent of Orders for Zero Dollars
The federal Office of Child Support Enforcement collects data from state child support agencies on the number of support orders that do not have a dollar support amount, referred to as zero orders. These may reflect different types of orders – medical support only, shared custody, arrears only, or current support with no amount due.…
Read MoreBehavioral Intervention Materials Compendium
The Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project team, led by MDRC and sponsored by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) of the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, partnered with eight state and local agencies to design and implement 15 behavioral interventions, involving close…
Read More2016 OCSE Annual Report to Congress
The 2016 Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) Annual Report to Congress highlights financial and statistical child support achievements based on data reported by state and tribal child support agencies. The content of the Annual Report is mandated by Section 452(a) under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act to give congressional members information that…
Read MoreParents and Children Together: The Complex Needs of Low Income Men and How Responsible Fatherhood Programs Address Them
Broad changes in family demographics have left many children without the support or involvement of their fathers. As a result of high rates of nonmarital births and divorce, millions of American children do not live with both of their parents. OPRE Report 2018-18, prepared for the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for…
Read MoreCustodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2015
This report provides an overview of children who have one parent living outside of the household and their custodial parents. The data used for this report are from the Child Support Supplement (CSS) to the April 2016 Current Population Survey (CSS) which provides demographic information about custodial parents as of 2016, as well as child…
Read MoreAn Evaluation of the Oregon Parenting Time Opportunities for Children Grant: 1) Mediation; 2) Interactive Parenting Plans Center for Policy Research
In 2012, the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement made “Parenting Time Opportunities for Children” (PTOC) grant awards to five states. The grants were intended to: …improve the financial and emotional support of children in the child support system by increasing safe opportunities for them to build relationships with both parents. The parenting time grants focus…
Read MoreMulti-Site Family Study on Incarceration, Parenting and Partnering‒Research Brief
This brief presents findings on pre-and post-incarceration wages and child support participation in the five impact sites of the Multi-site Family Study on Incarceration, Parenting and Partnering (MFS-IP). Funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the study includes implementation and impact evaluations and qualitative and quantitative analyses of participants in programs providing…
Read MoreChild Support: An Overview of Census Bureau Data on Recipients
The national Census Bureau data show that in 2013, 13.4 million parents had custody of children under the age of 21 while the other parent lived elsewhere, and the aggregate amount of child support received was $22.5 billion. In 2013, almost 83% of custodial parents were mothers. Of all custodial parents, 48% were white (non-Hispanic),…
Read MoreLife After Welfare
This report, which includes a chapter on child support, examines outcomes of Maryland families who left cash assistance, focusing on their characteristics, employment and earnings outcomes, and the receipt of other public benefits. The main findings indicate that families’ financial situations improved after exiting Maryland’s Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA) program, compared with their circumstances before…
Read MoreAn Evaluation of the Kansas Child Support Savings Initiative
The Child Support Savings Initiative was developed and implemented by Kansas to help parents who owe child support pay off debt while also saving for their children’s higher education. Parents who meet their current support obligations and make deposits into college savings plans, known as 529 accounts, receive matching reductions in their child support debts.…
Read MoreChild Support Collections to Offset Out-of-Home Placement Costs: A Study of Cost Effectiveness
Families that experience out-of-home placement (OHP) of a child in the child welfare or juvenile justice system are disproportionately poor, and the reasons for OHP often stem from poverty. Because OHP is expensive, and society values parental responsibility, federal and state laws require that parents be referred to the child support system to help offset…
Read MoreChild Support Cases without Support Orders: Three-Year Outcomes
The authors reviewed a sample of cases in the Maryland child support caseload for which child support orders had not been established and examined the outcome of these cases over a three-year time period. They found that 60.9% of these cases closed within three years; 21.6% had established support orders with a median amount of…
Read MoreThe U.S. Wage Garnishment Landscape: Through the Lens of the Employer
This is a follow-up to its initial 2014 wage garnishment analysis in a report entitled, Garnishment: The Untold Story. For its most recent analysis, the ADP Research Institute used aggregated, anonymous 2016 payroll data of 12 million employees. The study found that child support continues to be the top reason for wage garnishment (also known…
Read MoreGarnishment: The Untold Story
The ADP Research Institute analyzed aggregated, anonymous 2013 payroll data of 13 million employees. Child support was found to be the top reason for wage garnishment (also known as income withholding). The ADP RI learned that that 7.2% of employees aged 16 years and over had their wages garnished, and of those employees whose wages…
Read MoreNudging Changes in Human Services: Final Report of the BIAS Project
This is the final report (2017-23) of the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project conducted by MRDC under a contract with the federal Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in which 15 state and local agencies participated. The project consisted of identifying problems that are appropriate for behavioral interventions, designing interventions, and conducting…
Read MoreLow-income and Never-Married Families: Service and Support at the Intersection of Family Court and Child Support Agency Systems
This report describes the challenges child support enforcement agencies face with respect to the adversarial nature of their processes, and the poverty, unemployment, and other barriers to the economic security of poor and never-married parents who comprise the child support caseload.
Read MoreThe Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA): An Explanation
Congress has long recognized the need for protective legislation for servicemembers whose service to the nation compromises their ability to meet obligations and protect their legal interests. This report discusses the history and provisions of The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act which provides civil protections and rights to individuals based on their service in…
Read MoreNonmarital Births: An Overview
This report by the Congressional Research Service analyzes the trends in nonmarital childbearing, discusses some of the characteristics of unwed mothers, addresses some issues involving the fathers of children born outside of marriage, and offers some concluding remarks. It also contains a brief discussion of paternity establishment within the IV-D program, and its positive impact…
Read MoreFatherhood Initiatives: Connecting Fathers to Their Children
The federal government’s support of fatherhood initiatives raises a wide array of issues. This report briefly examines the role of the CSE agency in fatherhood programs, discusses initiatives to promote and support father-child interaction outside the parents’ relationship, and talks about the need most see for work-oriented programs that enable noncustodial parents to have the…
Read MoreChild Support Enforcement and the Hague Convention on Recovery of International Child Support
This report published by the Congressional Research Service provides an overview of the current Child Support Enforcement (CSE) system and a discussion of how international CSE cases are handled. It provides a summary of the 2007 Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance (the Convention), which was…
Read MoreExpenditures on Children by Families, 2015 Revised
Since 1960, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has provided estimates of annual expenditures on children from birth through age 17. This technical report, originally published in January 2017 and revised in March 2017, presents the 2015 estimates for married-couple and single-parent families. Results are shown in tables 1-7 at the end of this report.…
Read More2016 Preliminary Report
The FY 2016 Preliminary Report provides data for the past five fiscal years reported by state, District of Columbia, and U.S. territory child support programs and includes information on collections, expenditures, paternities, orders established, and other program statistics.
Read MoreMaryland’s Child Support Caseload – A Profile of Custodians, 2015
Using Maryland data, the authors analyze current support and arrears owed to custodians, payments received by custodians, and payments retained by the state. Specifically, the authors utilize a sample of custodians who had active cases in July 2015 and examine each of these topics for the period of July 2014 through June 2015. The report…
Read MoreA Blueprint for Economic Security
This paper explores the intersections of the work-related experiences of men and fathers, child support enforcement policies and practices and support services for fathers with low-incomes. Consideration is given to the historical factors that are complicating efforts to end poverty. The Blueprint also proposes changes to child support enforcement efforts and support services for low-income…
Read MoreThe Story Behind the Numbers: The Child Support Program is a Good Investment
This paper takes a closer look at trends in child support program data and other data that affects the program. This paper explains why the child support program is a good investment. FY 2015 set a new record for achieving child support program results. In FY 1977, shortly after the program began, the child support…
Read MoreThe Safety Net that Works—Improving Federal Programs for Low Income Americans
This document is a compilation of essays, ideas, and policy recommendations authored by individuals with expertise in various federal anti-poverty programs. The author of one of the essays, Empowering Child Support Enforcement to Reduce Poverty, is Robert Doar, Resident Fellow and Morgridge Fellow in Poverty Studiesand former IV-D Director of the New York State Child…
Read MoreExpenditures on Children by Families 2015
Since 1960, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has provided estimates of annual expenditures on children from birth through age 17. This technical report presents the 2015 estimates for married-couple and single-parent families. Results are shown in tables 1-7 at the end of this report. Expenditures are provided by age of children, household income level,…
Read MoreThe Story Behind the Numbers: Focused on Performance
This paper describes the dramatic improvements in performance that the child support program has made since the enactment of its federally mandated performance system in 1998. The growth in child support collections is reviewed, highlighting three factors that influence collections: (1) program investments; (2) employment and earnings of parents who owe child support; and (3)…
Read MoreThe Limited Reach of the Child Support Enforcement System
This report examines the declining caseload in the national child support enforcement program in comparison to the population of child support-eligible families, which has remained unchanged over the past two decades. The report attributes most of the decline to the reduction in Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) cases, which shrinks the pipeline of mandatory…
Read MoreThe Child Support Enforcement Program: A Review of Data
This report, prepared by the Congressional Research Service, examines the IV-D child support caseload, collection, and expenditure data from Fiscal Year (FY) 1978 through FY 2015. It also presents more detailed data, gathered from state-submitted reports to the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, on collections, expenditures, paternity establishment, child support order establishment, cost-effectiveness, and…
Read More2014 OCSE Annual Report to Congress (Part 3 of 3)
The 2014 OCSE Annual Report to Congress highlights financial and statistical child support achievements based on data reported by state and tribal child support agencies. The content of the Annual Report is mandated by section 452(a) under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act to give Congressional members information that relates to the overall operations…
Read More2014 OCSE Annual Report to Congress (Part 2 of 3)
The 2014 OCSE Annual Report to Congress highlights financial and statistical child support achievements based on data reported by state and tribal child support agencies. The content of the Annual Report is mandated by section 452(a) under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act to give Congressional members information that relates to the overall operations…
Read More2014 OCSE Annual Report to Congress (Part 1 of 3)
The 2014 OCSE Annual Report to Congress highlights financial and statistical child support achievements based on data reported by state and tribal child support agencies. The content of the Annual Report is mandated by section 452(a) under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act to give Congressional members information that relates to the overall operations…
Read MorePreliminary Report 2015
The FY 2015 Preliminary Report provides data reported by all state child support programs to the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement and includes information on collections, expenditures, paternities, orders established, and other program statistics. This report does not contain data from tribal child support programs. Tribal data will be reported in the FY 2015…
Read MoreThe Young Fathers’ Employment Program in Maryland: An Initial Review of Participant Outcomes
The Maryland Child Support Enforcement Administration (CSEA) recently funded a three-county noncustodial parent employment program called the Young Fathers’ Employment Program. The participating counties were Baltimore, Caroline, and Talbot. The University of Maryland School of Social Work conducted an initial review or a pre-post assessment of participants’ employment, earnings, and child support payments. The researchers…
Read MorePatrick v. Patrick (Oklahoma 2016)
Child support may only be awarded for an adult disabled child if there is a causal relationship between the disability and the child’s inability to support him or herself. In this case, the mother could not be ordered to support an adult child who had entered treatment for drug and alcohol abuse. Assuming that substance…
Read MoreMore Child Support Dollars to Kids-Using New State Flexibility in Child Support Pass-Through
The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) provides new state flexibility to pass through more child support dollars to children who currently receive or formerly received welfare. The federal government will pick up part of the cost if states exercise this new flexibility. These changes provide opportunities for states to devise new strategies to increase…
Read MoreChild Support, Debt, and Prisoner Reentry: Examining the Influences of Prisoners’ Legal and Financial Obligations on Reentry
This is the final report to the National Institute of Justice. The research attempted to examine the influence of child support orders and related debt on recidivism using data from the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI). The authors also examined the lagged impacts that child support obligations, legal employment, and rearrest have on…
Read MoreChild Support: An Overview of the Census Bureau Data on Recipients
The United States Census Bureau periodically collects national survey information on child support. This report includes a compilation of information from the biennial survey data from 1993-2013. Compared to 1993 Census data, less child support was received by custodial parents in 2013 ($24.8 billion in 1993 versus $22.5 billion in 2013; in 2013 dollars). However,…
Read MoreResearch Brief: Child Support, Parenting Time, and Safety Concerns
This is an August 2015 research brief, prepared by the Center for Policy Research for the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, describing the policy implications of legislation requiring parenting time orders, identifying implementation questions and alternatives analyzing current practices in family violence safeguards, and providing expertise on next steps for identifying and developing family…
Read MoreIf I Had Money: Black Fathers and Children, Child Support Debt, and Economic Security in Mississippi
This is a link to a report prepared for The Coalition for a Prosperous Mississippi (CPM), which supports a policy agenda to increase economic security for Mississippians. One major economic barrier for young black men is child support, particularly child support that is owed to the State as a result of their children receiving Temporary…
Read MoreWhat We Want to Give Our Kids: How Child Support Debt Can Diminish Wealth Building for Struggling Black Fathers and Their Families
This is a link to a study of black fathers and their child support debt using focus groups of 35 black fathers in 6 U.S. cities. It describes how child support debt prevents poor noncustodial parents, who are often struggling black fathers, from becoming financially stable and accumulating assets. This child support debt often contributes…
Read MoreParents and Children Together: Design and Implementation of Responsible Fatherhood Programs
The Parents and Children Together (PACT) evaluation, conducted by Mathematica Policy Research for the Office of Research, Planning and Evaluation in the Administration of Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is examining a set of Responsible Fatherhood (RF) and Healthy Marriage grantees funded by ACF’s Office of Family…
Read MoreHelping 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…
Read MoreThe Impact of Child Support Laws on the Measured Outcomes of Children
Published in the Journal of Legal Issues and Cases in Business Volume 3 – December, 2014, this article documents the results of research performed by the authors in which they tested the hypotheses that 1) children whose families have more money have better outcomes; and 2) states with harsher punishments for failure to pay child…
Read MoreSeeding the College Dream – Final Report: An Evaluation of the Child Support for College Asset Building Initiative
This is a link to an evaluation of the Texas Child Support for College (CS4C) pilot program, which was created to provide an incentive for Texas child support program participants to save for their children’s college education.
Read MoreWelfare Recidivism in Maryland: The Importance of Child Support
This report examines the relationship between child support receipt in Maryland and returns to the Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA) program, Maryland’s name for the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. The report answers the following key questions: 1) What percent of women return to public assistance within three years, and what are their demographic…
Read MoreHealthy Babies — Healthy Relationships: A Project to Promote Financial and Medical Security for Children-Final Report
In the Healthy Babies—Healthy Relationships Project (HBHR), the Center for Policy Research (CPR) experimented with the delivery of information about paternity and child support to expectant and new parents in two settings that serve low-income and never-married parents: (1) Centering Pregnancy (Centering) Programs, which replace conventional, individual, prenatal care with a group centered model that…
Read MoreNiños Sanos: Healthy Children a Collaborative Project between OAG (Child Support) and HHSC (Medicaid) Final Report
The Niños Sanos demonstration project, which translates to “Healthy Children,” began in September 2007 and continued through August 2011. The project was funded by a Section 1115 demonstration grant through the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE). Through a collaborative effort between the Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG) Texas Child Support Division…
Read MoreColorado Compromise and Cooperation: Project Evaluation Final Report
The Colorado Compromise and Cooperation Project, which operated in Denver and Larimer counties, was designed to develop, implement, and test procedures to promote payment of current support and/or arrears among noncustodial parents (NCPs) who owe back-due child support, reduce child support arrears balances, and close cases, where appropriate. Each county targeted NCPs with arrears who…
Read MoreRoundtable on Domestic Violence: Child Support Program and Parenting Time Orders: Research, Practice & Partnership
This document contains the agenda, speaker biographies, and materials for a round-table discussion convened by the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement under Contract with the Center for Policy Research. The purpose of the roundtable was to identify methods and strategies for addressing domestic violence in child support cases where parenting time is being established.…
Read MoreDebt Compromise Programs: Program Designs and Child Support Outcomes in Five Locations
To generate empirical information on the populations served in actual debt compromise programs, the treatments they receive and the outcomes of their participation as measured by their debt levels and payment behaviors, CPR collected and analyzed information on 688 individuals enrolled in debt compromise programs in four states — California, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota — and…
Read MoreEvaluation of the Tennessee Parent Support Program
This report is a comprehensive evaluation of Tennessee’s Parent Support Program (PSP), which was conducted in collaboration with the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC). PSP enabled child support agencies in three jurisdictions to hire staff to provide case management and job‐focused services in addition to helping with parenting time. In the last…
Read MoreIntegrating Workforce Strategies with Child Support Services – Final Report
The State of Tennessee Department of Human Services, Child Support Division (CSD) was awarded a strategic planning grant from the U.S. Department of Human Services, Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) in September 2011. The project was a strategic planning effort designed to engage multiple agencies in a collaborative process to improve financial outcomes for…
Read MoreToolkit: Workforce Programs for Child Support Populations Tennessee Workforce Strategies and Child Support Services Project
This toolkit, prepared under a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Child Support Enforcement to the Tennessee Department of Human Services, provides a step-by-step guide to establishing a workforce program for unemployed or underemployed, low-income noncustodial parents (NCPs) in the child support system. It is intended for use by…
Read MoreReasonable Child Support Orders: The Relationship between Income and Collections
This is a study conducted by the University of Maryland School of Social Work. The federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) has recognized the importance of creating support orders that balance a custodial parent’s need for support and a noncustodial parent’s ability to pay it. The authors conducted a multivariate linear regression utilizing a…
Read MoreDon’t Forget Dad: Addressing Women’s Poverty by Rethinking Forced and Outdated Child Support Policies
This is a link to an article in which the author explores the linkage between poverty among women and low income men, and posits that harsh and adversarial child support enforcement policies polarizes the parents, and have negative impacts on the father, mother, and children. The author proposes transforming the “current uniformly applied punitive policies…
Read MoreWelfare, Research, and Poverty Status of Female-Headed Families with Children 1987-2013 Congressional Research Service
This report focuses on trends in the economic well-being of female-headed families with children, the principal group affected by the replacement of Aid for Dependent Families with Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Female-headed families and their children are especially at risk of poverty, and children in such families account for well…
Read MoreOperation Access Evaluation Report
The State of Colorado received a three-year federal grant to improve child support services for military families. El Paso County was chosen as the pilot site due to its large military population on four installations. This project, known as Operation Access, was designed to improve collaboration and communication between the local child support services office…
Read MoreA Portrait of Father Involvement Three Years after Non-Marital Birth
This is a link to a report that provides an overview of the intersection of in-hospital Acknowledgment of paternity (AOP), formal child support, informal support, parental relationships, and father involvement. Analyses presented throughout this report are primarily descriptive in nature and aim to give a broad understanding of the characteristics associated with each topic.
Read MoreIn-Hospital Acknowledgement of Paternity Literature Review
This is a link to a literature review that summarizes what is known about paternity establishment, and the association between paternity establishment and the use of child support services. It is divided into three sections: (1) background and importance of paternity establishment, (2) factors associated with the use of child support services and provision of informal support,…
Read MoreDads on the Dotted Line: A Look at the In-Hospital Paternity Establishment Process
This is a link to a working paper that examines the process of voluntary paternity establishment from two perspectives—that of unmarried parents and that of birth registrars certified to administer the process. The study focuses on the context of the establishment process itself rather than the characteristics of those who establish paternity or do not.…
Read MoreLow Income Fathers and Child Support Debt: A Primer for Financial Literacy and Fatherhood Service Providers
This is a link to a document that is intended to provide very basic information about poor noncustodial parents and their contact and connection with the child support system. http://www.cffpp.org/publications/Child%20Support%20Debt%202011.pdf
Read MoreDollars and Sense: Improving the Determination of Child Support Obligations for Low Income Fathers, Mothers, and Children
This is a link to a report on the concerns of low-income parents gained from discussions of participants in the Center on Fathers, Family, and Public Policy’s Common Ground Project. The report also includes recommendations for public policy to address these concerns in the areas of family law and policy. The report encompasses an overview…
Read MoreIn Hospital Paternity Acknowledgment: A Portrait of Father Involvement and Support in the First Three Years after a Non-Marital Birth
This is a link to a report prepared by the Texas Child and Family Research Partnership for the Texas Office of the Attorney General, Child Support Division (OAG). It contains recommendations regarding ways to expand paternity education, increase or sustain federal performance of paternity measures, and reduce the incidence of rescissions of paternity establishments. Ultimately,…
Read MoreWhen Father Doesn’t Bother: Conditioning the Failure to Establish Paternity In-Hospital on Fathers’ Presence at the Birth
This is a link to a working paper in which the authors examine the failure to establish paternity in the hospital, where parents are offered an opportunity to voluntarily acknowledge the child’s paternity at the time of the child’s birth. Most fathers who are present at the time of the birth acknowledge paternity in hospital,…
Read MoreBuilding Assets for Fathers and Families: Colorado Triple Play Final Report
Colorado Triple Play, the name given to the Building Assets for Fathers and Families (BAFF) demonstration project in Colorado, was one of seven grants awarded by the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) to states around the country. The project, encompassing Adams and Jefferson Counties, began October 1, 2010 and operations continued through September 30, 2013.…
Read MoreHow 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…
Read MoreUnderstanding 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…
Read MoreBehavioral 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…
Read MoreTaking 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…
Read MoreReview 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…
Read MoreAnalysis 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…
Read MoreChild 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…
Read MoreThe Impact of Child Support Enforcement Policy on Non-marital Childbearing
This is a link to a discussion paper on the Institute of Research on Poverty (IRP) website that concludes that improved child support enforcement makes it more likely that men will choose to avoid having nonmarital children.
Read MorePolicies to Require and Enable Less-Educated Noncustodial Parents to Work and Provide Financial Support for Their Children
This is a link to a discussion paper on the Brookings Institution website that outlines three policy strategies to help low income noncustodial parents find work and meet their financial obligations to pay child support.
Read MoreThe Impact of Child Support Enforcement on Fertility, Parental Investment, and Child Well-being
This is a link to a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper. The authors found that increasing the probability of paying child support, in addition to increasing resources available for investment in children, may also alter the incentives faced by men to have children out of wedlock.
Read MoreTruth and Consequences Part III: Who Pays When Paternity is Disestablished?
This is a link to the last in a series of three monographs about paternity disestablishment. This monograph discusses the fiscal consequences to the child, the parents, and the state if paternity is disestablished.
Read MoreChild Support Cost Avoidance in 1999: Final Report
This report updates and expands upon the earlier microsimulation approach used by Wheaton and Sorensen (1998).
Read MoreReducing Welfare Costs and Dependency: How Much Bang for the Child Support Buck?
The report examines the degree to which the nation has been successful in reducing welfare costs through child support, and estimates the welfare savings that might be expected if more fathers were to pay child support.
Read MoreChild Support Enforcement: Departures from Long Term Trends in Sources of Collections and Caseloads Reflect Recent Economic Conditions
GAO examined (1) how CSE collections and caseloads have changed in recent years, (2) how states have responded to federal funding changes, and (3) how states have responded to DRA’s “family first” policy options.
Read MoreLinking the Past and the Future: Building a Longitudinal & Predictive Child Support Knowledge Management System
This report is about a grant received by the State of Washington to build a child support data warehouse.
Read MoreFactors Associated with Nonpayment of Child Support
Despite the employment of an automated enforcement system, recent statistics show that only half of non-custodial parents pay the full amount of what they owe. Understanding the reasons for noncompliance is critical in improving the child support enforcement system and providing suitable financial support to custodial-parent families. This is a link to an IRP report…
Read MoreMaryland’s Paternity Acknowledgement Program: Participant Entries Into the Public Child Support and Welfare Systems
This report by the University of Maryland School of Social Work attempts to answer the question of who is and who is not participating in Maryland’s Paternity Acknowledgement Program, and how many of the children of participating parents are known to the State’s welfare program within one year of birth.
Read MoreTruth and Consequences: Part II. Questioning the Paternity of Marital Children
There is wide variation among the states on the issue of paternity disestablishment for marital children. While some states have enacted legislation, few have adopted a comprehensive scheme that deals with potential challenges by husbands, wives, and paramours. This is a link to a monograph that discusses the need for states to have a comprehensive…
Read MoreTruth and Consequences: Part I. Disestablishing the Paternity of Non-Marital Children
In some states, there are detailed procedures for challenging paternity acknowledgments; in other states, there is little or no statutory guidance in this area. Some states have statutory and case law to guide the process of paternity disestablishment when paternity has been adjudicated or presumed, while others offer little guidance. This is a link to…
Read MoreChild Support Program Promotes Marriage and Reduces Non-Marital Child Bearing: Research Fact Sheet
This is a link to a CLASP Research Fact Sheet, which provides a brief listing of the effects of child support on family formation and stability. States with stronger child support enforcement programs have lower non-marital birth rates and lower divorce rates than states where child support is not as effective.
Read MoreChild Support Payments Benefit Children in Non-Economic as Well As Economic Ways: Research Fact Sheet
This is a link to a CLASP Research Fact Sheet, which provides a brief listing of the non-material advantages of child support.
Read MoreThe Effect of Child Support and Self-Sufficiency Programs on Reducing Direct Support Public Costs
This report examines cost avoidance of government funded programs attributable to regular child support income. While the report examines cost avoidance in Washington State, the methodology could be used by other states.
Read MoreOvercoming the Barriers to Collection Final Report
This report summarizes findings of a Washington State Child Support research project entitled Child Support Performance Measurements: A Test for Working Hard-to-Collect Cases. The goal of the project was to find out whether increased collections on challenging cases would improve performance in the five federally measured areas.
Read MoreTo What Extent Do Children Benefit from Child Support?
Child support provides a significant source of income for poor families. Child support also reduces the number of poor children by a half million and lessens income inequality among children eligible for it. Unfortunately, about 70 percent of poor children eligible for child support were not getting it in 1996.
Read MoreChild Support Offers Some Protection Against Poverty
The authors find that child support payments reduce the number of poor children by a half million. Unfortunately, about 70 percent of poor children eligible for child support were not getting it in 1996.
Read MoreThe Potential of the Child Support Enforcement Program to Avoid Costs to Public Programs: A Review and Synthesis of the Literature: Final Report
The purpose of this study is to synthesize the theoretical and empirical literature on cost avoidance and to build a comprehensive and coherent framework to evaluate the intricacies of child support cost avoidance.
Read MoreChild Support Arrears: Compilation of Three Reports
This report is a compilation of three reports: New Approaches to Child Support Arrears: A Survey of State Policies and Practices (March 2001); Understanding Child Support Arrears in Colorado (March 2001); Dropping Debt: An Evaluation of Colorado’s Debt and Retroactive Child Support Initiative (April 2001). The research was conducted by the Division of Child Support…
Read MoreFeasibility of Collecting Fees for Child Support Services
This Report was written in response to a June 28, 2000, recommendation by the Washington State Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee to implement fees and recover costs for child support services.
Read MoreServing Parents Who Leave Prison: Final Report on the Work and Family Center
The report focuses on ex-offenders with Colorado child support cases who were offered assistance with employment, child support, and family reintegration.The research was conducted by the Division of Child Support Services with the Colorado Department of Human Services.
Read MoreDo Nonresident Fathers Who Pay Child Support Visit Their Children More?
This report examines the answer to the question raised by the title. Children who have child support orders and receive child support payments have more frequent contact with their nonresident fathers. Children living in poverty were less likely to have seen their fathers in the previous year than were children whose family earnings exceeded the…
Read MoreAn Evaluation of the Colorado Arrears Forgiveness Demonstration Project: Final Report
This final report covers a demonstration project in two Colorado Counties in which non-custodial parents (NCP) were offered opportunities for forgiveness of state debts in exchange for regular support payments over a ten month period. This research was conducted by the Division of Child Support Services with the Colorado Department of Human Services.
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