Reconciling Remote Learning with Imputed Income for Custodial Parents
Imputing income to custodial parents has become an issue during the pandemic. Many custodial parents left their jobs to care for children who were learning remotely. The author argues courts shouldn’t impute income under these circumstances. Instead, courts should exercise discretion and deviate from the guidelines or apply a good faith-best interests standard.
Read MoreTask 11: States’ Child Support Guidelines for Children with Disabilities
This report explores the issue of setting child support for children with special needs. Estimates show an increase in the number of children with special needs over the last few decades. The children’s needs are wide and varied, which can make the cost to raise these children high. A parent may need to provide full-time care, which limits the parent’s ability to earn.
Read MorePersonalized Outreach Testing Early Parent Engagement in Washington’s Child Support Program
The state of Washington applied Behavioral Intervention techniques to see if it could raise parental engagement in the order establishment process. Data showed that a high number of new orders were set by default, without parent involvement, and that the payments received in the first six months of these orders were minimal. Washington designed an…
Read MoreActual Earnings and Payment Outcomes Among Obligors with Imputed Income
Income imputation results in a financial support order, which is necessary to ensure that children receive support from both parents. But what are the payment outcomes in these situations? This report uses the sample of orders from Maryland’s 2011 to 2014 case-level guidelines review to assess outcomes of imputation on payment compliance. It compares obligors…
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 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 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 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 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 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 MoreReducing Child Support Default Orders in Colorado
The project explored strategies that child support agencies might use to increase non-custodial parent (NCP) participation in proceedings to establish child support orders and reduce default orders. The research was conducted by the Division of Child Support Services with the Colorado Department of Human Services.
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