Providing Employment & Income Supports for Non-Custodial Parents
This fact sheet is part of the Centering Child Well-Being in Child Support Policy series from the Ascend at the Aspen Institute and Good+Foundation. Offering employment services to non-custodial parents benefits the entire family. These programs can help parents overcome barriers to employment and find jobs that lead to consistent child support payments. This fact sheet highlights two strategies: providing employment services and supplementing income.
Read MoreParenting Time and Child Support: Information for Fatherhood Programs and Fathers
Fatherhood programs play an important role in helping fathers understand and address legal issues such as child support and supporting the fathers in building relationships with their children and coparent. While child support and visitation are separate legal issues, research shows the two are by nature connected and benefit each other.
Read MoreNegotiating Race and Racial Inequality in Family Court
This article explores the role of race in court proceedings to enforce a child support obligation. The researchers found courts fail to recognize the role of race in father’s ability to support his child. Black fathers are getting hit from all directions: by a labor market that discriminates against them and by a court system with unrealistic expectations. Fathers are required to pay their child support obligation. Many meet the obligation through wage withholding from their job. For Black fathers, racism in the labor market prevents them from finding and maintaining a job that allows them to pay support.
Read MoreChild Support Compliance in Fatherhood Programs: The Role of Hope, Role Salience, and Parenting Skills
This study evaluates the roles of hope, parenting role salience, and parenting skills in predicting change in a non-custodial parent’s compliance with child support. The authors surveyed participants in a responsible fatherhood program both prior to the start of the program and upon completion.
Read MoreIn Their Own Voices: The Hopes and Struggles of Responsible Fatherhood Program Participants in the Parents and Children Evaluation
This report sets out information gleaned from fathers during interviews as part of the Parents and Children Together (PACT) grant. The fathers were participants in Responsible Fatherhood programs. The PACT grant was funded to study the impact of the Responsible Fatherhood programs, the program design process, and to discover characteristics of the participants. The outcomes…
Read MoreParents and Children Together: Effects of Four Responsible Fatherhood Program for Low-Income Parents
This report sets out the findings from a study on the impact of participation in a fatherhood program. This report is part of the Parents and Children Together (PACT) grant that was funded to study programs funded by the Responsible Fatherhood grant. This piece of the evaluation studied outcomes for fathers who participated in one…
Read MoreFinal Implementation Findings from the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration (CSPED) Evaluation
In FFY 2012, the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) funded a demonstration grant project, the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Demonstration (CSPED), to gauge the effectiveness of child support-led employment programming for noncustodial parents. Eight states received grants. This report documents the design and implementation of the different programs and identifies best practices for and…
Read MoreParticipation in Responsible Fatherhood Programs in the PACT Evaluation: Associations with Father and Program Characteristics
This brief presents new findings on the factors that are associated with fathers’ participation in responsible fatherhood (RF) programs. It is based on data collected for the implementation study of RF programs, which documents how the programs were designed and operated and identifies challenges and promising practices. It uses data from the Parents and Children…
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 MoreGetting Noncustodial Dads Involved in the Lives of Foster Children
This policy brief provides data that suggest that many, if not most, foster care children in the United States were not living with their father at the time they were removed from their home.
Read MoreThe Implementation of the Partners for Fragile Families Demonstration Projects
This report describes the design and implementation of the Partners for Fragile Families (PFF) demonstration projects.
Read MorePromising Antipoverty Strategies for Families
In this paper, researchers review changes in family structure, the relationship between family structure and employment, and early evidence on differential impacts of the recession on families.
Read MoreTossed on a Sea of Change: A Status Update on the Responsible Fatherhood Field
This is a link to an update on fatherhood programs across the nation covering programmatic priorities, funding, and evidence-based practices.
Read MoreStrengthening families through Stronger Fathers: Final Impact Report for the Pilot Employment Programs
This final report discusses the 2006-2009 pilot employment program implemented by New York for parents behind in their child support. These pilot programs, part of the Strengthening Families Through Stronger Fathers Initiative, provided employment-oriented services, fatherhood/parenting workshops, case management, and other support services to nearly 4,000 parents behind in their child support in four New…
Read MoreNew York Initiative Helps Fathers Increase Their Earnings and Child Support
New York launched a pilot employment program to help parents behind in their child support in four communities between 2006 and 2009. The program was part of the state’s Strengthening Families Through Stronger Fathers Initiative. This policy brief discusses the effect of this initiative on earnings and child support payments.
Read MoreThe New York Noncustodial Parent EITC: Its Impact on Child Support Payments and Employment
In 2006, New York instituted a noncustodial parent earned income tax credit (NCP EITC) to encourage low-income noncustodial parents to work and pay child support. This study examines the credit’s impacts through 2009.
Read MoreOverlapping Eligibility and Enrollment: Human Services and Health Programs Under the Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has created new opportunities for health and human services programs, including child support, to integrate eligibility determination, enrollment, and retention.Using two large microsimulation models, the study found considerable overlaps between expanded eligibility for health coverage and current receipt of human services benefits, particularly with Earned Income Tax Credits, the Supplemental…
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