Scott v. Scott (Kansas 2021)
Incarceration is one factor to be considered when modifying a child support order. The father, who was incarcerated in the federal penitentiary, filed to modify his support prospectively and retroactively. He asked the court to calculate retroactive and prospective support based on actual income. The district court denied his motion. He appealed.
Read MoreYeutter v. Barber (Nebraska 2021)
Incarceration doesn’t completely relieve a parent from paying child support. The parents had one child and under their paternity decree, the father didn’t pay support. The father filed to modify custody, and the mother crossclaimed for a modification of custody and child support. By the time of the trial, the father was incarcerated. The trial court granted the mother’s request for current and retroactive support. The father appealed the final order.
Read MoreState Strategies for Improving Child Support Outcomes for Incarcerated Parents
Right-sizing child support orders has been a big point of discussion for child support. This includes appropriate orders for parents who are incarcerated. The federal office of child support passed new rules in 2016 that require notice to parents who will be incarcerated for more than 180 days of their right to a request a…
Read MorePiling on Debt: The Intersections Between Child Support Arrears and Legal Financial Obligations
This article examines the whys and hows of child support arrears as an unmanageable debt. It takes a special look at the child support arrears that accumulate during a parent’s incarceration. The article identifies several factors that contribute to the build-up of arrears including support orders that the parent can’t reasonably pay and enforcement measures…
Read MoreCharacteristics of Participants in the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration (CSPED) Evaluation
This report identifies the common characteristics of non-custodial parents who participated in programs funded through the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration (CSPED) grant. The CSPED grant funded interventions designed to assist noncustodial parents who were behind in support and struggling to find employment. This report analyzes the data obtained from baseline surveys to identify…
Read MoreDemonstrated Results: Successful Collaborations That Improve Outcomes in Prisoner Reentry and Child Support
This article, written by MDRC staff, was originally published in the December 2018 Policy & Practice Magazine, the Magazine of the American Public Human Services Association. This article discusses interagency collaborations between corrections, labor, and child support designed to facilitate prisoner-reentry and reduce recidivism.
Read MoreSimplify, Notify, Modify: Using Behavioral Insights to Increase Incarcerated Parents’ Requests for Child Support Modifications
This report, part of the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project, presents findings from a behavioral intervention, developed in collaboration with the Washington State Division of Child Support (DCS), to increase the number of incarcerated noncustodial parents in Washington who apply for modifications to reduce the amount of their child support orders. Incarcerated noncustodial…
Read MoreLongitudinal Associations among Child Support Debt, Employment, and Recidivism After Prison
This is a link to an an article that appeared in The Sociological Quarterly posted on the website, Researchgate.net. The abstract is as follows: Recently released prisoners in the U.S. are increasingly facing the burden of financial debt associated with correctional supervision, yet little research has pursued how—theoretically or empirically—the burden of debt might affect…
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, entitled Empowering Child Support Enforcement to Reduce Poverty, is Robert Doar, Resident Fellow and Morgridge Fellow in Poverty Studies, and former IV-D Director of the New York…
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 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 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 MoreDavis v. Davis (Mississippi 2017)
A parent who requests a modification of a support order must show a substantial change of the circumstances that existed at the time of the court order. The change must be unforeseen and happen after entry of the order. In this case, the father was convicted of a felony after the order was entered. Finding…
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 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 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 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 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 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 MoreState of Washington Joint Agency Collection Project
This report summarizes the results of a federal grant to study ways to assist incarcerated and recently released non-custodial parents (NCP). Three agencies collaborated: the Department of Social and Health Services Division of Child Support, the Employment Security Department, and the Department of Corrections, all of which share a common interest in the success of…
Read MoreDeclining Employment among Young Black Less-Educated Men: The Role of Incarceration and Child Support
In this paper, researchers document the continuing decline in employment and labor force participation of black men between the ages of 16 and 34 who have a high school education or less.
Read MoreThe Intersection of Incarceration & Child Support: A Snapshot of Maryland’s Caseload
This is a report on the population of incarcerated parents with child support cases and arrearages.
Read MoreFamilies Left Behind: The Hidden Costs of Incarceration and Reentry
This policy brief is intended to help focus attention on the hidden costs of U.S. criminal justice policies.
Read MoreDebtors’ Prison – Prisoners’ Accumulation of Debt as a Barrier to Reentry
This is a link to an article published in the July-August 2007 Journal of Poverty Law and Policy that discusses how unrealistic levels of debt and cost-recovery policies enforced by criminal justice and child support agencies can undermine the criminal justice system’s rehabilitation goals, the child support system’s goals to support children, and society’s interest…
Read MoreDeadbeats, Deadbrokes, and Prisoners
This report examines child support legislation with respect to incarcerated parents, and the policies that parents who are incarcerated are “voluntarily unemployed”, and therefore not eligible for modifications of their child support orders.
Read MoreChild Support Enforcement: Incarceration as the Last Resort Penalty For Nonpayment of Support
Using jail as an option for nonpayment of child support has many implications: Are low-income non-custodial parents who are unable to fulfill their child support obligations penalized for being poor? Should non-custodial parents charged with civil contempt of court be entitled to an attorney? Should non-custodial parents whose only offense is nonpayment of child support…
Read MoreHolding Child Support Orders of Incarcerated Payers in Abeyance: Final Evaluation Report
This is a link to the final report of a series completed as part of an evaluation designed to measure the impacts of suspending orders during incarceration on not only arrears at time of release but also on subsequent earnings and child support payments.
Read MoreChild Wellbeing and Non-custodial Fathers
This report discusses some of the data related to the poverty of children, and recognizes that the structure of a family plays an important role in children’s well-being. According to some estimates, about 50% of children will spend or have spent a significant portion of their childhood in a home without their biological father. This…
Read MoreIn re Marriage of Thurmond (Kansas 1998)
The fact of incarceration, standing alone, is not legal justification for the suspension or modification of the parent’s child support obligation previously determined under the Kansas Child Support Guidelines.
Read MoreRupp v. Grubb (Kansas 1998)
Where a parent is incarcerated in a correctional facility, the fact of incarceration, standing alone, is not legal justification for the suspension or modification of the parent’s child support obligation previously determined under the Kansas Child Support Guidelines.
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