Elevating Family Input in TANF and Child Support Programs: Resources for Program Staff, Leaders, and Families (final pre-pilot version)

Getting customer feedback is often critical when making program improvements. Both the TANF and child support programs can benefit from seeking input from the families they serve. The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) funded the TANF and Child Support Moving Forward: Further Incorporating Family Input study to explore approaches to gathering input from…

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2022 Employer Symposium Report

This report highlights the work done during the 2022 Employer Symposium, held as part of the 2022 National Council of Child Support Directors Conference. During the Symposium, child support professionals and employers worked together on improved communication and processes. Topics for discussion included lump sum reporting and withholding, income withholding orders and non-iv-d orders, the…

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Centering Child Well-Being in Child Support Policy

The child support program has been fostering a culture change for the past few years from a program of strict enforcement to one that puts child well-being at its center. This paper frames a toolkit which explores recommended policies and practices to support the culture change. The toolkit includes information on family distribution, reducing arrears, right-sizing orders, income supports, family stabilization, and justice. The framing paper considers the importance of fathers, the history of the program, the effect of traditional policies, and the advantages of a realistic and evidence-based approach to program policy.

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The Regular Receipt of Child Support: 2017

The results of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2018 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) tells a story about the receipt of child support in 2017. Specifically, this report analyzes the data on who received support, the amount received, and the frequency of receipt. 

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Characteristics of Custodial Parents and Their Children

Using data from a 2018 U.S. Census Bureau survey, this brief analyzes characteristics of parents and children who are receiving child support services and compares them to families who don’t use the program. As of April 2018, there were 12.9 million custodial parents in the nation. 7.9 million of these parents participated in the child support program.  This brief includes information on the age, sex, race and ethnicity, marital status, employment status of these parents, as well as data on living arrangements and visitation for the child with the noncustodial parent. 

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Task 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.

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Story Behind the Numbers: Millennials in the Child Support Program

Millennials are on the verge of passing the Baby Boomers as the country’s largest adult generation. This report uses data from the Federal Case Registry and Debtor File and survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics to analyze the role of the millennials in the child support program.

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The Child Support Performance and Incentive Act at 20: Examining Trends in State Performance

Twenty years have passed since Congress enacted P.L. 105-200, the Child Support Performance and Incentive Act (CSPIA), dramatically restructuring the child support performance incentive system. Prior to its passage in 1998, there was growing concern that the incentive system lacked an effective impetus for improving state progress toward achieving the program’s goals since all states…

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Actual 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…

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2015 OCSE Annual Report to Congress

This report, published by the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, highlights financial and statistical program achievements based on data reported by state and tribal child support agencies. The report includes information on collections, expenditures, paternities and orders established, and other program statistics.

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Hague Child Support Convention: Judicial Guide

Written specifically for judges, judicial officers, and other court officials, this Guide focuses on the 2008 Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA)  provisions judges need to apply in Hague Child Support Convention cases. It contains information and procedures about matters common to all applications under the Hague Child Support Convention; recognition and enforcement of an…

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Child Support Resource Guide for State IV-D Directors

This Guide was developed by OCSE as a reference to on-line resources useful to state child support directors, including links to federal laws governing the child support program and key federal regulations and policy documents. It also provides brief overviews of various components of the program.  The federal OCSE organization chart is included along with…

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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…

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2017 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.

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2016 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…

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Custodial 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…

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Child 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),…

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The 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…

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Garnishment: 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…

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The 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…

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Expenditures 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.…

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2016 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.

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Expenditures 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,…

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The 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)…

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The 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…

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The 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…

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2014 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…

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2014 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…

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2014 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…

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Preliminary 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…

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Child 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,…

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Healthy 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…

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Niños 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…

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Operation 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…

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Analysis 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…

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The Madrina Project

This is a report on the results of a federal Special Improvement Project (SIP) Grant for the Yakima, Washington Child Support Office to reach out to the Hispanic community and provide culturally relevant services.

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In Everybody’s Best Interests: Why Reforming Child Support Distribution Makes Sense for Government and Families

This is a link to a policy brief. Fully implementing distribution reforms and eliminating welfare cost-recovery from the child support program has the potential to boost the income of millions of low-income children. More than $2 billion per year is currently withheld by the government to reimburse welfare costs. This money could be going to…

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Using the Internet to Provide Ethnic and Culturally Diverse Populations with High-Quality Child Support Information: The Case of Beehive

The Urban Institute partnered with the One Economy Corporation in applying for a special improvement project (SIP) grant from the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) to develop high-quality online child support information specifically developed for families in low-income and ethnic and culturally diverse communities. This grant was awarded and used to prepare three…

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Demographic Survey Results from Nine-State IV-D Programs

In FY 2007, the national child support program served 17 million children and collected $25 billion in child support, yet little is known about the underlying demographic and economic characteristics of the individuals served. To remedy this lack of information, Courtland Consulting and the Urban Institute, under contract with the federal Office of Child Support…

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State Child Support Pass-Through Policies

This is a link to a chart that shows laws enacted by state legislatures through the 2008 legislative session to pass through collected child support to families receiving TANF assistance and to disregard the passed through support income in determining eligibility for and the amount of assistance.

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Who Pays Child Support: Noncustodial Parents’ Payment Compliance

To better understand patterns of noncustodial parent (NCP) payment compliance, this study builds on what has already been documented about the Maryland public child support caseload and provides a first-ever, systematic look at the question of who pays current support, how much they pay, and how this relates to NCPs’ demographic characteristics, employment patterns, and…

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