Supporting Healthy Co-Parenting
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. Research shows children have better outcomes when they are raised by both of their parents. This fact sheet encourages the use of family-centered strategies when working with families, which will increase the likelihood that non-custodial parents will be employed and pay support.
Read MoreShared Placement, Child Support Payments, and Sharing of Child-Related Expenses: Overview and Mother’s Perception of Fairness
More families are entering into shared custody arrangements. Child support and the sharing of expenses is different with these arrangements. This report researches the perception of mother’s on the fairness of child support and expense-sharing in both traditional and shared custody situations. The research showed mothers in shared custody arrangements were more satisfied with both parents’ overall contributions to child costs. The report notes communication between the parents is critical and supports should be in place to assist parents when issues arise.
Read MoreCharacteristics of Complex Families in Maryland’s Child Support Caseload
A complex family is a family in which a parent has children with more than one partner. Complex families are growing in Maryland’s child support caseload. These families include non-custodial parents with multiple support orders and parents who are custodians and non-custodians. To better serve and understand them, Maryland studies the characteristics of complex families; their demographics, economic resources, and child support characteristics and outcomes; and the impact of child support paid or received on parents’ earnings.
Read MoreExploring the Long-Term Effects of Child Support
This paper studies the long-term effects of the receipt of child support, specifically the impacts on recipients earning capacity, employability, receipt of benefits, and participation in the child support program as adults. The study supports the proposition that the receipt of child support helps adults overcome economic disadvantage by increasing earnings and employability. The study results support policies such as right sized orders, which promote regular payment of support and underscore the importance of payments.
Read MoreNoncustodial Parents and the GIG Economy
Collecting child support from parents who work in the gig economy is difficult, and the number of parents working in the gig economy is increasing. This brief uses Census Bureau information to define the gig workforce and the number of noncustodial parents who are working in the gig economy.
Read MoreAccess and Visitation Program Update FY 2018
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 provided funding for the Access and Visitation program in 54 states and territories. Any program under this grant is intended to promote safe visitation between children and their parents. This report summarizes the key takeaways provided by the grant recipients for FY 2018 in the…
Read MoreUsing Principles of Procedural Justice to Engage Disconnected Parents
Engaging parents with the child support program is hard. The federal Office of Child Support Enforcement funded the Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) grant to explore ways to integrate procedural justice principles into child support enforcement. This brief explores ways that the principles were used to improve parent engagement with the program. There are…
Read MoreParenting Time Opportunities for Children Research Brief
The federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OSCE) sponsored a grant-initiative, the Parenting Time Opportunities for Children (PTOC), to research the ways child support agencies could establish parenting time orders along with child support orders. This brief highlights the outcomes of this project. Historically, orders from the child support program haven’t addressed visitation, but research…
Read MoreIndependent Contractors and Nontraditional Workers: Implications for the Child Support Program
An increasing number of parents are employed in non-traditional jobs where income withholding is not available. This article identifies issues for the child support program with the “gig economy.” The research yielded three key findings: the larger number of parents employed in this manner means less consistent child support payments, automated enforcement tools have limited…
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 MoreEvaluation of the Bright Start Demonstration
This report is the evaluation of Washington’s original three year demonstration grant for Washington’s Bright Start Program, which was designed to enhance in-hospital paternity establishment, and offer parents information about marriage, genetic testing, and parenting plans.
Read MorePartner Up Final Evaluation Report
This report covers a grant received by the Colorado Division of Child Support Enforcement to identify policies that support healthy relationships and marriage. The research was conducted by the Division of Child Support Services with the Colorado Department of Human Services.
Read MoreNon-custodial Parents: Summaries of Research, Grants, and Practices
This report summarizes past grant and research projects funded by the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) focusing on non-custodial parents, and points readers to more comprehensive information.
Read MoreUpdate Evaluation of the Bright Start Demonstration Program
This report is a sequel to the September 2008 report, and provides updated information regarding Washington’s Bright Start Program, which was designed to enhance in-hospital paternity establishment.
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…
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