2006 Initiative /
 TANF Reauthorization

Healthy Marriage

Effective Parenting

Economic Stability

Access, Visitation,
 & Child Support

Incarceration

Research, Evaluation,
 & Data

Program Development

Other Resources

Access, Visitation, Paternity, and Child Support Projects & Research

Enhancing Child Support Enforcement Efforts Through Improved Use of Information on Debtor Income (Report)
Author(s):  Karen Gardiner, Mike Fishman, Sam Elkin, and Asaph Glosser
Organization(s):  The Lewin Group
This report examines how some of the information available to OCSE and the states' IV-D programs through the Federal Parent Locator Service can be used to enhance enforcement efforts. Specifically, this report explores the potential income sources of non-custodial parents with arrearages. It examines alternative income sources for those obligors who have no reported income in the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Quarterly Wage data and for all obligors who have arrearages. It also analyzes how arrearages for individual obligors change over time, and how those changes are related to type and amount of income. By helping Federal and state policy makers and managers understand obligor income streams and debt patterns, it is hoped that this report will contribute to the development of additional data-driven solutions for enhancing child support collections. This report also summarizes child support information available from Federal administrative data sources and how that data can be used to answer program management questions.
Published:  October, 2006
Availability:  Full HTML Report  Full PDF Report  Executive Summary  PDF Executive Summary

Enhancing Child Support Enforcement Efforts:  Summary of Data Warehouse Efforts in Nine States (Report)
Author(s):  Karen Gardiner, Mike Fishman, Asaph Glosser, Matthew Langley, and David Vennergrund
Organization(s):  The Lewin Group and SRI International
This report provides information about State child support enforcement offices experiences with data warehouses; that is, how they are used to help manage program operations, assess program effectiveness and efficiency, and inform policy development. This report summarizes findings from discussions with staff in nine states about the development, content, and capabilities of their data warehouses. The report indicates that states use their data warehouses for a variety of purposes. Some focus on Federal reporting; others use the data warehouse for specified child support activities (e.g., locate). Some use the data warehouse to manage their programs (e.g., identifying underperforming offices, overstaffed functions), while others use it to explore and assess new policies. Additionally, the data in the warehouse come from a variety of sources. Each state's CSE automated statewide system plays a prominent role. Also, in some states, the data warehouse directly interfaces or feeds into other systems (e.g., welfare). State data warehouses vary in terms of reporting capabilities. Some use them to generate Federal reports for the incentive-related data reliability audits or the annual self-assessments. Others use their data warehouses primarily for ad-hoc reports. State child support programs also grant different levels of access to their data warehouses. For example, in some instances, partner agencies can access limited data; in others, access is highly restricted. Finally, the state respondents had unique perspectives on best practices and advice for other child support programs interested in building data warehouses. Each of these areas is discussed in detailed in the report.
Published:  October, 2006
Availability:  Full HTML Report  Full PDF Report 

What About the Dads?  Child Welfare Agencies' Efforts to Identify, Locate, and Involve Nonresident Fathers (Report)
Author(s):  Karin Malm, Julie Murray, and Rob Geen
Organization(s):  The Urban Institute
Most foster children are not living with their fathers at the time they are removed from their homes. Once in foster care, these children may experience even less contact with their nonresident fathers. This study sought to assess typical child welfare practice with respect to nonresident fathers of children in foster care. The study also examined the potential utility of expanding the use of child support enforcement data sources in these efforts. Local agency caseworkers were interviewed by phone about nearly 2000 children in foster care in four study states (Arizona, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Tennessee) to examine front-line practices related to nonresident fathers. The study documents that nonresident fathers of children in foster care are not often involved in case planning efforts, and nearly half were never contacted by the child welfare agency. By not reaching out to fathers, caseworkers may overlook potential social connections and resources that could help to achieve permanency for the child.
Published:  April, 2006
Availability:  Full HTML Report  Full PDF Report  Executive Summary  PDF Executive Summary  Research Summary  PDF Research Summary

Characteristics of Families Using Title IV-D Services in 1999 and 2001  (Report)
Author(s):  Linda Mellgren, Jennifer Burnszynski, Sarah Douglas, and Brian Sinclair-James
Organization(s):  ASPE
This report identifies the characteristics of custodial parent families using the services of the child support enforcement system. It uses matched data from the March 2000 Current Population Survey matched to the April 2000 Child Support Supplement and the March 2002 Current Population Survey matched to the April 2002 Child Support Supplement. It also provides information on participation in welfare and other government programs. Earlier reports are also available using matched data for 1995 and 1997.
Published:  October, 2004
Availability:  Full HTML Report 

Interaction of Child Support and TANF:  (Report)
Evidence from Samples of Current and Former Welfare Recipients.
Author(s):  Cynthia Miller, Mary Farrell, Maria Cancian, Dan Meyer
Organization(s):  MDRC and The Lewin Group
Welfare and child support programs have long been intertwined. Given the common populations served and the role that child support payments play in self-sufficiency and cost recovery, understanding the interaction between child support and welfare is important. This report examines the interaction of child support and welfare receipt by analyzing samples of current and former welfare recipients from survey and administrative data. Key findings show that child support is a significant source of family income that can strengthen family self-sufficiency. Child support distribution policy makes a difference, and early state experiments with welfare time limits increased child support receipt. However, parents do not understand child support distribution rules and do not know when they have changed.
Published:  June, 2004
Availability:  Full HTML Report  Full PDF Report  PDF Executive Summary  PDF Research Brief  PDF Research Summary

Giving Noncustodial Parents Options:  (Report)
Employment and Child Support Outcomes of the SHARE Program
Author(s):  Irma Perez-Johnson, Jacqueline Kauff, Alan Hershey
Organization(s):  Mathematica Policy Research
The Support Has A Rewarding Effect (SHARE) initiative operated with Welfare-to-Work (WtW) grant support in three counties in the state of Washington. SHARE offered three options to noncustodial parents (NCP) whose minor, dependent children were receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and who were in arrears on their support obligations: (1) start paying support, (2) enroll in a WtW program, or (3) face possible incarceration. The main objective of this study was to examine the employment, earnings, and child support outcomes for targeted NCPs.
Published:  October, 2003
Availability:  Full HTML Report  Full PDF Report  Executive Summary 

State Practices in Medical Child Support Cross-Program Coordination (Report)
Author(s):  Lynne Fender, Jen Bernstein
Organization(s):  Urban Institute
This study describes policies and practices in Connecticut, Minnesota, and Texas designed to coordinate the child support enforcement program, Medicaid, and SCHIP in order to secure and sustain appropriate health care coverage for child support-eligible children. Based on the findings from site visits to the three states, the report documents both successes in cross-program coordination as well as challenges to effective coordination.
Published:  June, 2003
Availability:  Full HTML Report  Full PDF Report

Child Support and TANF Interaction:  (Report)
Literature Review, April 2003
Author(s):  Mary Farrel, Asaph Glosser, and Karen Gardiner
Organization(s):  The Lewin Group, MDRC
This literature review summarizes current research on the interaction between TANF and child support, including the child support receipt by current and former TANF recipients, the effect of child support receipt on TANF exit and reentry, and reductions in poverty associated with child support receipt. It also reviews the limited research on how specific welfare policies affect child support receipt. This literature review preceded the secondary analysis of national survey and state administraive data in the ASPE report, "The Interaction of Child Support and TANF".
Published:  April, 2003
Availability:  Full HTML Report

Health Care Coverage Among Child Support-Eligible Children  (Report)
Author(s):  Laudan Y. Aron
Organization(s):  Urban Institute
This report analyzes data from the 1999 National Survey of America’s Families (NSAF) to determine the health care coverage status of child support-eligible children who live with their mothers and estimates their eligibility for Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
Published:  December, 2002
Availability:  Full HTML Report 

Characteristics of Families Using Title IV-D Services in 1997  (Report)
Author(s):  Matthew Lyon
Organization(s):  ASPE
This report by Matthew Lyon, formerly of HSP, identifies the characteristics of custodial parent families using the services of the child support enforcement system. It uses matched data from the March 1998 Current Population Survey and the April 1998 Child Support Supplement and also provides information on participation in welfare and other government programs. An earlier report, Characteristics of Families Using Title IV-D Services in 1995, used matched data from the March 1996 CPS and the April 1996 Child Support Supplement.
Published:  May, 2002
Availability:  Full HTML Report

Serving Noncustodial Parents:  (Report)
A Descriptive Study of Welfare-to-Work Programs
Author(s):  Karin Martinson and John Trutko, Urban Institute and Debra Strong, Mathematica Policy Research
Organization(s):  Mathematica Policy Research and Urban Institute
This study examines the strategies that 11 purposively selected Welfare-to-Work (WtW) grantees used to design and implement their programs for non-custodial parents, usually fathers, including some of the mid-course corrections needed to improve services and client intake. It also summarizes lessons that can be learned from these efforts — lessons that are applicable to the larger community of workforce development and social services agencies that would like to be more pro-active in serving low-income noncustodial parents. This study was undertaken to provide field-based information to WtW state and community-based grantees and other programs interested in serving low-income, non-custodial parents (NCP) on how some WtW grantees had successfully managed to design and implement a program addressing the employment and other service needs of NCPs.
Published:  December, 2000
Availability:  Full HTML Report  Full PDF Report  Executive Summary 

21 Million Children's Health: Our Shared Responsibility.  (Report)
The Medical Child Support Working Group's Report
Author(s):  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Labor
Organization(s):  Medical Child Support Working Group
In the Child Support Performance and Incentive Act of 1998, Congress directed the establishment of the Medical Support Working Group by the Secretaries of HHS and Labor. The charge of the Working Group was to identify the impediments to the effective enforcement of medical child support and recommend solutions to those impediments. The Working Group's 76 recommendations are presented in this report to Congress.
Published:  June, 2000
Availability:  Full HTML Report  Full PDF Report  PDF Executive Summary

The Spring 2000 issue of Focus is devoted to child support enforcement research and low-income families This issue of the Institute for Research on Poverty's Focus magazine provides a review of recent research and evaluation findings related to child support enforcement policy and low-income families.  The issue includes studies on fathers, mothers and children, child support and custody policy, and international perspectives.  For more information, see the web site:  Institute for Research on Poverty.

The March-April 2000 issue of Poverty Research Center News is devoted to fathers
According to the cover of the issue:  “The issue looks at fathers — their contribution to child well-being, the part they play in welfare reform, and the unintended consequences of child support policy.  Moving beyond the stereotype of 'deadbeat dads', the articles in this issue signal the role fathers can play beyond that of breadwinner.  The authors review a range of policy and program initiaties, as well as chronicle the difficulties fathers face in sustaining a meaningful role in their children's lives.”  For more information, see the web site:  Joint Center for Poverty Research (JCPR).

The Role of Child Support in Texas Welfare Dynamics  (in PDF format)
The Family Support Act of 1988 (FSA) mandated a number of policy changes to increase the employability of caretakers receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and to improve the collection of child support from noncustodial parents.  Some states, including Texas, enacted state legislation to strengthen their child support enforcement procedures prior to these federal mandates.  This research study by the Center for the Study of Human Resources at The University of Texas at Austin (CSHR) measures the influence that increased child support enforcement strategies have had on welfare dynamics in Texas, which has one of the lowest AFDC grant levels in the U.S but relatively high rates of paternity establishment and child support collection.  Executive Summary (in PDF format)

Getting Off the Ground:  Implementation Findings about Child Support Enforcement, Head Start, and Child Care Collaboration Demonstrations. 1999
This report provides early findings on the implementation of state inititiated collaboration demonstrations among child support, Head Start, and child care programs. The collaboration sites were in Alaska, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, and Minnesota. The three broad goals of the collaboration were to enhance understanding and trust among program staff, to increase access to child support services, and to increase understanding about the importance of fathers’ non-financial contribution to children’s lives. In addition to the findings, the report contains examples of the outreach and educational materials developed by the projects. Prepared by the American Institutes for Research.

NURTURING FATHERHOOD:  Improving Data and Research on Male Fertility, Family Formation, and Fatherhood.
Report by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, June 1998.
Available as PDF for printing:  Nurturing, Part 1 and Nurturing, Part 2.

A Child Support Enforcement Customer Satisfaction Survey, Final Report by Thérèse van Houten of the Urban Institute and Brenda G. Cox of Mathematica Policy Research, February 1998.
This report presents the results of an investigation conducted by The Urban Institute and its subcontractor, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., into the feasibility of conducting a national representative customer satisfaction survey of CSE parents.

Other Report Sources

Office of Child Support Enforcement:  Child Support Resources  http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/prgrpt.htm

Institute for Research on Poverty:  Child Support  http://www.irp.wisc.edu/research/childsup.htm

Institute for Family and Social Responsibility:  Reasearch  http://www.spea.indiana.edu/ncsea/