Some child support policymakers and researchers have recently questioned the fairness and effectiveness of pursuing civil contempt to secure child support payments, particularly for parents with low incomes. The Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) demonstration tested a different approach to improving child support payments. Developed by the Office of Child Support Enforcement, PJAC integrated principles of procedural justice (the idea of fairness in processes) into enforcement practices in six child support agencies across the United States as an alternative to standard contempt proceedings. The PJAC demonstration project used a random assignment research design; parents who had reached a contempt referral were assigned either to a PJAC services group, which had access to child support services informed by procedural justice, or to a business-as-usual group, which proceeded to the standard contempt process. This report compares the outcomes of parents in these two groups.

Sponsored by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), the Family Input Study seeks to 1) understand how TANF, child support, and other human services programs gather and use family input for program improvement; 2) identify ways for TANF and child support programs to incorporate family input for program improvement; and 3) identify the successes and challenges these programs face in gathering and using family input. To support programs in planning for and engaging families in program improvement, the Family Input Study has developed a toolkit of resources, guides, and tools for TANF and child support program administrators and practitioners.

The Study is seeking TANF and child support programs run by states, tribes, territories, and counties to pilot test the toolkit. During the 12-month pilot test period, participating programs will lead a program improvement effort using the Family Input Resources toolkit and input from the families they serve to guide their effort.

If interested in participating in this pilot test opportunity, please complete the expression of interest form by May 12, 2023.

Accompanying this request are two one-pagers. The first document is a set of FAQs which identifies the expectations and benefits of participating in the Family Input Study. The second document is background information about the Family Input Study.

For questions, please contact the study team lead (Jeanette Holdbrook at jholdbrook@mathematica-mpr.com) or the OPRE project officer (Lisa Zingman at lisa.zingman@acf.gov).

Research shows that families living in poverty have a significantly higher likelihood of experiencing crises, and that poverty is the greatest threat to child well-being and the best predictor of abuse and neglect. Further, research suggests poverty is a key driver of child welfare system involvement and preliminary evidence suggests even modest economic supports can stabilize families and alleviate the need for more intensive intervention. Although the relationship between poverty and child neglect is supported by research, there is not yet a clear national policy and systems approach to intervening on behalf of families in ways that preserve the family unit while resolving safety issues compromised by poverty. Scattered across the country, however, are innovative policies, system reform efforts, program models, and practice strategies for bridging this gap.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA), in partnership with the Children’s Bureau, hosted a webinar on April 18, 2023, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET which examined research conducted and presented by researchers from Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.

The webinar

• Highlighted research findings contributing to the current knowledge base on the interrelationships among family economic insecurity and stability, income and concrete material supports, family well-being, and preventing child welfare system involvement.
• Described innovations introduced by states to bolster family economic security and protect children.
• Identified pain points and key challenges to collaboration and coordination derived from research and practice.

OFA Director Ann Flagg gave opening remarks. Webinar participants were able to ask questions and explore topics of interest in additional detail with the Chapin Hall researchers.

TANF cash assistance and child support programs, with their restrictive policy environments and historically compliance-focused cultures, have opportunities for growth in how they engage families during continuous quality improvement efforts. To understand how TANF, child support, and other human services programs gather and use family input for program improvement, the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation has funded the TANF and Child Support Moving Forward: Further Incorporating Family Input Study. The study team collected and developed resources for a variety of audiences in TANF and child support programs, including program staff, program administrators, and families whom TANF and child support programs have served, currently serve, and aim to serve. This expansive toolkit provides guidance, real world examples, and resources to help TANF and child support programs engage the families they serve in improving service delivery, policy, and program operations.

Child support is an important resource for children who live apart from a parent, but there are many reasons why noncustodial parents may be unable or unwilling to pay. The Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin at Madison hosted a webinar on January 11, 2023 where three researchers shared their insights on the current child support context in Wisconsin. Topics in the webinar included: long-term impacts formal child support has on children's economic outcomes; barriers to payment for low-income noncustodial fathers, particularly in light of the COVID pandemic; and how Wisconsin child support agencies connect noncustodial parents with services to help address employment and child support payment barriers.

Most people working in human services accept that gathering and using family input improves direct service programs. However, this approach is still emerging and has a limited evidence base. Some human services programs already engage families in program improvement regularly, but this practice is less common in TANF and child support programs. This brief summarizes available literature and practice wisdom on gathering and using family input in program improvement across the human services field, with a particular focus on TANF and child support programs. It provides concrete examples and considerations for practitioners and administrators of child support, TANF, and other human services programs interested in engaging families in program improvement.

Since the establishment of the Child Support Enforcement Program in 1975, child support policy has played a central role in improving the economic circumstances of children living apart from one of their parents. Prior research has documented the policy’s positive effects on family economic wellbeing at the time of receipt. But little work has examined the effects of child support receipt as a child on economic outcomes in adulthood. This report uses analytic approaches to test whether adults who received support as children have higher earnings, are more likely to be employed, have lower public program participation, receive less in public benefits, and are less likely to have an open child support case than those who did not receive child support or received very little.

The Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) demonstration project, which began in 2016, integrates principles of procedural justice into enforcement practices in six child support agencies across the United States. This guide assists child support agencies to develop more people-centered practices using the principles of procedural justice to build trust, better engage participants, and create a more fair and effective process for serving families and supporting children.

The Child Support Enforcement program strengthens families by securing support from noncustodial parents for their children. For noncustodial parents with steady employment and financial resources, the program can work well, but the child support system works less well for noncustodial parents who cannot pay and face barriers to employment. This brief examines how policies impact families required to participate in child support and noncustodial parents who cannot afford to pay, and it highlights five innovations aiming to improve the way the child support system interacts with low-income noncustodial parents and their children.

Part of a larger project sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services called Key Programmatic Elements of Engaging Fathers to Promote Self-Sufficiency (KEEP Fathers Engaged), this fact sheet explores three strategies for child support agencies to engage fathers and improve family stability. The strategies are: 1) focus outreach on the emotional and other nonfinancial contributions fathers make to children’s well-being; 2) develop partnerships to help fathers achieve their full potential; and 3) use data and evaluation to support sustaining father engagement. The fact sheet provides brief sketches of how these strategies were used within the Georgia Division of Child Support Services, the Texas Office of the Attorney General’s Child Support Division, and at the Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Child Support Enforcement.