Publications - Child Support

In 2012, the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement made “Parenting Time Opportunities for Children” (PTOC) grant awards to five states. The grants were intended to: …improve the financial and emotional support of children in the child support system by increasing safe opportunities for them to build relationships with both parents. The parenting time grants Read More

The bottom line on why the child support community needs to revisit this issue is this: child support administrators and managers need more information about which staffing levels and configurations are the most efficient and effective for achieving the best results. Not only do they need this information for implementation, but also to overcome the Read More

Federal regulations require each state to establish one set of child support guidelines that courts and hearing officers should apply as a rebuttal presumption in any judicial or administrative proceeding for the award of child support. Statewide guidelines encourage consistency in child support award amounts among similarly situated parties and provide predictable amounts to parents. Read More

With nearly 40 percent (39.7%) of all births occurring to unwed parents, and unmarried parents making up over half of the child support caseload nationally (Pontisso, 2009), it is more important than ever for child support agencies to reach unmarried parents around the time of the birth of their babies to communicate important messages about Read More

The child support and child welfare project was undertaken to improve collaboration between sister agencies in multiple jurisdictions. The Center for Policy Research of Denver, Colo., with grant funding from the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, conducted two meetings in Washington, D.C., in 2006 and 2007 to bring together top-level managers and other key representatives of child welfare and child support Read More

Despite dramatic increases in collections, child support frequently fails to be the linchpin to family self-sufficiency that it could be, and many researchers, advocates and policymakers have concluded that future progress in collections will require making the child support system more fair and responsive to its growing poor, never-married caseload. High on the list of Read More

This editorial discusses the special issue which focuses on parents who were not married at the time of their children’s birth. Because their relationships are not covered by marital family law, they do not have the clearly established rights and responsibilities that divorcing parents have following their breakup. The articles in this issue examine the Read More

The proposed OCSE rule change that requires the use of “actual income” has the potential to increase the use of income information from automated sources when determining support awards. This should reduce the incidence of income imputation, as well as increase the percentage of child support actually paid. The impact of the proposed change, however, Read More

Building Assets for Fathers and Families Initiative in Tennessee (BAFF) aimed to improve the economic stability of low‐income families in the child support system by engaging noncustodial parents (NCPs) in financial education, savings activity, and asset‐building activities. Conducted in Shelby County, Tennessee (Memphis), during November 2011 to December 2013, the key project partners were the Tennessee Department of Human Read More

This toolkit provides a step-by-step guide to establishing a workforce program for unemployed or underemployed, low-income noncustodial parents (NCPs) in the child support system. It is intended for use by child support agencies interested in developing workforce programs for NCPs who have employment problems and are consequently unable to pay their child support obligations.