Publications - Program Innovations

The Colorado Rural Collaborative for Homeless Youth was established in 2008 to collectively address the unique needs of rural runaway and homeless youth and the challenges geography poses for them to receive support and services. Namely, this means connecting Colorado’s network of Runaway/Homeless Youth and Child Welfare providers in order to serve youth in rural Read More

Responding to the Great Recession’s negative impact on the financial security of non‐custodial parents, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) and the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court (the Court) set out to streamline the child support modification process. “Developing and Testing a Streamlined Modification Process for Newly Unemployed Obligors”, Grant #90FD0157, supported efforts to accomplish Read More

Oregon’s Interactive Parenting Plan (IPP) is the first comprehensive, interactive tool created to generate customized parenting plans. It is the result of a joint effort of many stakeholders, including representatives of the court, the child support program, the private bar, mediators, community organizations serving families with safety issues, and experts in the field of child Read More

In 2013, the Colorado Department of Human Services, Division of Child Support Services (CSS) underwent a name change from Child Support Enforcement to Child Support Services. Along with this shift in name, a shift in perspective and priorities took place. Child Support Services began a transformation in agency culture towards a family-centered approach. As part Read More

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

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

Parenting time is typically not addressed for parents in the child support system. At the same time, parents who were not married to each other at the time of their children’s birth do not have easy access to family court services, pro se resources and/or staff support available to divorcing parents arising out of their 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

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.