Publications - parenting

When child support guidelines were initially drafted, it was assumed that in most instances, the lesser-time parent would be the father, the father would see the children infrequently, and the father would have a higher income than the mother. Today, more custodial parents are male than before, the wage gap between mothers and fathers has Read More

The Children’s Bureau, within the Administration for Children and Families (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), is funding a multi-phase grant program to build the evidence base on what works to prevent homelessness among youth and young adults who have been involved in the child welfare system. This program is called Youth At-Risk of Read More

Many fathers who participate in fatherhood programs do not live with all of their children. They often seek help from fatherhood programs to navigate the child support system, determine how they can spend more time with their children, or improve their coparenting relationships. Unfortunately, it can be quite complicated for programs to provide this assistance, Read More

The Colorado Pathways to Success Program is a multi-phased program funded by the Children’s Bureau with the aim of developing new initiatives aimed at preventing youth homelessness among current and former foster care youth aged 14-21. This report outlines the key intervention components of the model and reviews the evaluation, lessons learned, and preliminary outcomes Read More

The Generational Opportunities to Achieve Long-Term Success program (GOALS), takes a two-generation (2Gen) approach to improve the overall wellbeing of families experiencing homelessness by enhancing self-sufficiency through residentially-based whole family services (parent, child and family). GOALS serves families primarily from the City of Aurora, Colorado, and Arapahoe County, Colorado, who are eligible for or currently Read More

Coparenting between mothers and nonresident fathers is a consistent predictor of positive father involvement and is shown to have a direct positive impact on children’s behavioral outcomes. While many fatherhood programs attempt to improve coparenting relationships using father-only interventions, the information on their effectiveness is mixed. Couple interventions may be more effective than father-only approaches Read More

The world is facing an unprecedented time as the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) unfolds. To help child support agencies manage the economic fallout related to unemployment rates that have increased during stay-at-home restrictions, CPR has developed a series of issue briefs. Our first brief, authored by Dr. Jane Venohr, provides insight into the 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

This Office of Child Support Enforcement Special Improvement Project was undertaken to examine the features of effective debt compromise programs and to generate empirical information on the outcomes they produce. To identify best practices, the Center for Policy Research (CPR) convened a two-day conference in June 2009 with representatives of eight states that have experience Read More

On June 15-16, 2009, staff of the Center for Policy Research facilitated a meeting in Washington, D.C. to discuss concrete issues that states and local child support agencies must address in the design and implementation of debt compromise programs. The meeting involved representatives of debt compromise programs in the following state and local jurisdictions: California Read More