Publications

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

Final report submitted to the Colorado Department of Human Service’s Division of Child Support Enforcement. Findings include strategies for early intervention and recommendations for simplifying modification procedures. Conducted in Denver and Pueblo, two large urban counties, Colorado’s Section 1115 demonstration grant aimed to improve child support payments and reduce arrears by utilizing early intervention strategies Read More

In this brief, local evaluators working with two Youth at Risk of Homeless grantees, Alameda County, California, and the Colorado Department of Human Services, describe how their teams used continuous quality improvement (CQI) to learn from the initial implementation of their model interventions and refine them.

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 toward a family-centered approach. As part Read More

This research brief provides an overview of coaching behavior and in-depth examples of the practice and impacts of coach-like engagement in working with at-risk youth.

The Fatherhood Research and Practice Network (FRPN) examined state approaches to supporting fatherhood programs and including fathers in state agencies, departments, programs, and policies that affect children and families. The goal of the investigation is to stimulate replication of effective approaches in state settings. Our review covered four large-scale federal grant or demonstration programs dealing Read More