Policy Brief: Child Support, Parenting Time, and Safety Concerns

Child Support Program and Parenting Time Orders: Research, Practice, and Partnership Project

OCSE has funded some demonstration and evaluation projects and grants in the area of parenting, and some states use funding available through the State Access and Visitation (AV) Program to support parenting time services for unmarried parents in the child support program. However, only a handful of jurisdictions have mechanisms to incorporate parenting time agreements into initial child support orders routinely, and most of these programs have been small-scale rather than large, statewide initiatives. To generate more informed activity in this area, OCSE contracted with the Center for Policy Research (CPR) of Denver, Colorado, to conduct the Child Support Program and Parenting Time Orders project. The purpose of the project was to: synthesize relevant research on access and visitation, family violence, and child support; identify and describe promising state access and visitation practices that have the potential to serve as alternative models for establishing parenting time orders for the child support population; document how family violence safeguards are addressed in alternative approaches; and convene experts in domestic violence, child support, and parenting time to discuss family violence safeguards, screening models, and other ways to keep parents and children safe while developing parenting plans for the child support population.

This is the policy memo prepared by the Center for Policy Research under Contract No. GS10F04165/HHSSP233201100400G with the Office of Child Support Enforcement, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.