The child support program is the only public program that serves children by focusing on non-custodial parents, who are mostly fathers, and their role in family self-sufficiency. The role today’s child support program can play in child development and well-being is to build economic capacity for noncustodial parents who are unemployed, underemployed, or difficult to employ.
Making child support payments is nearly impossible without a job. Some parents face significant barriers to employment, from stable housing and reliable transportation, to a lack of education or employment history, to a justice-involved background.
Child support payments play an important role in reducing child poverty. Woven throughout the discussion of child support payment is the important role fathers play in the health, development, behavior, and achievements of their children. Research has found that child support receipt is positively related to child well-being, including cognitive skills, emotional development, and educational attainment. Even a father’s provision of informal cash support is associated with higher cognitive scores.
Partnership Opportunities
OCSE encourages child support agencies to explore options for promoting work activities through other Information Memoranda and resources issued in the last 2 years:
- State child support agencies are encouraged to partner with TANF to fund noncustodial parent employment programs (see ACF IM-18-01).
- Performance incentive funds may be used to pay for noncustodial parent employment programs (see OCSE IM-18-02).
- States and tribes have the ability to use request waivers to pilot and study the effectiveness of noncustodial parent employment programs (see OCSE IM-19-04).
- A newly developed resource, training, and technical assistance toolkit for employment program implementation is now available.
Approximately one in three custodial parents have experienced domestic violence with the other party on their case, and many victims who don't have a formal child support order would like one.[1] Ensuring families receive consistent and reliable support is aligned with victims' ability to establish stable, violence-free homes for themselves and their children. OCSE provides training, technical assistance, and guidance on model procedures that address challenges consistently identified by child support agency staff when processing cases that involve victims of domestic violence (see OCSE IM-19-06).
Paying child support is difficult, if not impossible, for parents without a job. Connecting parents with jobs is the key to regular support payments. Father engagement is a key to getting results from child support-led employment services. State and local child support agencies must message to fathers that they are valued and that the program is impartial. The child support program can balance its enforcement role with services that build parents’ capacity to provide for and develop the full potential of their children.
For general information about OCSE
For State and Tribal child support contacts
For State technical assistance resources
For Tribal technical assistance resources
[1] Osborne, Cynthia et al. (2013). In-Hospital Acknowledgment of Paternity (AOP): A Portrait of Father Involvement and Support in the First Three Years after a Nonmarital Birth. Child and Family Research Partnership.