Child Support Report XXIII, No. 6, 20010601

Since the passage of welfare reform, policymakers and practitioners have viewed programs that provide services to noncustodial fathers as critical to helping low-income children escape poverty. Research has shown that many low-income fathers are not part of their children's lives because these fathers lack financial and/or emotional resources to provide for their children.

Research has shown that many low-income fathers are not part of their children's lives because these fathers lack financial and/or emotional resources to provide for their children.

In response to this need, many programs offer noncustodial parents services such as education and training, job placement, counseling, legal and child development advice, and parenting classes. Funds that may be available for work with fathers include:

TANF funds are perhaps the most flexible of the federal funding sources states can use to support fatherhood programs. Florida has allocated $3 million of its TANF funds to Florida's Commission on Responsible Fatherhood, a State commission that raises awareness of the importance of fatherhood, identifies obstacles that prevent fathers from being involved in their children's lives, and implements successful strategies, such as funding programs, that help fathers become responsible and effective parents.

States can combine flexible funding sources to offer services to low-income fathers. The Parents' Fair Share program in Missouri is operated by the Division of Child Support Enforcement and is funded primarily with TANF and State general revenue funds. Some federal child support enforcement funds also are used. Case managers assess the needs of participating fathers and help them obtain assistance with training for and finding a job, transportation costs and work-related expenses, housing, medical coverage, and child support cases. The program aims to increase the number of noncustodial parents who are able to support their children and are involved in their children's lives.

Welfare-to-Work funds, both formula grants to states and competitive grants awarded to local providers, can also be used to provide services to low-income fathers of TANF-eligible children, regardless of whether the children actually receive TANF benefits. The Institute for Responsible Fatherhood and Family Revitalization has received two competitive WtW grants for its multi-site program. The program's outreach specialists, who are married couples residing in the community, provide one-on-one, home-based, direct services to help low-income noncustodial fathers become more involved in the lives of their children. Intra-personal development is the core of the program's philosophy. Program participants receive intensive case management to help them become responsible fathers.

A program in Bexar County (San Antonio) Texas uses probation as a tool to help noncustodial parents overcome the barriers that prevent them from supporting their children. Fathers facing incarceration for failure to pay child support are instead offered civil probation with the Child Support Probation Unit, a department of the Bexar County Juvenile Probation Office. Probationers meet with an assigned probation officer to discuss their payment status and the problems that prevent them from paying child support. The assigned probation officer makes necessary referrals to community resources, such as job training and development programs, employers who are seeking workers, counseling programs, and organizations that can assist with visitation issues. About a third of the program funds come from the county's general fund; the remainder comes from child support matching funds.

The Partners for Fragile Families demonstration projects are local collaborations of community-based organizations, child support enforcement agencies, and faith-based partners designed to help young fathers become more involved with their children and to help mothers and fathers build stronger parenting partnerships. Federal and private funding for this national demonstration will total more than $15 million over three years. The National Center for Strategic Nonprofit Planning and Community Leadership is providing technical assistance for the demonstration.o

Source: Welfare Information Network, "Resources," Vol. 5, No. 1, January 2001. Used with permission.

Forty states were represented at OCSE's recent Child Access and Visitation Conference in Chicago, May 7 - 8, 2001. The conference is an annual national training event for the states' child access and visitation program coordinators, who served as primary presenters of program information and best practices.

Panel topics included supervised visitation programs; innovative ways to serve special populations and families in rural or underserved areas; creative ways to supplement your federal child access grant; working with high-conflict families; what to do when parenting agreements fall apart; establishing performance-based outcomes for local grantees; and child access outreach, public education, and client recruitment efforts.

In addition, several guest speakers addressed the participants in support of access and visitation. Joyce Thomas, ACF Midwest Hub Director, welcomed the participants and urged them to focus their energies on how access and visitation services can be linked to other provider programs and funding sources to enhance outreach.

Frank Fuentes, OCSE's Acting Commissioner, provided the keynote address. Noting that the program served some 50,000 individuals in 1998, he said "the strength of the program is the flexibility it gives to states to test a variety of approaches to access and visitation."

Other speakers included the Honorable Thomas Dudgeon, Presiding Judge in the Domestic Relations Division of the 18th Judicial Circuit Court in Wheaton, Illinois; Representative Andy Dawkins of Minnesota; and the Honorable Susan Snow (retired) of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Domestic Relations Division.

New projects funded by the Pennsylvania Parenting Program will complement existing Federal Access and Visitation grant programs. The new projects will be administered by the Department of Public Welfare and will encourage fathers to participate in their children's lives and to pay child support.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge has announced $2 million in Pennsylvania Parenting Program grants to six community-based projects to strengthen the role fathers play in the lives of their children.

"The Pennsylvania Parenting Program represents a new, community-based, grassroots effort on the part of the Commonwealth to recognize the importance of fathers' involvement with their children," said Department of Public Welfare (DPW) Secretary Feather O. Houston.

The six community-based projects will offer parenting services over a wide area of the state, including rural areas. The projects are designed to increase noncustodial parents' involvement with their children and improve their parenting skills; increase payment of child support; provide support services to parents; and unify families.

Pennsylvania's Parenting Program is a key component of the State's Fatherhood Initiative and is designed to encourage fathers to interact positively and meaningfully with their children.

A variety of activities will be offered, such as visitation services, counseling, mediation, parenting plan development, education, job readiness/placement services, and housing assistance. The grants will run through June 30, 2002.

Pennsylvania's Parenting Program is a key component of the State's Fatherhood Initiative and is designed to encourage fathers to interact positively and meaningfully with their children. "A father's involvement-not just financially, but socially and psychologically as well-is a proven factor in enhancing the long-term prospects of a child's ability to become a responsible, caring adult who contributes to his or her family and the community," said Secretary Houston.

For more information, contact Susan Aspey or Stephanie Suran of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare at (717) 787-4592.

The Nevada Office of Child Support Enforcement and Attorney General's Office have released a series of posters with photographs of and information about parents who have failed to pay child support. The latest is available on the Attorney General's Web site at: http://ag.state.nv.us.

The posters have helped the State to collect more than $121,000 in past due child support payments since 1996. "We're happy with the success of these posters in helping us locate these hard to find individuals," says Nevada State Welfare Administrator Michael Willden.

The Attorney General's Office has published a brochure entitled, Tips for Collecting Child Support: Working with the Child Support Enforcement Program, which answers questions about Nevada child support eligibility, collections, and support enforcement. This brochure also is available on the Attorney General's Web site.

All Region VI States (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas) are actively pursuing some form of Fatherhood objective.

The Texas Fatherhood Initiative includes collaboration with the Texas Fragile Families Initiative, referral of noncustodial parents to appropriate workforce development boards, making PAPA (Parenthood and Paternity) Program curriculum available to all secondary schools statwide, and reaching out to the Texas Department of Health Male Invovlement Projects, Head Start programs, and incarcerated parents.

Arkansas staff make presentations at high schools and community organizations on the benefits of establishing paternity and the rights of children and fathers.

Louisiana has worked with a model pre-release program at one of their local State prisons. The fathers participate for 25 weeks in fatherhood group sessions, followed by presentations from child support program staff and Access and Visitation project staff. The goal is to help these fathers, upon their release from prison, to become more responsible about their parenting roles and to take a more active part in their children's lives.

New Mexico child support staff have made presentations at parenting classes, alternative high schools, and fathers support groups, advising them of the rights and responsibilities of parents and of the importance of establishing paternity. The staff also refer individuals for financial assistance, job training and placement, and child support services.

Oklahoma's child support division has begun a pilot program for families to increase public awareness on Fatherhood issues and to educate teen parents. The program, Dads Make A Difference, is operated in partnership with the State Health Department's Maternal and Child Health Service.

To date, 30 pairs of teen peer educators and eight adult advisors have completed the program. Millwood School District has provided the program to 150 middle school students, while two other school districts will begin teaching the program during the 2002-2003 school year. Recently, Oklahoma child support and TANF staff met to discuss ways to increase funds through collaboration and to broaden the project's outreach.

Tomasia Pinter is Program Information Coordinator and Lead for Fatherhood in OCSE's Dallas Regional Office.

The State Human Services Department (HSD) has been selected by the Government Solutions Center (GSC) as a leader in e-government best practices. HSD's Child Support Enforcement Division Web site at childsupport.state.nm.us was selected by the GSC Selection Committee as an E-Gov 2001 Pioneer.

The award will be presented at the E-Gov 2001 conference, held in Washington, DC at the Washington Convention Center, July 9 - 12, 2001.

"New Mexico's new child support interactive Web site will enable child support customers to receive better service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," said Acting Child Support Enforcement Division Director Helen Nelson.

"We are very excited about this national recognition of the work we have been doing to bring the full array of government services to constituents through the Web," said Deputy Secretary Robin Dozier Otten. "In particular, the Child Support Division's site truly is a pioneering initiative to make services and information more readily available to everyone."

The site allows applications to be filled out online, tells customers where payments are, and accepts payments from parents who owe money. Once finished, it will be able to record most of the data that previously had to be completed through office visits.

In September 1998, a new mediation program began in DuPage County Domestic Relations Division Courtroom 2003. While similar to the mediation program in place throughout the Domestic Relations Division, the impetus for this pilot project arose from concerns for a unique population: that of never married parents.

These families often lack the professional and financial resources available to divorcing couples. Never married couples, unlike divorcing couples, have no marital estate to underwrite the costs of mediation and typically cannot afford the cost of the Circuit's mainstream mediation program.

Litigants are usually pro se and are not very sophisticated in advancing their visitation rights.

Yet, children from these families are entitled to the same love and involvement from both parents, as are children of the divorcing population. To allow the issues of visitation and custody to go unaddressed in the never married population because of a lack of finances is unacceptable.

The program is administered by the DuPage County Psychological Services, upon referral and consultation with the Presiding Judge of the Domestic Relations Division and the judge currently assigned to Courtroom 2003. Referrals to this no-cost mediation program can occur in two ways.

. . . provides a long-needed service to a population of families whose visitation concerns have often gone unaddressed.

The first is when a motion for custody or visitation is filed by one of the litigants. If one party is a child support program participant, or if the parties clearly cannot afford the standard domestic relations for-cost mediation program, the couple is referred to no-cost mediation to resolve the dispute.

However, referrals are not limited to this process. When parentage is established, the court asks if any custody or visitation issues exist. If they do, and if the financial criteria are met, the couple is referred to no-cost mediation without filing a special petition for custody or visitation-if they agree to waive this requirement.

The goals are to involve both parents in the child's life as soon as the parent-child relationship is legally established and to treat the noncustodial parent as more than just a financial resource for the child.

Parents referred to the no-cost mediation program can begin the mediation process immediately, because a mediator is present in Courtroom 2003 each morning, Monday through Thursday. Each parent is given a brief questionnaire to screen for facts that may make the couple inappropriate for mediation, such as a history of domestic violence.

If no obstacles to mediation are present, the couple's first mediation session is held that morning in the conference room of Courtroom 2003. Attorneys representing the parties are requested to leave their telephone, fax, and address information with the mediator, who will fax the mediation results to them.

If a full agreement on all issues is reached that morning, the parties are returned to court before the morning call concludes. If neither party is represented by counsel, the mediator reduces the parties' agreement to writing, and the court incorporates the agreement into the form of a court order.

If, however, one or both parties are represented by counsel, a layman's draft of the agreement is prepared by the mediator and faxed to the attorneys for final review and approval. The court then sets a status date for the presentation of the visitation order to the court. Counsel maintains the right to reject the agreement or modify it as the parties' interests dictate.

At times, the initial mediation session does not result in an agreement. In that case, if the mediator and both parents agree to continue the mediation process, a future mediation session, along with a status date, is scheduled.

As a general rule, no more than three mediation sessions are held unless the parties agree to additional sessions and the mediator believes an agreement is likely to result. When an agreement occurs, the mediator faxes the results to the parties' attorneys, who have the responsibility to draft the agreement in the form of an appropriate court order.

As noted, this is a pilot program and for that reason can be considered a work in progress. Yet, those of us involved in its creation and in its day-to-day operations believe it provides a long-needed service to a population of families whose visitation concerns have often gone unaddressed.

Its focus remains on the children of the never married population, children who often grow up not knowing one of their parents. It is hoped that this program, by providing a forum where parental differences can be aired and resolved, will help the parents accept their mutual responsibilities to their children. In turn, those children may gain the opportunity to begin a healthy relationship with a parent that can last a lifetime.

The Honorable Thomas C. Dudgeon is an associate judge of the 18th Judicial Circuit, DuPage County, Illinois. He currently presides in Courtroom 2003, which hears all parentage and child support cases in the county.

Reprinted with permission of the DuPage County Bar Association Brief

The Annual Western Interstate Child Support Conference (WICSEC) will be held this year in San Antonio, Texas, October 21 - 25, at the OMNI San Antonio Hotel. San Antonio is America's eighth largest city and includes many historical and cultural attractions, including the Paseo del Rio (River Walk) and the Alamo. Reservations can be made by calling 1-800-843-6664 and identifying yourself as a conference participant.

The theme of this year's conference is "Remember the Children-Recordemos Los Ninos," befitting both the message that children are important and the notable Hispanic culture of the conference site.

The theme of this year's conference is "Remember the Children-Recordemos Los Ninos," befitting both the message that children are important and the notable Hispanic culture of the conference site. The agenda will include a legislative update, 35 workshops encompassing varied aspects of the child support program, and eight corresponding round table discussions. National experts will share their knowledge of "cutting edge" issues that affect child support professionals.

Training sessions are geared to satisfy the educational needs of everyone, including front line workers, court administrators, and those in policy development. At least six sessions will offer Continuing Legal Education credit. In addition, the tradition of acknowledging child support professionals and programs, begun at WICSEC 2000, will continue.

A copy of the conference brochure, including a registration form, can be obtained from the WICSEC Web site at http://www.wicsec.org.

Georgia's Office of Child Support Enforcement has entered into four contracts with service providers to expand Access and Visitation services statewide. The visitation services provide nonlegal services and interventions on behalf of the noncustodial parents referred to the program. In the first six months of the program, the following results were achieved:

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (Welfare Reform), passed by Congress in August 1996, included a section that has become known as the Charitable Choice provision. This provision laid the groundwork for a partnership between government and faith-based groups.

"Creative local projects can sometimes open a door that traditional services might miss." ... Deborah Hampton, Director, "Resources for Families."

This past year, OCSE awarded a SIP grant to a Milwaukee-based faith group, the Ecumenical Child Care Network's "Resources for Families" project. This project will forge new collaborations among houses of worship, welfare agencies, early childhood, and other community programs to share information on child support requirements in four cities: Chicago, Illinois; Richmond, Virginia; Seattle, Washington; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Deborah Hampton, director of the project, says: "Creative local projects can sometimes open a door that traditional services might miss. We want every child to have the opportunity to develop to his or her full potential."

Throughout our history, community and faith-based groups have been important providers of services to families in need. The Charitable Choice provision enhances and broadens the opportunities for these groups to serve.

John Jolley is an Advocacy Relations Specialist in OCSE.

The following states are now PRWORA certified: Washington, Iowa, Maryland, New Mexico, Nevada, and Virginia. Congratulations to staff in all these states for their success in achieving certification

Under Section 455(a)(3)(B) of the Social Security Act (Act), states are currently entitled to Federal funding at the "enhanced" 80 percent Federal Financial Participation (FFP) rate for expenditures for the planning, design, development, implementation, and operation of an approved Child Support Enforcement System (CSES) that is capable of performing the tasks and meeting the requirements found in Section 454A of the Act.

Also under Section 455(a)(3)(B) of the Act, funding at this enhanced rate is available only through Fiscal Year 2001.

The 80 percent FFP rate for CSES expenditures is eliminated after September 30, 2001.

For all CSES expenditures made on or after October 1, 2001, Federal funding is only available at the 66 percent FFP rate.

For more information about this change, see Child Support Enforcement Program Action Transmittal OCSE-AT-01-08, dated May 18, 2001.