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FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE:
Responsible
Fatherhood Programs Yield Promising Results
The Administration for Children and Families, Office of Child Support
Enforcement (OCSE), and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning
and Evaluation in the Department of Health and Human Services today
jointly released a report showing that responsible fatherhood programs
in eight states showed promising results both in economic and personal
terms. The report, “OCSE Responsible Fatherhood Programs: Client Characteristics
and Program Outcomes,” evaluated programs carried out in eight
states between September 1997 and December 2002. The programs carried out comprehensive activities designed to assist
and motivate unemployed or low-income fathers who have child support
orders to pay support. The fathers were given training and help in finding
employment, paying child support and developing relationships with their
children. The responsible fatherhood services resulted in: The report also suggests that the child support program should be more
sensitive to the limitations of low income non-custodial parents in
the establishment of child support orders. For example, for the very
poor, (earnings less than $6,000 a year) current child support obligations
and arrearages were found to be from two to six times greater than their
reported earnings. For those with earnings of $6000 to $12,000 a year,
current child support and arrearages were 21 to 61 percent of reported
earnings, depending upon the site. These findings are consistent with
a recent OCSE analysis indicating that 70 percent of arrearages that
states report to OCSE for enforcement actions such as passport denial
and tax refund intercept are owed by persons with reported earnings
under $10,000 a year. “When children have healthy relationships with their fathers,
they are more likely to flourish. These responsible fatherhood programs
are an important step toward this outcome,” said Wade F. Horn,
PhD, assistant secretary for children and families. To assist non-custodial fathers to become more involved in the lives
of their children, the President’s budget provides $20 million
in competitive grants to faith- and community-based organizations, Indian
tribes and tribal organizations, for responsible fatherhood and family
formation initiatives. Both the House and Senate have included proposals
for providing grants for responsible fatherhood in legislation to reauthorize
the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program. The programs were conducted using Section 1115 funds or waivers in
Washington, California, Colorado, Missouri, Wisconsin, Maryland, Massachusetts
and New Hampshire Section 1115 of the Social Security Act authorizes
states to conduct experimental, pilot or demonstration projects that
are likely to assist in promoting the objectives of Title IV-D of the
Social Security Act. The evaluation report was conducted under a contract to Policy Studies,
Inc. and the Center for Policy Research, both of Denver. The full report is available on the OCSE web site at: http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cse/
### Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials
are available at www.hhs.gov/news
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